The Diary of Joseph Farington. Ii: A Picture of the England of George Iii

EDITED BY JAMES GREIG

[Joseph Farington (1747-1821) was a landscape-painter of reputation in his own day, and a member of the Royal Academy. Pepys and Evelyn are not more intimately acquainted with the life of their time. Farington’s comments on eighteenth-century America have a special flavor for twentieth-century Americans.]

January 1, 1795. — Yenn [R.A.] said that, a few days after West delivered his last discourse, Yenn Happened to be at the Queens Palace. The King asked him if He was at the Academy on Wednesday the 10th. Yenn said He was. The King replied ‘I suppose you had a good deal of Hack, Hack, Hack,’ alluding to Wests pronunciation of the word Academy, which He pronounces Hackademy. — The King further said West had given tickets to several persons abt. the Court. — The whole expressed the smile of the King at Wests pretending to turn Orator.

The Academy Club, I went to, — Hoppner told me that His Father & Mother were Germans: His Father was a Surgeon. Hoppner was recommended to the King as a Lad of Genius, and the King had him placed to board with Mr. Chamberlains family — Mr. Chamberlain who is now in the Kings library, and was one of the pages. — Hoppner was allowed 3 shillings a week pocket money. — He was acquainted with Mrs. Hoppner (the daughter of Mrs. Wright, the modeller in wax ¹) several years before they married. — Hoppner has been married upwards of 12 years.

On his marriage being known, He recd, a message from the King that his Majestys allowance wd. be withdrawn.

Hoppner was during several years subjected to great difficulties. — He had lodgings, and a two pair of stairs floor, in Cockspur Street. When He took a house in Charles street, St. James’s Square, He painted threequarter portraits for 8 guineas a head. In this time He contracted a heavy debt, & had relatives besides his wife & children to provide for. During some years, while in Charles Street, He did not get near £400 a year. — Lord Hampden has been a continued friend. — He had bad health, owing to a weakness of the bowels. He has been cured of this complaint by taking peppercorns, crushing them in his mouth and swallowing them. Doctor [Erasmus] Darwin recommended them originally, and Hoppner was advised to try that which had answered. Mrs. Hoppner assisted all in her power to relieve him in his difficulties. She herself made his clothes as well as those of the children.

January 23. — Boswell called on me. He returned from Auchinleck on Monday last — Auchinleck, near Kilmarnock, in the County of Ayr. — He told me Mr. [Edmund] Malone has been in Cheshire to see Miss Bover and has offered himself to her, but is not accepted. Lord Sunderlin has seen Miss Bover & is much pleased with her. His Lordship is married, but has no children. He is the elder Brother of Malone & has £0000 a year which will come to Malone if He is the survivor. [Malone died first.] Malone has £800 a year to spend. Boswell says, though Malone is obliging in his manners, He has never been a favorite of the Ladies; He is too soft in his manners. [Miss Bover was the daughter of John Bover, a Bourbon emigre, whose name originally was de Beauvoir.]

February 19. — Speaking of gaming, Lady Inchiquin said [that her uncle] Sir Joshua [Reynolds] had a strong passion for it, as He himself allowed; and He was convinced it was inherent in human nature. He said that the principle of it appeared in a variety of instances. — Offer a beggar as much per week to work moderately as He wd. confess He obtained by soliciting Alms, & He wd. refuse it. In one case certainty wd. preclude hope. — Sir Joshua, though He had a passion for gaming, kept it within bounds. — He once won 70 guineas at a sitting, which was the largest sum He ever gained. — If He went into a company where there was a Pharo table, or any game of chance, He generally left behind him whatever money He had abt. him.

Miss Pelham [probably a daughter of Henry Pelham, brother of Sir Thomas Pelham, fifth Baronet and first Duke of Newcastle] Lord Inchiquin mentioned as an extraordinary instance of suffering from the passion of gaming. She has lost £70,000, yet carries every guinea she can borrow to the gaming table, where she will weep & lose. — When she has lost what money she has abt. her, she will solicit a loan of a few guineas from any person near her, even from a stranger. Sometimes gentlemen will subscribe a few guineas & give to her on such occasions.

Lord Inchiquin told me He won at one sitting from Sir John Bland [of Kippax] £34,000. The last throw at Sir John’s desire was for £12,000, £6,000 a side, which Sir John won, leaving Lord Inchiquin winner, on the whole, of £34,000. Sir John gave Bonds &c. for the money, but went to France, where He put an end to his life [in 1755].

April 13. — Boswell this day attended the Literary Club, and went from thence too ill to walk home. — He went out no more. —

[On May 19th Farington wrote]: —

Poor Boswell died this day — at his house in Titchfield Street.

[The Dictionary of National Biography says Great Portland Street. In later entries we read]:-

Boswell was not apprehensive of his approaching end and died without pain or effort. . . . Boswell has left his 4 younger children, one Boy and three girls, £100 a year each, an annuity on the family estate, which is abt. £1700 a year. By the will Boswell desires to be interred at Auchinleck, the seat of his ancestors. — It will cost £250 to carry the Body there. Boswells papers are put into Mr. Malones posession. — No preparations for a regular work appear, — quantities of parts of newspapers are tied up together, probably intended for some purpose He had schemed. . . . Boswell recd. £1550 for his Quarto edition of the Life of Johnson from the Booksellers, which sum is to be made up £2000 on acct. of the Octavo edition. —

[On September 28. 1806, Farington made the following entry]: —

Dinner at Lord Thomonds. Poor Boswell was spoken of, and we concurred in opinion that his Life of Dr. Johnson affords perpetual source of amusement. Lady Thomond said that were she to be placed in state of confinement and limited to choice of four books, she would name the Bible, Shakespeares Work, and Boswells Life of Johnson, and [the fourth is not given]. She might say, ‘She could have better spared a better man.’ Notwithstanding his irregularity, he had a strong sense of religion.

Metcalfe [friend of Sir Joshua Reynolds, and one of his executors] and Boswell did not always go on pleasantly together. Metcalfe would call him ‘Bozzy,’ which the other would only willingly permit from Dr. Johnson, but Boswell in return called Metcalfe ‘Mettie,’which was equally disgreeable for him. Sir Joshua Reynolds proposed Metcalfe to be a member of the Literary Club, at which Boswell expressed much dislike. One black ball excludes and Metcalfe was blackballed, which Her Ladyship is convinced was done by Boswell; but Metcalfe does not know it. Sir Joshua liked the company of Boswell, but he was disposed to stay late, and her Ladyship was often obliged to force him away. With all his pleasant qualities, Lady Thomond said she much doubts whether he had any strong feeling of regard for anybody. He was occasionally extremely useful in removing reserve, causing mirth in company, but he was only induced to exert himself when he had a desire to shine before somebody.

November 16. — The Whig Club, having given notice that the sense of the inhabitants of Westminster would be taken at a publick meeting to be this day held in Westminster Hall, at 10 oClock I went to the Shakespeare Gallery and was informed that Josiah Boydell and Nicol [the Scottish bookseller], who had undertaken with many other respectable inhabitants to act as special constables to prevent riots, were gone to Westminster Hall. — I immediately proceeded thither, & found many persons assembled in the Hall and in New Palace Yard. . . . The Hustings was raised immediately before the Kings Arms Tavern, in Palace Yard. At a window of the tavern appeared the Duke of Bedford, Fox, Lord Lauderdale, Lord Derby, Grey, Whitbread, Sturt, &c., &c. — We took our station immediately opposite the Hustings. — A little after 12, the Hustings being prepared, the Duke of Bedford &c. came upon it. Much hallooing & clapping on their appearance. The Duke was dressed in a Blue coat & Buff waistcoat with a round Hat. His Hair cropped and without powder. — Fox also cropped, & without powder, His Hair grisly grey.

Fox first came forward to speak, Sheridan on his right hand & Tierney on his left. The Duke of Bedford immediately behind him. — The Hustings was much crowded. Lord Hood was there, as was Lord Belgrave and many friends of [the] government. — After much acclamation Fox addressed the multitude, stating the loss of the liberties of the people, if the [Sedition] Bill passed, and calling upon them to come forward and support a petition to the House of Commons against it.

While we were at Comyns [the picture restorer] a great noise in the street caused us to go to the Window, from whence we saw Fox in the middle of the Street, with Sheridan on one hand, and Tierney on the other. [Tierney, who fought a bloodless duel with Pitt on Putney Heath.] The Duke of Bedford & Grey close behind; rolling along, I may say, among a crowd of low people, & blackguards, who filled the street, and huzza’d manfully. — The whole scene was such as when a drunken fellow is supported along, in the midst of an encouraging mob.

May 5, 1796. — The conversation [at Payne Knight’s on the 2nd] chiefly turned upon Poetry and Art. Fox spoke much, but in a doubting qualified manner, free from assertion. To Westall it appeared that a sense of Fox’s superiority of talents prevented each person from speaking so fully as He probably wd. otherways have done, so that the conversation was rather amusing than close and instructive. Speaking of the works of Shakespeare, Fox gave the preference to Lear, as being the strongest proof of his extraordinary powers; for the Fable of Lear is childish & poor as a girl could write; yet it. is so treated by Shakespeare that its weakness in this respect is never felt. — [R. Payne] Knight thought Macbeth superior to Lear, in its machinery & poetical excellence.

Westall observed that Mrs. Siddons expressed the following passage improperly : —

Mrs. Siddons, ’I have given suck,’ &c., in a tender, soft, manner, till she came to ‘Have pluckt my nipple’; whereas in Westalls opinion the whole should have been expressed with indignation and spirit. N. Dance justified Mrs. Siddons by saying that, Her object being to work upon the feelings of Macbeth artfully, tenderness in that instance was proper; in this opinion He was seconded by [Sir Uvedale] Price; Knight doubted, but Fox repeated to Westall several times ‘you are right.’

July 24. — Lord Lytleton [sic], the Statesman, was a very absent man, of formal manners, who never laughed. — In conversation He would frequently forget propriety in regard to the subject of it before the Company He happened to be in. — At Lady Herveys, one evening, when Lady Bute, & Her Daughter, afterwards Lady Macartney, were present, He began to relate a conversation which He that day had with Mr. Wildman, on the subject of Bees, & proceeded to describe the generation of Bees, with many particulars, which put the Ladies into some confusion. — At another time, Lord Orford met him at Lady Herveys, when with a tea cup in his hand, He advanced towards the table & returning back, talking solemnly and moving backwards, before He reached his chair, He crossed His long legs & sat down, not on His chair, but on the floor. The wig went one way and the tea cup another, while His Lordship, with unmoved gravity continuing his conversation, recovered himself. . . . ‘The Diary of Gibbon gave me a better opinion of his heart,’ said His Lordship, ‘than I had before. It exhibits some weakness, but vanity is not vice. . . . I have a doubt of Johnsons reputation continuing so high as it is at present. — I do not like his Ramblers.’ . . .

Lord Orford never was acquainted with Johnson; Sir Joshua Reynolds offered to bring them together, but Lord Orford had so strong a prejudice against Johnson’s reported manners, that he would not agree to it.

August 20.—Trumbull² I met (his morning. He is lately returned from the Continent. I asked him what He thought of the disposition of the French whose victories are so universal and extraordinary. ‘Peace, said He, is the wish of the people, and of the Army.’ They are induced to fight with such astonishing ardour because they are persuaded it is the only way to procure a peace soon. — Their Armies consist of abt. 600,000 men, half of whom are of the respectable Class of Citizens who languish to be at home with their families & friends. — I asked him if the government of France is not averse from peace from an apprehension of the Consequences of the return of the Armies. He replied, There is nothing to apprehend, The numerous garrisons &c will employ 300,000 men which will include the blackguards and dangerous part of the troops; the other half have homes to go to and a maintenance there. - He said it is true that the French in making up their Armies have not paid attention to uniformity of size in selecting their men, nor have regarded the clothing, — but their arms are good, and bright; and their discipline is admirable. — In the Towns which they take they become peaceable inhabitants while they stay.

I expressed the satisfaction I felt that there seemed to be a good understanding between England & America. He angrily replied He did not know how long it may continue, if the Commanders of English Vessles are permitted to insult the American Ships as they do. He was stopped on his passage & notwithstanding He shewed all the papers required by the regulations, yet His Ship was kept an Hour in Custody, & threatened to be carried in as a prize. — The Captain of the English Ship at last let her go, on Trumbull stating that when He landed He would make it a public affair.

October 28. — Frank Philips [of Manchester] was in America in February last for abt. 5 weeks. From New York to Baltimore the country is extremely flat, no distance to be seen, so it continues from the Sea Coast to more than 100 miles inland. — The roads are all Clay — felled trunks of trees are used in constructing them, — which often rise so much above the clay as to render the passage very rough. In very dry seasons, when the Clay is hard, travelling is very easy, but otherwise it requires 5 or 6 days to go from New York to Philadelphia not much more than 100 miles. The accommodation at Inns on the road is tolerably good, but very expensive, — Madeira is the wine chiefly drank it cost 6s a bottle, — you travel in a sort of carriage-waggon drawn by 4 horses. Philadelphia is well built. The brick red and of a very beautiful composition. The window caseings & abt. doors marble. The st reets broad. The Houses 3 or 4 stories high. Morris is building a house that appears like a Palace. — There are few public buildings.

The Rivers are all muddy. Near the River morass — then brushwood.

Living is extremely expensive. Philips paid for a Lodging — a single room — at the rate of £85 a year. — Eating & every article on the same Scale. — on this consideration Harry Philips, who is resident there, has from his brothers £300 a yr. sterling allowed him to put him on a footing with them who reside at Manchester.

Ranks in Society are strongly marked. — Members of the Assembly, & the principal merchants, form a Class which hold themselves quite distinct; a succession of Classes below them, even to Classes of servants White & black is preserved with proud jealousy. At the meetings of the representative Assembly there are so many Speakers that business is carried on with difficulty. They are not contented to hear the question debated by those best qualified. Some quakers remarked to Philips that this was better managed in England. —

Washington is respected even by those who oppose his politicks. — He resides in a common sized House in Philadelphia. — To the English who are properly introduced to him by our Resident He is attentive: but takes no notice of adventurers. Dr. Priestly [English philosopher, scientist, and politician] was not attended to.

They had an opinion of his abilities, but thought him too much a Political character. — Some private societies noticed him, but the government not at all. Philips dined in Company with Hamilton Rowan, and, not knowing him, justified the 2 last Sedition Bills in England, and the good effect the trials of Horne Tooke &c had in shewing the people, that there were seditious characters in the Country, but even these were protected by the Laws when the charge against them was laid stronger than the evidence could support. — Rowan took no notice.

The Americans think themselves able to destroy our West India trade in case of war, as their mercht. ships being built after the French model, are excellent sailors, and could carry from 4 to 28 guns. The Southern Prov inces, Virginia &c., which owe much money to England, were very adverse to the late agreement between the two Countries. — The Northern Provinces were for it. It was carried by 2 votes only. Virginia returns 16 members.

December 15. — Buttals sale I went to. Gainsboroughs picture of a Boy in a Blue Vandyke dress sold for 35 guineas.

[On May 25, 1802, Farington wrote]: —

I painted till four o’clock, & then went to Nesbitts sale in Grafton-street, where I met Hoppner, who had purchased the Boy in Blue dress by Gainsborough which was Buthalls [sic], for 65 guineas. At Buthalls sale it was sold for 35 to Mr. Nesbitt. [This was the famous Blue Boy, which Mr. Huntington recently purchased from the Duke of Westminister, for £170,000, it is said.]

February 12, 1797. — Lord Inchiquins I dined at. No company. Burke, his Ldship said, is insolent, impatient of contradiction, — will hear no argument, — proud, carried away by passion on every occasion. The business of Mrs. Hastings sunk to His heart. He is admired by everybody, but has no friends. — He cannot be beloved on acct. of his impracticable temper. — Since He was 30 years of age Burke has never read, but casually. He was bigotted to His Son to an astonishing degree, the Son would contradict him without reply. — On a Birthday of the Son, Lord Inchiquin said to Burke ‘May your Son have health, & be half what his Father is’ — Burke flew into a passion & said ‘He is now more than His Father can be.'

In His House Burke is quiet, if not contradicted in anything; but walks about it heedless of every concern - knowing nothing of Servants, expences, &c., &c. — He is very careless of his papers — would drop on the floor a paper though it contained treason, as He would do a newspaper cover. - Mrs. Burke watches over everything collects His scraps, arranges & dockets every paper. — ‘My Dear Jane,’ will Burke say, ‘I want such a paper,5 it is produced. — As conversation proceeds, He calls for others. She produces them. — He asks sometimes for one which she cannot remember. ‘Yes, Yes, my dear Jane, — no contradiction, it must be found.’ She examines.

January 6, 1799. — Bourgeois told me He knew Gainsborough extremely well. One day He called on him & saw a half-length portrait, and was struck with the haughty expression of the countenance, and observed it to Gainsborough, who expressed satisfaction at the remark, as it proved that He had hit the character. Gainsborough said it was a portrait of Mr. Pitt, who He said came the day before to sit for his picture, and on coming into the painting room sat down in the Sitters Chair, and taking out a book, began to read. — Gainsborough, struck with the hauteur and disrespectful manner of Mr. Pitt, treated him in this way. He took up his pallet & seeming to be trifling among his colours, began carelessly to hum, 1 toll, loll de roll’; on hearing which Mr. Pitt recollected himself, shut his book, and sat in a proper manner. Gainsborough was very familiar and loose in his conversation to his intimate acquaintance and his sitters, such as neither Beechey or Hoppner can preserve. —

With all his apparent carelessness, Gainsborough knew mankind well & adapted himself to their humours, when He thought it worth while. He said to Bourgeois that He ‘ talked bawdy to the King, & morality to the Prince of Wales.’ . . .

February 5. — Gainsborough had not strong health, and frequently complained [said the artist’s elder daughter]. — He married at 19. His wife was a natural daugr. of Henry, Duke of Beaufort, who settled £200 a year upon Her, which was paid till the last half year; which remains unsettled, as she died on the 17th of December last, and it was not due till the 25th. [This clears away the mystery that hitherto surrounded her parentage.]

December 28. — West told me that, during the American War, a sort of Committee of American Loyalists sat at New York, who had such influence with the Ministry here that their advice was followed in everything. It consisted of Andrew Eliott, a Scotchman married & settled in America, Franklin, and Joseph Galloway — the latter of whom came to England and was acting adviser here. — After the defeat of Lord Cornwallis, a report was circulated here that the Royal Standard was raised in Philadelphia. — West was one day with the King when He came from Court to Dinner, & His Majesty mentioned the circumstances & asked West if He corresponded with any persons in America & had heard of it. West told his Majesty that a Quaker was lately arrived from Philadelphia and was with him the day before; and He asked the King when the Standard was raised. The King said the day mentioned was June 25th. — West observed that the Quaker left Philadelphia July 1st, and knew nothing of such a circumstance. The Queen was present at this conversation.

The next day West had occasion to go to the Queens Palace to transact some business for the Queen, which when He had done it, she asked him if He was engaged that morning. He said not. She then told him to go into Her Closet with Her, which He did & found the King sitting there. — The King began to talk abt. America. He asked West what would Washington do were America to be declared independant. West said He believed He would retire to a private situation. — The King said if He did He would be the greatest man in the world. He asked West how He thought the Americans would act towards this country if they became independant. West said the war had made much ill blood, but that would subside, & the disposition of many of the Chiefs, Washington, Lawrence, Adams, Franklin, Jay, were favorable to this country, which would soon have a preference to any other European Nation. During this conversation the Queen was much affected, & shed tears.

The next day Lord Shelburne was appointed Minister. — Trumbull [who later became secretary to Jay, America’s special Ambassador] was released from Tothill fields, Bridwell [where he had been imprisoned as a spy for eight months], & came to West while an American was with him, who went from thence to call on Galloway, who, hearing that Trumbull was out of Prison, expressed his astonishment, as this measure having been adopted without his knowing of it convinced him that all was over as to his influence.

From this period the Queen shewed West continued marks of regard; but after sometime the Cathcart family obtained situations abt. the Court. Lord Cathcart married in America a daughter of Andrew Elliot. After the Kings recovery West perceived more strongly an alteration in the Queen’s manner to him, which, with other circumstances, made him think it prudent to speak to the King in such a way as to sound his Majestys mind, who expressed himself in such a way as convinced West of His Majestys attachment to him. . . . On Jay coming to England as [Special] Ambassador, the good disposition of the American government being shewn, the King one day acknowledged to West that His prediction was well founded. The Queen was present, but now flirted her fan.

September 25, 1801. — At 2 oclock I called on Miss Boswell at her lodgings, and had much conversation with her. She has resided in Edinburgh abt. 6 months, till when she had lived with Her eldest Brother at Auchinleck. . . . She spoke of Her Father with much feeling. She said He was in His family what He was to the world, a pleasant & good-humoured companion. — Occasionally He was subject to fits of lowspirits, but they were transient & passed off in an Hour. He bore His last illness, an illness attended with great pain, with much patience. It lasted 6 weeks. Mr. Earle, the Surgeon, told them after His death, by way of consoling them, that had He lived, He must have lived, from the disorder which wd. have remained, unhappily. She said it was the opinion of some that, had He resided in the country, his life might have been prolonged; but of this she thought little, intimating that there is a time when each must in his turn go. Her Father, she said, had a great dislike to living in Edinburgh, and only did it in compliance with his Fathers will. — He gave the preference to London, as being a place where the mind is more expanded, and where it is not in the power of individuals, by their constant observation of each other, to make their neighbours subjects of conversation.

[During the Peace of Amiens many eminent Englishmen went to Paris, and among the impressions recorded by some of them, Farington’s are not the least interesting, as the following extract will show. He speaks of Napoleon.]

October 7, 1802. — As all circumstances are remarkable about an extraordinary man, I noticed that He sometimes took Snuff, and would take off His Hat and wipe his forehead in a careless manner. . . . In a few minutes Buonaparte entered the Palace [of the Tuileries], and stood at the bottom of 3 steps which were raised above him. The body of the Hall was filled with officers, &c., but round the person of Buonaparte, except on the stair side, there was a Circle. Here He stood abt. 3 yards from me abt. 10 minutes, reading a paper which had been delivered to him by an Officer to whom He put several questions. — Having dismissed this application, He advanced up the steps to the landing, when another Officer presented a paper, which He looked at and gave an answer.

During the first conversation He took off his Hat, and wiped his forehead & I noticed that all his actions were unstudied and quite easy & natural & calm. The second application being answered, He proceeded to the next flight of steps, and passed me so close that I could have touched him. His eye having glanced upon strangers, when He came opposite to me He looked me full in the face, which gave me an opportunity to observe the colour of his eyes, which are lighter, and more of blue grey, than I should have expected from his complexion or than as they appear when not seen near. I thought there was something rather feverish than piercing in the expression of his eyes; but his general aspect was milder than I had before thought it. A window was at my back, and the light full upon him, so that I had a perfect view of him. His person is below the middle size. I do not think more than 5 feet 6; I rather judge him to be less than that measure. Mr. [Benjamin] West thinks otherwise. He is not what can be called thin. He is sufficiently full in the Shoulders and body & thighs for his age & height.

Rogers [the poet] stood a little way from me, and had an equally good opportunity of seeing him, and observed that He looked us both full in the face. Rogers seemed to be disappointed in the look of his Countenance and said it was that of a little Italian: that He had no eye-brows, or eye-lash, to give strong expression, & that his eye was rather weak. . . . What struck me was, that there are points of determination in the formation of his head & in his features. It would be extravagant to say that there is that expressed abt. him which denotes that such a man must be superior to others in an eminent degree; but I certainly felt no disappointment on seeing him after all I had heard of his character, unless it was that his deportment was more easy and open than I had pictured to myself.

March 7, 1811. — Mrs. Coxe Senr [one of Farington’s relatives] gave me much information respecting America. . . . There is much luxury in living among the higher people at Philadelphia, & much distinction in the ranks of Society; the principal Houses are mostly furnished in the French taste, in a very expensive manner. America, she said, is a cheap country to live in compared with England: One thousand a year would go as far as £3000 a year would do in England. A Turkey may be bought in Philadelphia for half a dollar (2s 3); Beef, mutton, for 6d. a pound. This proportion, however, does not bear out in my mind the above observation of the cheapness of living. Fruit is in abundance & very cheap.

The women in Philadelphia are universally handsome. Their complexions are not fair, but of a clear brownish colour. Their persons are well formed, and their manners are remarkably pleasing and agreeable. Both in person and manner they are much above the men, who have not the same pleasing address, & have in their speaking a peculiar and what may be called ‘a yanky tone of voice.’ It was observed by British Officers who were in America during the War with England, that the Women were in all respects a century in improvement before the men.

She said there are, politically speaking, three descriptions of persons in America. An English Party, a French Party, & a neutral party. The French party, she sd., are by far the most active; and it is believed that the French minister has at his command a large sum which He applies to keep up this spirit. . . . Mrs. Coxe spoke of the newspaper called the Aurora, published in Philadelphia, which is made up entirely under French influence and circulated very generally. From this paper the people in the Country entertain very false notions of the state of England. — Mrs. Coxe said — ‘In America a great change has taken place among the Quakers; they now very much disregard that characteristic simplicity of manners by which they were formerly distinguished.’ — She said, ‘There is little piety in America, less than in England.’

May 21, 1815. — In the course of conversation [at Sir George Beaumont’s dinner-table, in which Wordsworth took part], Poetry was a topick. Sir George mentioned the high encomiums for Wordsworth’s Excursion in the Eclectic Review. Wordsworth had seen it, and could not but be pleased with the statements expressed in it. The Edinburgh Review He never reads. He does not wish to have the opinions and ribaldry of Jeffries, the author of it, floating in His memory; for, however much He may disguise such matter, He would not have it buz in His thoughts when occupied on any subject when Poetry engages His mind. - Scott’s poetry was spoken of; and the ready rate at which He writes. Taylor [author of Monsieur Tonson, and editor of the Morning Post about 1787] thought it of a mechanical nature, and Wordsworth illustrated this by saying it was like a Machine made to amuse children, which turns round seeming to unravel something, but to which there is no end. He said that in some of Scotts descriptions, where there is much action to be expressed, as in battles, &c., Scott has shewn energy. — Taylor thought that Goldsmith as a Poet stood too high; but Wordsworth did not assent to this opinion. Goldsmith did not attempt the higher flights of Poetry, but what He did was well. Taylor thought him as a novel-writer, in His descriptions of Character & life most excellent.

June 9. — Wordsworth expressed apprehension of great difficulties attending the attempt upon France now forming by the Allied powers. He said that although the mass of the people of France might be adverse to Buonaparte, yet the able men combined together, and supported by a considerable [number] of the military, wd. have power to use the nation generally for their purpose.

August 11. — Mrs. Wellesley Pole [wife of the Master of the Mint] told Lawrence that she had conversation in Paris last year with the late Empress Josephine, first wife of Buonaparte. Josephine spoke of Him with regard; said His disposition was naturally good, but that He had bad people about Him who urged Him to bad measures. She said He was naturally suspicious — jealous, & had much pertinacity. For many days together, while He was at the height of His power, when she had observed that His mind was brooding over some of His projects, she forbore from speaking to Him. Lawrence was told that Fouché sd. of Him that He was the cleverest fellow in the world, but He had two faults: ‘Pride and Pertinacity.’ These failings caused Him, after He had once formed an opinion, or determined upon anything, to persist in it however much He might be advised against it.