How to Create the Perfect Wife (54 page)

153
   
Rousseau returned to his visitors:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 252–54.

153
   
Moving rapidly on, the party:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 255.

153
   
Since his father was busy directing teams:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 268–74. Edgeworth describes the fluctuations of Dick’s education in France.

155
   
Meanwhile, lessons were proving equally:
Day’s education is described by RLE and AS. Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 255–56, 267–68 and 308–9; Seward (1804), p. 31.

155
   
One acquaintance later said that Day:
Kippis.

156
   
Writing from Lyon, he complained:
TD to AS, November 13, 1771, William Salt Library, S.MS 478/4/46.

156
   
“I am a lac’d coat, a bag”:
TD to AS, December 18, 1771, LRO, D262/1/6.

157
   
In a rambling, almost incoherent letter:
TD to AS, begun December 31, 1771, finished January 1, 1772, SJBM, 2001.71.16.

158
   
The correspondence at least brought some:
AS to Mary Powys, n.d. (c. 1771–72), SJBM, 2001.76.4.

158
   
Anna’s fortunes had taken a tumble:
Barnard, pp. 69–71; Hopkins, pp. 112–18.

158
   
For the moment Seward had little:
AS to Dorothy Sykes, SJBM, May 1773 2001.72.1.

159
   
Meanwhile, Edgeworth, at least, seemed ready:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 267; Butler, Marilyn (1972), p. 43. RLE wrote a contrite letter to Anna Maria in December 1771 in which he insisted he had already written to tell her he had decided to remain in Lyon. She must have joined him soon after in early 1772.

159
   
After nearly a year of being groomed, coached and bullied:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 268; Seward (1804), pp. 31–32; TD to AS, dated March 14, 1771 (but probably 1772), SJBM, 2001.71.17. It is hard to date with certainty when Day returned from France to claim the hand of Elizabeth Sneyd. The various accounts conflict, in particular the letter from Day to AS, which he dated March 14, 1771, but which must have been written at a later date, most probably March 14, 1772. In this he refers to having been rejected by Elizabeth (and undergoing his training in polite manners); since she had not appeared in Lichfield before the summer of 1771, he could not have written the letter before then. He also discusses AS’s misery over her parents’ refusal to let her see Saville and the contempt shown by some people in Lichfield for Saville; these events erupted in early 1772. Day dated other letters erroneously too. The letter is cited in Hopkins, p. 156, where it is also dated March 14, 1772, without any discussion over the discrepancy.

159
   
Some of them merely “lamented, very pathetically”:
Kippis.

159
   
“The studied bow on entrance”:
Seward (1804), pp. 31–32.

160
   
A furious and tearful row:
Domestic accounts of Mrs. Anne Sneyd, 1765–1782, Staffordshire RO, HM24/3. Anne Sneyd was a niece of Edward Sneyd, who looked after his daughter Mary when her mother died. Her accounts refer to “assembly for myself and Miss E Sneyd” in March 1772. Day’s poem, “Celia,” at the end of his letter to AS describes the angry words and tears. TD to AS, dated March 14, 1771 [but probably 1772], SJBM, 2001.71.17.

160
   
Even Darwin’s son, also named Erasmus:
Erasmus Darwin Jr. to Robert Waring Darwin [1776], cited in Uglow, p. 321.

160
   
a mock court case entitled “The Trial of A. B.”:
Day, Thomas and Esther (1805), pp. 75–90.

161
   
Retreating back to Paris:
TD to Anna Seward, dated March 14, 1771 [but probably 1772], SJBM, 2001.71.17.

161
   
Mixing in Parisian intellectual circles, Day met Amélie Suard:
ME (1979), pp. 31 and 40, citing letters from RLE to Charlotte Sneyd, November 18, 1802, and ME to Margaret Ruxton, December 1, 1802. Meeting M. and Mme Suard, RLE wrote: “Would you believe it, Mr. Day paid his court to her thirty years ago?” ME wrote that she had met Mme Suard “with whom
it is said
Mr. Day was in love—.”

162
   
Stopping at an inn in the town:
“An Ode supposed to have been written on an Inn Window in Sutton-Coldfield, and signed T. D., July 24, 1772,” Pearson papers, 577, UCL Special Collections. I am indebted to Desmond King-Hele for drawing my attention to this poem, which he found among a collection of papers belonging to Erasmus Darwin.

162
   
Rousseau, for one, had scribbled:
Damrosch, pp. 457–58.

163
   
Soon afterward, Edgeworth was warned:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 310–12.

163
   
In the New Year Edgeworth made one last:
RLE to Anna Maria Edgeworth, January 12, 1773, cited in Butler, Marilyn (1972) p. 45.

163
   
It was probably the last letter:
Anna Maria Edgeworth was buried on March 30, 1773, at Black Bourton. Black Bourton parish register.

163
   
Maria, now five, would remember:
Edgeworth, FA, pp. 1–2.

163
   
Edgeworth received the news:
AS wrote to Dorothy Sykes in May 1773 to say that Edgeworth was still in France “unless this event has brought him over within the last fortnight.” AS to Dorothy Sykes, May 1773, SJBM, 2001.72.1.

164
   
Poor little Maria, bereft:
Harriet Butler to Michael Pakenham Edgeworth, January 3, 1838, cited in Butler, Marilyn (1972), p. 46.

164
   
A letter from Day awaited him:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 318–21; AS to Dorothy Sykes, May 1773, SJBM, 2001.72.1.

164
   
Scandalizing many of their friends and relations:
AS describes the wedding and the reactions of friends and family in two letters. AS to Dorothy Sykes, July 27, 1773, and AS to Mary Powys, n.d. (c. July 1773), SJBM, 2001.72.3 and 2001.76.5.

165
   
she now enjoyed “the utmost happiness”:
AS to Dorothy Sykes, July 27, 1773, SJBM, 2001.72.3.

165
   
Her beloved Saville had now left his family home:
Hopkins, p. 114; Sherwood, p. 80.

165
   
Destined therefore to live a single life:
AS to Dorothy Sykes, July 27, 1773, SJBM, 2001.72.3.

166
   
Day suffered more stoically:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 321–25.

CHAPTER 8: SABRINA

169
   The Dying Negro
related the true story:
TD and JB,
The Dying Negro
(W. Flexney, London, 1773). All quotes are taken from the first edition of 1773 unless otherwise stated. The original news item was published in the
Morning Chronicle
on May 28, 1773. The 1793 edition denotes which lines were written by Bicknell and which by Day, according to a manuscript in Esther Day’s possession. Of the 441 total lines in the 1793 edition, Bicknell wrote 181 and Day 260. The poem was reviewed in the
Monthly Review
, July 1773, p. 63. The poem and its contribution to the abolition movement are discussed in Carey, pp. 73–84, and Kitson, Peter J., and Lee, Debbie et al., eds,
Slavery, Abolition and Emancipation: writings in the British romantic period
(8 vols., London, 1995), vol. 4, pp. 9. Brycchan Carey hosts a useful website on British abolitionists:
http://www.brycchancarey.com
. General information on slaves in London in the eighteenth century is from Gerzina.

170
   
Bicknell had just become a commissioner of bankrupts:
Bicknell’s appointment as one of the commissioners of bankrupts was announced in July 1773:
Lloyd’s Evening Post,
July 19, 1773. He surrendered his chambers at 1 Garden Court on May 15, 1773: MT archives, Box 93, bundle 4, 27. Bicknell advertised his services from chambers at New Court in various London newspapers from 1774 onward.

170
   
Middle Temple had been a magnet for settlers from the American colonies:
For background information on the history of Middle Temple and its American connections see Stockdale and Holland; Stockdale; Macassey. Many thanks to Eric Stockdale for his hospitality and help in exploring Middle Temple’s colorful past.

171
   
“Pray have you read the dying Negro”:
AS to Mary Powys, n.d. (c. July 1773), SJBM, 2001.76.5.

174
   
he took lodgings with his old university chum William Jones:
Cannon, pp. 55–56. Middle Temple archives have no record of Day living at Pump Court—he was probably an unofficial tenant of Jones. Records show Day later leased chambers in Elm Court.

174
   
“the practice of rearing and killing animals for food”:
Keir, pp. 131–32. The spider anecdote is described in Cannon, pp. 55–56.

174
   
He had met Benjamin Franklin:
Franklin was a friend of Darwin and Small; he had originally introduced Small to Boulton in 1765. Franklin first met Day on a tour of the Midlands and north in May 1771, in Lichfield. He had originally arrived in England in 1757 with two slaves, named Peter and King, but when King absconded Franklin seemed happy to hear that he had been adopted by a kindly Englishwoman who was educating him in Suffolk. By 1772 Franklin had become an ardent critic of slavery. In a letter to the
London Chronicle
of June 18–20, 1772, he attacked the British for celebrating the freeing of one slave when 850,000 more were enslaved in England and its colonies. Labaree, Leonard W., ed.,
The Papers of Benjamin Franklin
(40 vols., New Haven; London, 1959–1973), vol. 18, pp. 113–16 and 187–88; and vol. 19, pp. 210–12; King-Hele (1999), p. 100. For more on Franklin see Isaacson’s biography and Skemp, Sheila L.,
Benjamin and William Franklin: father and son, patriot and loyalist
(Boston, 1994).

174
   
Meeting at Franklin’s lodgings in Craven Street:
Williams; Robinson, Eric, “R. E. Raspe, Franklin’s ‘Club of Thirteen,’ and the Lunar
Society,” Annals of Science,
11 (1955), pp. 142–44. The quotes from Williams are from his wonderful autobiography with additional research by Peter France.

175
   
he would later set up the Royal Literary Fund:
The Literary Fund was established by Williams in 1790 and became the Royal Literary Fund in 1842. It survives to this day.

176
   
Mounting anger at Britain’s determination to tax:
See Isaacson, pp. 249–50 and 276–78 for Franklin’s dressing down by the Privy Council and passim for the slow evolution of his support for complete independence from Britain. For general background on the American war of independence see Ferling; Rakove; and Black, Jeremy,
War for America: the fight for independence 1775–1783
(Stroud, UK; New York, 1994).