The personal and impartial testimony of John Wilkes to this effect is to be found in a letter to his daughter : "I have passed an evening with Mr. Brereton's family and the two Misses Linley. The elder I still think superior to all the handsome things I have heard of her. She does not seem in the least spoiled by the idle talk of our sex, and is the most modest, pleasing, and delicate flower I have seen for a long time: the younger a mere coquette, no sentiment."1

Sheridan had the advantage of moving in Bath society and seeing much which was alike curious and amusing. One of the personages who must have impressed him was Lady Miller, whose name was well-known, who was the leader in a select circle, and who lived at Bath-Easton, which is a few miles distant from the city. Sheridan was very observant ; his mind was impressionable; his memory was retentive, and he had a sharp eye and keen sense for whatever was eccentric and ludicrous. Hence he found ample material for immediate pleasure or future use at Lady Miller's gatherings, where celebrities of the day met together to amuse themselves by playing at being versifiers. Their performances, though harmless, were unmercifully ridiculed.

Lady Miller had risen in the world from a lowly and uncultured state, and her ambition was to shine and be acknowledged as a woman of high-breeding and refined taste. She had travelled through Italy, in days when to do so was a feat, and written a narrative of her experience. She flaunted her self

1 Almon's "Memoirs" of Wilkes, vol. iv., p. 97.

importance among those who had less familiarity with historic spots and persons on the continent of Europe. Horace Walpole has taken care that Lady Miller and her pretensions should be exaggerated and immortalized; he thus wrote about her to Lady Aylesbury: You must know, Madam, there is erected a new Parnassus, composed of three laurels, a myrtle tree, a weeping willow, and a view of the Avon, which has now been christened Helicon. Ten years ago there lived a Madam Riggs, an old rough humourist who passed for a wit; her daughter, who passed for nothing, married to a Captain Miller, full of good-natured officiousness. These good folks were friends of Miss Rich, who carried me to dine with them at Bath-Easton, now Pindus. They caught a little of what was then called taste, built and planted, and begot children, till the whole caravan were forced to go abroad to retrieve. Alas! Mrs. Miller is returned a beauty, a genius, a Sappho, a tenth Muse, as romantic as Mademoiselle Scuderi, and as sophisticated as Mrs. Vesey. The Captain's fingers are loaded with cameos, his tongue runs over with virtù, and that both may contribute to the improvement of their country, they have introduced bout-rimés as a new discovery. They hold a Parnassus fair every Thursday, give out rhymes and themes, and all the flux of quality at Bath contend for the prizes. A Roman vase, dressed with pink ribbons and myrtles, receives the poetry, which is drawn out every festival; six judges of these Olympic games retire and select the brightest compositions, which the respective successful acknow

III.

HORACE WALPOLE'S GOSSIP

93

ledge, kneel to Mrs. Calliope Miller, kiss her fair hand, and are crowned with myrtle,-with, I don't know what. You may think this a fiction, or exaggeration. Be dumb! unbelievers! The collection is printed, published. Yes, on my faith, there are bout-rimés on a buttered muffin made by Her Grace the Duchess of Northumberland; receipts to make them by Corydon the venerable, alias George Pitt; others very pretty, by Lord Palmerston; some by Lord Carlisle; many by Mrs. Miller herself, that have no fault but wanting metre; an Immortality promised to her without end or measure. since folly, which never ripens to madness but in this hot climate, ran distracted, there never was anything so entertaining or so dull."2

In short,

The foregoing account is as pointed, spiteful and incorrect as much of Horace Walpole's gossip. He characteristically omits to add that the proceeds of the volumes at which he sneers were devoted to aid a charity for the relief of poor working men and women in Bath. The sale was large enough to add substantially to the charity's funds. Nor was Lady Miller quite so foolish as she is represented. Her three volumes of travel in Italy are as good and readable as many others, which had appeared before her day, and far better than those of Lady

1 Dr. Johnson ridiculed the contributors with the exception of the Duchess of Northumberland, sparing her on the ground that she "may do what she pleases. Nobody will say anything to a lady of her high rank" (G. B. Hill's edition of Boswell's "Johnson," vol. ii., p. 337).

2 Horace Walpole's "Letters," vol. vi., p. 172.

Blessington, upon which exaggerated praise has been lavished. Neither were the gatherings at BathEaston more fantastical than those at Strawberry Hill. Perhaps Horace Walpole may have been an unsuccessful competitor for a prize at BathEaston !

Frances Burney's mention of Lady Miller and her set is not eulogistic, yet it is less uncomplimentary than Walpole's :-" Do you know that, notwithstanding Bath-Easton is so much laughed at in London, nothing in Bath is more tonish than to visit Lady Miller, who is extremely curious in her company, admitting few persons who are not of rank and fame, and excluding of those who are not all persons of character very unblemished. Lady Miller is a round, plump, coarse-looking dame of about forty, and while all her aim is to appear an elegant woman of fashion, all her success is to seem an ordinary woman in very common life, with fine clothes on. Her manners are bustling, her air is mock-important, and her manners very inelegant."1

He

Lady Miller succeeded in getting many persons of note to compete for prizes as versifiers. Garrick's easy rhymes were thought suitable for publication. None of Sheridan's have been preserved. regarded Bath-Easton from the same point of view as Horace Walpole. After The Duenna appeared, he made the following uncomplimentary reference to it in a letter to his father-in-law, when he was expected to write some verses by way of acknow

1 Madame d'Arblay's "Diary," vol. i., pp. 364, 365.

III.]

HALHED'S LETTERS

95

ledgment for a present, saying, "I believe I shall try a little jingle on the occasion; at least a few such stanzas as might gain a cup of tea from the urn at Bath-Easton.'

He

While indulging in the amusements which were provided at Bath, he was not unmindful of the future. His father's income being small, he had to prepare to support himself, and he hoped to do so and grow famous also by becoming an author. first resolved to write a farce, being convinced that he might easily earn money as a playwright, and next he staked his chances of fortune and fame upon publishing translations from the Greek. In both designs he had the approval and aid of a schoolfellow at Harrow, who was his junior by five months and a friend of his youth.

This comrade and correspondent was Nathaniel Brassey Halhed, who had gone from Harrow to Christ Church, Oxford, and who was studying there while Sheridan was amusing himself in society or with his pen in Bath. The pair exchanged letters and they laid plans for advancement in the world while the one was playing the part of a young man at large in the City of Bath and the other that of a roystering under-graduate at the University of Oxford. Their confidential correspondence would have been exceedingly instructive now, if all the letters which they interchanged had been preserved. The letters from Halhed to Sheridan are extant, and I shall give copious extracts from them; those of

1 Moore writes with regard to Halhed's letters to Sheridan: "It would have given me great pleasure to have been enabled to