CONCERNING RICHARD STEELE the constant surprises of an unique species of wit, for happy and unexpected turns of phrase, for graphic characterization and clever anecdote, for playfulness, pungency, irony, persiflage, there is nothing in English like his correspondence. And when one remembers that, in addition, this correspondence constitutes a sixty-years' social chronicle of a specially picturesque epoch by one of the most picturesque of picturesque chroniclers, there can be no need to bespeak any further suffrage for Horace Walpole's" incomparable letters." (Horace Walpole-A Memoir.) CONCERNING RICHARD STEELE ON the 19th May, 1708, Her Majesty Queen Anne being then upon the throne of Great Britain and Ireland, a coach with two horses, gaudy rather than neat in its appointments, drew up at the door of my Lord Sunderland's Office in Whitehall. It contained a lady about thirty, of considerable personal attractions, and dressed richly in cinnamon satin. She was a brunette, with a rather high forehead, the height of which was ingeniously broken by two short locks upon the temples. Moreover, she had distinctly fine eyes, and a mouth which, in its normal state, must have been arch and pretty, but was now drawn down at the corners under the influence of some temporary irritation. As the coach stopped, a provincial-looking servant promptly alighted, pulled out from the boxseat a large case of the kind used for preserving the voluminous periwigs of the period, and subsequently CONCERNING RICHARD STEELE extracted from the same receptacle a pair of shining new shoes with square toes and silver buckles. These, with the case, he carried carefully into the house, returning shortly afterwards. Then ensued what upon the stage, would be called " an interval," during which time the high forehead of the lady began to cloud visibly with impatience, and the corners of her mouth to grow more ominous. At length, about twenty minutes later, came a sound of laughter and noisy voices; and by-and-by bustled out of the Cockpit portal a square-shouldered, square-faced man in a rich dress, which, like the coach, was a little showy. He wore a huge black full-bottomed periwig. Speaking with a marked Irish accent, he made profuse apologies to the occupant of the carriage-apologies which, as might be expected, were not well received. An expression of vexation came over his good-tempered face as he took his seat at the lady's side, and he lapsed for a few minutes into a moody silence. But before they had gone many yards, his dark, deep-set eyes began to twinkle once more as he looked about him. When they passed the Tilt-Yard, a detachment of the Second Troop of Life Guards, magnificent in their laced red coats, jack boots, and white feathers, came pacing out on their black horses. They took their way towards Charing Cross, and for a short distance followed the same route as the chariot. The lady was loftily indifferent to their presence; and she was, besides, on the farther side of the vehicle. But her companion manifestly recognized some old acquaintances among them, and was highly gratified at being recognized in his turn, although at the same time it was evident he was also a little apprehensive lest the CONCERNING RICHARD STEELE "Gentlemen of the Guard," as they were called, should be needlessly demonstrative in their acknowledgment of his existence. After this, nothing more of moment occurred. Slowly mounting St. James's Street, the coach turned down Piccadilly, and, passing between the groups of lounging lackeys at the gate, entered Hyde Park. Here, by the time it had once made the circuit of the Ring, the lady's equanimity was completely restored, and the gentleman was radiant. He was, in truth, to use his own words, no undelightful Companion." He possessed an infinite fund of wit and humour; and his manner to women had a sincerity of deference which was not the prevailing characteristic of his age. 44 44 There is but slender invention in this little picture. The gentleman was Captain Steele, late of the Life Guards, the Coldstreams, and Lucas's regiment of foot, now Gazetteer, and Gentleman Waiter to Queen Anne's consort, Prince George of Denmark, and not yet "Mr. Isaac Bickerstaff" of the immortal Tatler. The lady was Mrs. Steele, née Miss Mary Scurlock, his "Ruler" and " absolute Governesse (as he called her), to whom he had been married some eight months before. If you ask at the British Museum for the Steele manuscripts (Add. MSS. 5, 145, A, B, and C), the courteous attendant will bring you, with its faded ink, dusky paper, and hasty scrawl, the very letter making arrangements for this meeting (" best Periwigg" and new Shoes" included), at the end of which the writer assures his dear Prue" (another pet name) that she is "Vitall Life to Yr Oblig'd Affectionate Husband & Humble Sernt Richd Steele.” 44 44 (Eighteenth Century Vignettes. First Series.) MADAME DE GENLIS Look. She is sad to miss, His-her dead father's-kiss; Good to mamma, and sweet. Ah, if beside the dead Ah, if the hearts that bled MADAME DE GENLIS VISITS ENGLAND MADAME DE GENLIS had long been meditating a descent upon England. Already some years before, Gibbon had been charged to procure her lodgings at London. 44 At last, in 1785, she left her pupils at St. Leu, and "in the pleasant month of June" a soft Etesian gale wafted over the illustrious visitor to our hospitable shores. The trip, her record tells us, was exceedingly brilliant." The public prints teemed with the most obliging notices, and the most complimentary verses, amongst the rest an ode by Hayley. At one of the theatres (she says) Hamlet was performed in her honour; Lord Inchiquin took her to the House of Commons. By desire of the Prince of Wales, Lord William Gordon entertained her at his house, and the "First Gentleman in Europe paid great attention " to the illustrious adviser of Philippe Egalité. Burke |