How to Create the Perfect Wife (53 page)

128
   
“He never saw any woman”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 331–32.

128
   
“She betrayed an averseness to the study of books”:
Seward (1804), p. 29.

128
   
As Day would later put it:
TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13.

129
   
The problem, as Seward acutely:
Seward (1804), p. 29.

129
   
Sabrina herself would later tell a friend:
ME to Frances Edgeworth, October 13 and 15, 1818, in Edgeworth, M, p. 122.

129
   
He would later tell Sabrina:
TD to SS, May 4, 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13.

130
   
The ambiguity of Sabrina’s situation: Watch and Ward was
initially published as a serialized story in 1871 and then as James’s first book in 1878. The quotes are from pages 72 and 81. My thanks to Peter Rowland for drawing my attention to this work.

131
   
It was Richard Lovell Edgeworth, bringing:
Edgeworth Senior died August 4, 1770. Johnston-Liik, E. M.,
History of the Irish Parliament, 1692–1800
(Belfast, 2002), vol. 4, pp. 104–5. Emmeline was baptized “Emely” at Wargrave parish church on November 29, 1770. Wargrave parish register 1770.

131
   
“curious to see how my friend’s philosophic romance would end”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 213.

131
   
She had “a beauty”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 213.

131
   
Sabrina was “now too old to remain”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 240.

132
   
he had found “a woman that equalled the picture of perfection”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 235.

132
   
While she had been away with her father and sisters in Bath:
AS to Mary Powys, April 25, 1770, SJBM, 2001.76.1; AS to Mary Powys, June 25, 1786, Seward (1811), vol. 1, pp. 156–57.

132
   
she told him he was the “first person”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 236.

133
   
“Sabrina Sydney had, perhaps”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 240.

133
   
After nearly twelve months of lessons:
AS said that the trials lasted twelve months; RLE stated that Sabrina was sent away in early 1771. Seward (1804), p. 29.

133
   
he promptly “renounced all hope”:
Seward (1804), pp. 29–30.

134
   
If she worked hard, Day told her:
TD to SS, 4 May 1783, ERO, D/DBa C13.

134
   
on no account to allow her to learn either music or dancing:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 240.

CHAPTER 7: ELIZABETH

135
   
Named Sutton:
Main sources for background on Sutton Coldfield are Jones, Douglas,
The Royal Town of Sutton Coldfield
(Sutton Coldfield, 1984); Lea, Roger,
The Story of Sutton Coldfield
(Stroud, 2003); Anon,
The History of Sutton-Coldfield . . . by an impartial Hand
(London, 1762); and Riland, William Kirkpatrick,
Three Hundred Years of a Family Living, Being a History of the Rilands of Sutton Coldfield
(Birmingham, 1889).

137
   
His trust in the power of education:
Seward (1804), pp. 29–30.

137
   
Utterly confounded by his friend’s indifference:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 241.

138
   
A powerful dynasty, the Sneyd family:
Burke, vol. 2, pp. 1259–61; flyleaf of family bible belonging to Charlotte Sneyd, 1766, with dates of birth of children, Edgeworth Papers, MS 10166/3; Edward Sneyd’s diaries, containing dates of birth of the family, Staffordshire Record Office, HM37/40. The first ten children were all girls. Four children, Eliza-Maria, Honora (the first with this name), Susanna and Harriet, did not survive childhood. Anne died in 1765, aged 19. The others were Lucy born February 9, 1748; Mary August 7, 1750; Honora (the second with this name) September 29, 1751; Elizabeth January 24, 1753, and Charlotte May 2, 1754. There were then two boys, Edward born September 28, 1755 and William February 28, 1757. Lucy married William Grove on September 19, 1768, and had five children. Mary was sent to live with an unmarried cousin Ann Sneyd, Edward’s niece, who left a lively collection of household accounts detailing trips to assemblies, payments for gloves, gowns and shoes for herself and Mary, as well as presents for the other Sneyd girls.

138
   
Three of the girls
—
Lucy, Honora and Elizabeth:
Sherwood, p. 10.

138
   
Courted by a succession of admirers, Honora:
Sargent, Winthrop,
The Life and Career of Major John André
(New York, 1902); Garnett, Richard, “André, John, 1750–1780,”
Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
(Oxford University Press, 2004) online edition, accessed July 26, 2011. The ODNB gives André’s date of birth as May 2, 1750, but he describes himself as 18 in his letter to AS of October 3, 1769, suggesting that he was born in 1751. Three letters from André to AS are published in Seward,
Monody on Major André
(Lichfield, 1781), pp. 29–47.

139
   
During his Christmas break with Day, Edgeworth:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. l, p. 236.

140
   
“marriage is often the grave of love”:
Seward (1804), p. 24.

140
   
In a letter to a friend, Seward divulged her scheme:
AS to Mary Powys, n.d. [c 1771], SJBM, 2001.76.2.

141
   
Finally, Day wrote to Edgeworth:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 241–43.

142
   “
I saw him continually in company with Honora Sneyd”:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 242–43.

143
   
Written out laboriously over several sheets of paper:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 243–45. Day’s marriage proposal and Honora’s reply have not survived, but they are described in detail by RLE in his memoirs.

143
   
Explaining her decision to Anna, Honora:
Seward (1804), p. 30.

144
   
A few weeks later Major Sneyd:
Edward Sneyd’s diaries, Staffordshire RO HM37/40. The third diary, for 1782, shows that Sneyd had accumulated £9,371.1.5 ½ by Christmas 1773 from shares in the Trent and Mersey Canal.

144
   
“The domestic separation proved very grievous”:
AS to Mrs T[emple] June 19, 1796, Seward (1811), vol. 4, p. 217; AS, “Time Past,” written January 1773, in Seward (1810), vol. 1, pp. 87–88.

145
   
a summer archery contest:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 246–49.

145
   
He had drawn swooning debutantes; jump clear over a dining table:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, p. 92; Harriet Butler to Michael Pakenham Edgeworth, September 13, 1838, cited in Butler (1972), p. 41.

146
   
It was as the air of a country dance:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 247–49.

146
   
Elizabeth was “very pretty, very sprightly”:
Seward (1804), pp. 30–31.

147
   
Having grown up with cousins:
Elizabeth Sneyd had been brought up in Shrewsbury in the care of her cousin Susannah Powys and her husband Henry, whose daughter Mary Powys—or “Po”—was AS’s friend and regular correspondent.

147
   
Anna Seward captured one such gathering in late July:
AS to Mary Powys, July 13 and 19, 1771, SJBM, 2001.76.3.

147
   
Watching his friend fall under Elizabeth’s spell:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. l, p. 249.

148
   
In the same way that artists, writers and philosophers:
Carter; Barker-Benfield; Davis, Leith,
The Polite Academy, or School of Behaviour for Young Gentlemen and Ladies
(London, 1762); Towle, Matthew,
The Young Gentleman and Lady’s Private Tutor
(Oxford; London, 1770); Philpot, Stephen,
An Essay on the Advantages of a Polite Education Joined with a Learned One
(London, 1747). Barker-Benfield discusses Day specifically on pp. 149–53.

150
   “
It is the graceful Motion of the Body in Walking”:
Philpot, p. 68.

150
   
Laurence Sterne had fun depicting a French peasant:
The books by Sterne, Mackenzie and Brooke are discussed in Barker-Benfield, pp. 142–49.

150
   
It was Day’s favorite novel:
Gignilliat, p. 264. Brooke, Henry,
The Fool of Quality, or the History of Henry Earl of Moreland
(5 vols., London, 1765–70). Day and Brooke had much in common besides a shared penchant for sentimental tales. Brooke trained as a lawyer at the Temple but was recalled to Ireland at the age of 17 by an aunt on her deathbed who begged him to become guardian to her beautiful 12-year-old daughter, Catherine. Brooke placed the orphan in a boarding school in Dublin, but within two years he eloped with her and they secretly married. The couple had 23 children, of whom only two lived to adulthood, before Catherine herself died, leaving Brooke heartbroken for the remaining ten years of his life. Brooke’s tragic life is described by his daughter Charlotte in the preface to his poetical works. Brooke, Henry,
The Poetical Works . . . of Henry Brooke,
ed. Brooke, Charlotte (Dublin, 1792).

151
   
Leaving Elizabeth to her books:
TD to AS, August 31, 1771, SJBM, 2001.71.60. In this letter Day refers to having left Lichfield 2 weeks before.

151
   
Having returned to Paris the previous year:
Rousseau lived on the 5th floor (by British reckoning; the 6th floor in American and Continental terms) of 60 rue Plâtrière, since renamed rue Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Damrosch, pp. 466. His assimilation back into Parisian intellectual society and his lifestyle in Paris are described in Damrosch, pp. 463–76.

152
   
Climbing the steep, dark stairs:
Edgeworth, RL and M, vol. 1, pp. 252–54. RLE describes the visit to Rousseau and Rousseau’s walk with Dick.

152
   
One visitor who was struck by this picture:
Bentley, p. 67.