A GEORGIAN PAGEANT BY FRANK FRANKFORT MOORE AUTHOR OP THE JESSAMY BRIDE, THE FATAL GIFT, A KEST OF LINNETS, ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS London HtiTCHINSON CO. Paternoster Row cA 1908 THE WRITERS APOLOGY greater number of the papers in this series, deal ing with some well-known persons and incidents of the latter half of the Eighteenth Century, are the practical result of a long conversation which th writer had with the late Professor J. Churton Collins upon a very memorable occasion. Th e writer ventured to contend that the existing views respecting the personality , of Oliver Goldsmith, of Henry Thrale, of James Boswett, of Samuel Johnson, and of some others whom he named, were grossly erroneous as were also the prevalent notions respecting such matters as Fanny Burneys attendance upon the Queen, the romance of the Gunnings, and the elopement of Richard Brinsley Sheridan with Elizabeth Linley. If Professor Churton Collins had not urged upon the writer the possible interest attaching to the expression of some opinions unbiassed by those conservators of the conventional who have dealt with the same period, every one of them being as careful as Indians on the warpath to tread in the footsteps of the man preceding him, he would not have the courage to set forth his views in the form they now assume. The non-controversial papers in the series may in The Writers Apology crease the light and, shade in the sketches of this very humble Georgian Pageant. The romance of Lady Susan Fox-Strangways naturally took the shape of a regula tion story. The details are absolutely correct. On the very day the writer meant to keep the promise he made to Professor C burton Collins, by ending him the completed proofs of this book, the melancholy news of his death was published an irreparable loss to the Literature of English Criticism. CONTENTS PACK THE MONARCH OF THE PAGEANT i A COMEDY IN ST. MARTINS STREET . . . .28 A TRAGEDY IN THE HAYMARKET . . . .64 THE FATAL GIFT . . . . . - 95 THE FfeTE CHAMP TRE . . . . . .125 THE PL T OF A LADY NOVELIST . . . .148 TRAGEDY. WITH A TWINKLE . . . . .170 THE BEST COMEDY OF THE CENTURY . . .19 THE JESSAMY BRIDE . . . . . .221 THE AMAZING ELOPEMENT . . . . .232 THE AMAZING DUELS . . . . . .259 A MELODRAMA AT COVENT GARDEN . . . .283 THE COMEDY AT DOWNING STREET . . . - 3 ILLUSTRATIONS MARY AND CATHERINE HORNRCK Photogravure . . Frontispiece TO PACK FACE FANNY BURNEY MADAME DARBLAY . . . .20 DR. CHARLES BURNEY . . . . . 32 HENRY THRALB ....... 46 MRS. THRALE ........ 62 JOSEPH BARETTI ....... 75 JAMBS Bos WELL ....... 96 MARIA GUNNING COUNTESS OP COVENTRY . . .112 ELIZABETH GUNNING DUCHESS OF HAMILTON AND ARGYLL . 126 COUNTESS OP DERBY ELIZA FARREN . . . . 140 OLIVER GOLDSMITH . . . . . . .170 GEORGE COLMAN ....... 206 SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS ...... 224 ELIZABETH LINLEY MRS. SHERIDAN AND HER BROTHER THOMAS LINLEY ........ 238 RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN ..... 260 MARTHA REAY ........ 284 LADY SUSAN Fox STRANGWAYS, LADY SARAH LENNOX, AND C. J. Fox 334 A GEORGIAN PAGEANT THE MONARCH OF THE PAGEANT the morning of February 2nd, 1789, a lady was taking a solitary stroll in Kew Gardens. She was a small person, of dainty features, with a dimple on each side of her mouth that suggested a smite, varying, perhaps out of compliment to the variations of the people with whom she came in con tact in her daily life, and shifting doubtless with the movements of the folk of her fancy through her quick brain, but remaining a smile all the time. There was about her a good deal of that doll-like primness which is so pretty an accompaniment of a person of small stature but with this particular person it had not quite, but almost the additional charm of dignity. One could at all times see that she was making a highly intellectual attempt to be dignified but that she was not really dignified at heart...