1785-1787.
No doubt the voyage to Lisbon tended considerably to enlarge the
understanding of Mary. She was admitted into the best company the
English factory afforded. She made many profound observations on the
character of the natives, and the baleful effects of superstition. The
obsequies of Fanny, which it was necessary to perform by stealth and in
darkness, tended to invigorate these observations in her mind.
She sailed upon her voyage home about the twentieth of December. On this
occasion a circumstance occurred, that deserves to be recorded. While
they were on their passage, they fell in with a French vessel, in great
distress, and in daily expectation of foundering at sea, at the same
time that it was almost destitute of provisions. The Frenchman hailed
them, and intreated the English captain, in consideration of his
melancholy situation, to take him and his crew on board. The Englishman
represented in reply, that his stock of provisions was by no means
adequate to such an additional number of mouths, and absolutely refused
compliance. Mary, shocked at his apparent insensibility, took up the
cause of the sufferers, and threatened the captain to have him called
to a severe account, when he arrived in England. She finally prevailed,
and had the satisfaction to reflect, that the persons in question
possibly owed their lives to her interposition.
When she arrived in England, she found that her school had suffered
considerably in her absence. It can be little reproach to any one, to
say that they were found incapable of supplying her place. She not only
excelled in the management of the children, but had also the talent of
being attentive and obliging to the parents, without degrading herself.
The period at which I am now arrived is important, as conducting to the
first step of her literary carreer. Mr. Hewlet had frequently mentioned
literature to Mary as a certain source of pecuniary produce, and had
urged her to make trial of the truth of his judgment. At this time she
was desirous of assisting the father and mother of Fanny in an object
they had in view, the transporting themselves to Ireland; and, as usual,
what she desired in a pecuniary view, she was ready to take on herself
to effect. For this purpose she wrote a duodecimo pamphlet of one
hundred and sixty pages, entitled, Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters. Mr. Hewlet obtained from the bookseller, Mr. Johnson in St.
Paul's Church Yard, ten guineas for the copy-right of this manuscript,
which she immediately applied to the object for the sake of which the
pamphlet was written.
Every thing urged Mary to put an end to the affair of the school. She
was dissatisfied with the different appearance it presented upon her
return, from the state in which she left it. Experience impressed upon
her a rooted aversion to that sort of cohabitation with her sisters,
which the project of the school imposed. Cohabitation is a point of
delicate experiment, and is, in a majority of instances, pregnant with
ill-humour and unhappiness. The activity and ardent spirit of adventure
which characterized Mary, were not felt in an equal degree by her
sisters, so that a disproportionate share of every burthen attendant
upon the situation, fell to her lot. On the other hand, they could
scarcely perhaps be perfectly easy, in observing the superior degree of
deference and courtship, which her merit extorted from almost every one
that knew her. Her kindness for them was not diminished, but she
resolved that the mode of its exertion in future should be different,
tending to their benefit, without intrenching upon her own liberty.
Thus circumstanced, a proposal was made her, such as, regarding only the
situations through which she had lately passed, is usually termed
advantageous. This was, to accept the office of governess to the
daughters of lord viscount Kingsborough, eldest son to the earl of
Kingston of the kingdom of Ireland. The terms held out to her were such
as she determined to accept, at the same time resolving to retain the
situation only for a short time. Independence was the object after which
she thirsted, and she was fixed to try whether it might not be found in
literary occupation. She was desirous however first to accumulate a
small sum of money, which should enable her to consider at leisure the
different literary engagements that might offer, and provide in some
degree for the eventual deficiency of her earliest attempts.
The situation in the family of lord Kingsborough, was offered to her
through the medium of the rev. Mr. Prior, at that time one of the under
masters of Eton school. She spent some time at the house of this
gentleman, immediately after her giving up the school at Newington
Green. Here she had an opportunity of making an accurate observation
upon the manners and conduct of that celebrated seminary, and the ideas
she retained of it were by no means favourable. By all that she saw,
she was confirmed in a very favourite opinion of her's, in behalf of
day-schools, where, as she expressed it, "children have the opportunity
of conversing with children, without interfering with domestic
affections, the foundation of virtue."
Though her residence in the family of lord Kingsborough continued
scarcely more than twelve months, she left behind her, with them and
their connections, a very advantageous impression. The governesses the
young ladies had hitherto had, were only a species of upper servants,
controlled in every thing by the mother; Mary insisted upon the
unbounded exercise of her own discretion. When the young ladies heard of
their governess coming from England, they heard in imagination of a new
enemy, and declared their resolution to guard themselves accordingly.
Mary however speedily succeeded in gaining their confidence, and the
friendship that soon grew up between her and Margaret King, now countess
Mount Cashel, the eldest daughter, was in an uncommon degree cordial and
affectionate. Mary always spoke of this young lady in terms of the
truest applause, both in relation to the eminence of her intellectual
powers, and the ingenuous amiableness of her disposition. Lady
Kingsborough, from the best motives, had imposed upon her daughters a
variety of prohibitions, both as to the books they should read, and in
many other respects. These prohibitions had their usual effects;
inordinate desire for the things forbidden, and clandestine indulgence.
Mary immediately restored the children to their liberty, and undertook
to govern them by their affections only. The consequence was, that their
indulgences were moderate, and they were uneasy under any indulgence
that had not the sanction of their governess. The salutary effects of
the new system of education were speedily visible; and lady Kingsborough
soon felt no other uneasiness, than lest the children should love their
governess better than their mother.
Mary made many friends in Ireland, among the persons who visited lord
Kingsborough's house, for she always appeared there with the air of an
equal, and not of a dependent. I have heard her mention the ludicrous
distress of a woman of quality, whose name I have forgotten, that, in a
large company, singled out Mary, and entered into a long conversation
with her. After the conversation was over, she enquired whom she had
been talking with, and found, to her utter mortification and dismay,
that it was Miss King's governess.
One of the persons among her Irish acquaintance, whom Mary was
accustomed to speak of with the highest respect, was Mr. George Ogle,
member of parliament for the county of Wexford. She held his talents in
very high estimation; she was strongly prepossessed in favour of the
goodness of his heart; and she always spoke of him as the most perfect
gentleman she had ever known. She felt the regret of a disappointed
friend, at the part he has lately taken in the politics of Ireland.
Lord Kingsborough's family passed the summer of the year 1787 at
Bristol Hot-Wells, and had formed the project of proceeding from thence
to the continent, a tour in which Mary purposed to accompany them. The
plan however was ultimately given up, and Mary in consequence closed her
connection with them, earlier than she otherwise had purposed to do.
At Bristol Hot-Wells she composed the little book which bears the title
of Mary, a Fiction. A considerable part of this story consists, with
certain modifications, of the incidents of her own friendship with
Fanny. All the events that do not relate to that subject are fictitious.
This little work, if Mary had never produced any thing else, would
serve, with persons of true taste and sensibility, to establish the
eminence of her genius. The story is nothing. He that looks into the
book only for incident, will probably lay it down with disgust. But the
feelings are of the truest and most exquisite class; every circumstance
is adorned with that species of imagination, which enlists itself under
the banners of delicacy and sentiment. A work of sentiment, as it is
called, is too often another name for a work of affectation. He that
should imagine that the sentiments of this book are affected, would
indeed be entitled to our profoundest commiseration.