Mrs. Ruxton resembled her brother in the wit and vivacity of her
mind and strong affections; her grace and charm of manner were
such that a gentleman once said of her; 'If I were to see Mrs.
Ruxton in rags as a beggar woman sitting on the doorstep, I should
say "Madam" to her.' 'To write to her Aunt Ruxton was, as long as
she lived, Maria's greatest pleasure while away from her,' says
Mrs. Edgeworth, 'and to be with her was a happiness she enjoyed
with never flagging and supreme delight. Blackcastle was within a
few hours' drive of Edgeworthtown, and to go to Blackcastle was
the holiday of her life.'
Mrs. Edgeworth tells a story of Maria once staying at Blackcastle and
tearing out the title page of 'Belinda,' so that her aunt, Mrs. Ruxton,
read the book without any suspicion of the author. She was so delighted
with it that she insisted on Maria listening to page after page,
exclaiming 'Is not that admirably written?' 'Admirably read, I think,'
said Maria; until her aunt, quite provoked by her faint acquiescence,
says, 'I am sorry to see my little Maria unable to bear the praises of a
rival author;' at which poor Maria burst into tears, and Mrs. Ruxton
could never bear the book mentioned afterwards.
It was with Mrs. Ruxton that a little boy, born just after the death
of the author of 'Sandford and Merton,' was left on the occasion of
the departure of the Edgeworth family for Clifton, in 1792, where Mr.
Edgeworth spent a couple of years for the health of one of his sons. In
July the poor little brother dies in Ireland. 'There does not, now that
little Thomas is gone, exist even a person of the same name as Mr. Day,'
says Mr. Edgeworth, who concludes his letter philosophically, as the
father of twenty children may be allowed to do, by expressing a hope
that to his nurses, Mrs. Ruxton and her daughter, 'the remembrance of
their own goodness will soon obliterate the painful impression of his
miserable end.' During their stay at Clifton Richard Edgeworth, the
eldest son, who had been brought up upon Rousseau's system, and who
seems to have found the Old World too restricted a sphere for his
energies, after going to sea and disappearing for some years, suddenly
paid them a visit from South Carolina, where he had settled and married.
The young man was gladly welcomed by them all. He had been long separated
from home, and he eventually died very young in America; but his sister
always clung to him with fond affection, and when he left them to return
home she seems to have felt his departure very much. 'Last Saturday my
poor brother Richard took leave of us to return to America. He has gone
up to London with my father and mother, and is to sail from thence. We
could not part from him without great pain and regret, for he made us
all extremely fond of him.'
Notwithstanding these melancholy events, Maria Edgeworth seems to have
led a happy busy life all this time among her friends, her relations,
her many interests, her many fancies and facts, making much of the
children, of whom she writes pleasant descriptions to her aunt.
'Charlotte is very engaging and promises to be handsome. Sneyd is, and
promises everything. Henry will, I think, through life always do more
than he promises. Little Honora is a sprightly blue-eyed child at nurse
with a woman who is the picture of health and simplicity. Lovell is
perfectly well. Doctor Darwin has paid him very handsome compliments on
his lines on the Barbarini Vase in the first part of the "Botanic
Garden."'
Mr. Edgeworth, however, found the time long at Clifton, though, as
usual, he at once improved his opportunities, paid visits to his friends
in London and elsewhere, and renewed many former intimacies and
correspondences.
Maria also paid a visit to London, but the time had not come for her to
enjoy society, and the extreme shyness of which Mrs. Edgeworth speaks
made it pain to her to be in society in those early days. 'Since I have
been away from home,' she writes, 'I have missed the society of my
father, mother, and sisters more than I can express, and more than
beforehand I could have thought possible. I long to see them all again.
Even when I am most amused I feel a void, and now I understand what an
aching void is perfectly.' Very soon we hear of her at home again,
'scratching away at the Freeman family.' Mr. Edgeworth is reading aloud
Gay's 'Trivia' among other things, which she recommends to her aunt. 'I
had much rather make a bargain with any one I loved to read the same
books with them at the same hour than to look at the moon like
Rousseau's famous lovers.' There is another book, a new book for the
children, mentioned about this time, 'Evenings at Home,' which they all
admire immensely.
Miss Edgeworth was now about twenty-six, at an age when a woman's powers
have fully ripened; a change comes over her style; there is a fulness of
description in her letters and a security of expression which show
maturity. Her habit of writing was now established, and she describes
the constant interest her father took and his share in all she did. Some
of the slighter stories she first wrote upon a slate and read out to her
brothers and sisters; others she sketched for her father's approval, and
arranged and altered as he suggested. The letters for literary ladies
were with the publishers by this time, and these were followed by
various stories and early lessons, portions of 'Parents' Assistant,'
and of popular tales, all of which were sent out in packets and lent
from one member of the family to another before finally reaching Mr.
Johnson, the publisher's, hands. Maria Edgeworth in some of her letters
from Clifton alludes with some indignation to the story of Mrs. Hannah
More's ungrateful _protégée_ Lactilla, the literary milkwoman, whose
poems Hannah More was at such pains to bring before the world, and for
whom, with her kind preface and warm commendations and subscription
list, she was able to obtain the large sum of 500_l._ The ungrateful
Lactilla, who had been starving when Mrs. More found her out, seems to
have lost her head in this sudden prosperity, and to have accused her
benefactress of wishing to steal a portion of the money. Maria Edgeworth
must have been also interested in some family marriages which took place
about this time. Her own sister Anna became engaged to Dr. Beddoes, of
Clifton, whose name appears as prescribing for the authors of various
memoirs of that day. He is 'a man of ability, of a great name in the
scientific world,' says Mr. Edgeworth, who favoured the Doctor's
'declared passion,' as a proposal was then called, and the marriage
accordingly took place on their return to Ireland. Emmeline, another
sister, was soon after married to Mr. King, a surgeon, also living at
Bristol, and Maria was now left the only remaining daughter of the
first marriage, to be good aunt, sister, friend to all the younger
members of the party. She was all this, but she herself expressly states
that her father would never allow her to be turned into a nursery drudge;
her share of the family was limited to one special little boy. Meanwhile
her pen-and-ink children are growing up, and starting out in the world
on their own merits.
'I beg, dear Sophy,' she writes to her cousin, 'that you will not call
my little stories by the sublime name of my works; I shall else be
ashamed when the little mouse comes forth. The stories are printed and
bound the same size as 'Evenings at Home,' but I am afraid you will
dislike the title. My father had sent the 'Parents' Friend,' but Mr.
Johnson has degraded it into 'Parents' Assistant.'
In 1797, says Miss Beaufort, who was to be so soon more intimately
connected with the Edgeworth family, Johnson wished to publish more
volumes of the 'Parents' Assistant' on fine paper, with prints, and Mrs.
Ruxton asked me to make some designs for them. These designs seem to
have given great satisfaction to the Edgeworth party, and especially to
a little boy called William, Mrs. Edgeworth's youngest boy, who grew up
to be a fine young man, but who died young of the cruel family complaint.
Mrs. Edgeworth's health was also failing all this time--'Though she
makes epigrams she is far from well,' says Maria; but they, none of them
seem seriously alarmed. Mr. Edgeworth, in the intervals of politics, is
absorbed in a telegraph, which, with the help of his sons, he is trying
to establish. It is one which will act by night as well as by day.
It was a time of change and stir for Ireland, disaffection growing and
put down for a time by the soldiers; armed bands going about 'defending'
the country and breaking its windows. In 1794 threats of a French
invasion had alarmed everybody, and now again in 1796 came rumours of
every description, and Mr. Edgeworth was very much disappointed that his
proposal for establishing a telegraph across the water to England was
rejected by Government. He also writes to Dr. Darwin that he had offered
himself as a candidate for the county, and been obliged to relinquish
at the last moment; but these minor disappointments were lost in the
trouble which fell upon the household in the following year--the death
of the mother of the family, who sank rapidly and died of consumption in
1797.