My father returned late on Friday night, bringing with him a very bad
and a very good thing; the bad thing was a bad cold--the good is Aunt
Mary Sneyd. Emmeline was delayed some days at Lichfield by the broken
bridges, and bad roads, floods and snows, which have stopped man, and
beast, and mail coaches. Mr. Cox, the man who sells camomile drops under
the title of Oriental Pearls, wrote an apology to my Aunt Mary for
neglecting to send the Pearls in the following elegant phrase: "That the
mistake she mentioned he could no ways account for but by presuming that
it must have arisen from impediments occasioned by the inclemencies of
the season!"
When my father went to see Lord Charlemont, he came to meet him, saying,
"I must claim relationship with you, Mr. Edgeworth. I am related to the
Abbé Edgeworth, who is I think an honour to the kingdom--I should say to
human nature."