My father and Lovell have been out almost every day, when there are no
robbers to be committed to jail, at the Logograph.[Footnote: A name
invented to suit the anti-Gallican prejudices of the day.] This is the
new name instead of the Telegraph, because of its allusion to the
logographic printing press, which prints words instead of letters.
Phaenologue was thought of, but Logograph sounds better. My father will
allow me to manufacture an essay on the Logograph, he furnishing the
solid materials and I spinning them. I am now looking over, for this
purpose, Wilkins's _Real Character, or an Essay towards a Universal
Philosophical Language._ It is a scarce and very ingenious book; some of
the phraseology is so much out of the present fashion, that it would
make you smile: such as the synonym for a little man, a Dandiprat.
Likewise two prints, one of them a long sheet of men with their throats
cut, so as to show the windpipe whilst working out the different letters
of the alphabet. The other print of all the birds and beasts packed
ready to go into the ark.
Sir Walter James has written a very kind and sensible letter to my
father, promising all his influence with his Viceregal brother-in-law
about the telegraph. My father means to get a letter from him to Lord
Camden, and present it himself, though he rather doubts whether, all
things taken together, it is prudent to tie himself to Government. The
raising the militia has occasioned disturbances in this county. Lord
Granard's carriage was pelted at Athlone. The poor people here are
robbed every night. Last night a poor old woman was considerably
roasted: the man, who called himself Captain Roast, is committed to
jail, he was positively sworn to here this morning. Do you know what
they mean by the White Tooths? Men who stick two pieces of broken
tobacco pipes at each corner of the mouth, to disguise the face and
voice.
_April_ 20.
Here is a whirlwind in our county, and no angel to direct it, though
many booted and spurred desire no better than to ride _in_ it. There is
indeed an old woman in Ballymahon, who has been the guardian angel of
General Crosby; she has averted a terrible storm, which was just ready
to burst over his head. The General, by mistake, went into the town of
Ballymahon, before his troops came up; and while he was in the inn, a
mob of five hundred people gathered in the street. The landlady of the
inn called General Crosby aside, and told him, that if the people found
him they would certainly tear him to pieces. The General hesitated, but
the abler general, the landlady, sallied forth and called aloud in a
distinct voice, "Bring round the chaise-and-four for the gentleman
_from_ Lanesborough, who is going _to_ Athlone." The General got into
the chaise incog., and returning towards Athlone met his troops, and
thus effected a most admirable retreat.
_Monday Night._
Richard [Footnote: His last visit to Ireland. He returned to America,
and died there in 1796.] and Lovell are at the Bracket Gate. I hope you
know the Bracket Gate, it is near Mr. Whitney's, and so called, as
tradition informs me, from being painted red and white like a bracket
cow. I am not clear what sort of an animal a bracket cow is, but I
suppose it is something not unlike a dun cow and a gate joined together.
Richard and Lovell have a nice tent, and a clock, and white lights, and
are trying nocturnal telegraphs, which are now brought to satisfactory
perfection.
I am finishing "Toys and Tasks;" I wish I might insert your letter to
Sneyd, [Footnote: Mrs. Elizabeth Edgeworth's second boy.] with the
receipt for the dye, as a specimen of experiments for children. Sneyd
with sparkling eyes returns you his sincere thanks, and my mother with
her love sends you the following lines, which she composed to-day for
him:
To give me all that art can give,
My aunt and mother try:
One teaches me the way to live,
The other how to _dye._
But though she makes epigrams, my mother is far from well.
* * * * *
This year _Letters for Literary Ladies_, Miss Edgeworth's first
published work, was produced by Johnson. In 1796 she published the
collection of stories known as _The Parent's Assistant._ In these, in
the simplest language, and with wonderful understanding of children, and
what would come home to their hearts, she continued to illustrate the
maxims of her father. The "Purple Jar" and "Lazy Laurence" are perhaps
the best-known stories of the first edition. To another was added
"Simple Susan," of which Sir Walter Scott said, "That when the boy
brings back the lamb to the little girl, there is nothing for it but to
put down the book and cry." Most of these stories were written in the
excitement of very troubled times in Ireland.
* * * * *
MARIA EDGEWORTH _to_ MRS. RUXTON.