I think Hardy's _Life of Lord Charlemont_ interesting, and many parts
written in a beautiful style; but I don't think he gives a clear,
well-proportioned history of the times. There is a want of _keeping_ and
perspective in it. The pipe of the man smoking out of the window is as
high as the house. Mr. Hardy is more a portrait than a history painter.
If you have any curiosity to know the names of the writers of some of
the articles in the _Edinburgh Review_, I can tell you, having had
to-day, from my literary intelligencer, Mr. Holland, two huge sheets,
very entertaining and sensible. Jeffrey wrote the article on
Parliamentary Reform and that on the Curse of Kehama, Sydney Smith that
on Toleration, and Malthus that on Bullion; and if you have any
curiosity, I can also tell you those in the _Quarterly_, among whom
Canning is one. Thank my aunt for her information about Walter Scott; my
father will write immediately to ask him here. I wish we lived in an old
castle, and had millions of old legends for him. Have you seen
Campbell's poem of _O'Connor's Child_? it is beautiful. In many parts I
think it is superior to Scott.
_May-day._
This being May-day, one of the wettest I have ever seen, I have been
regaled, not with garlands of May flowers, but with the _legal_
pleasures of the season; I have heard of nothing but _giving notices to
quit, taking possession, ejectments, flittings_, etc. What do you think
of a tenant who took one of the nice new houses in this town, and left
it with every lock torn off the doors, and with a large stone, such as
John Langan could not lift, driven actually through the boarded floor of
the parlour? The brute, however, is rich, and if he does not die of
whisky before the law can get its hand into his pocket, he will pay for
this waste.
I have had another [Footnote: No less than five letters were received by
Miss Edgeworth at different times, from different young people, asking
for a description of the dresses in the "Contrast."] odd letter signed
by three young ladies--Clarissa Craven, Rachel Biddle, and Eliza Finch,
who, after sundry compliments in very pretty language, and with all the
appearance of seriousness, beg that I will do them the favour to satisfy
the curiosity they feel about the wedding dresses of the Frankland
family in the "Contrast." I have answered in a way that will stand for
either jest or earnest; I have said that, at a sale of Admiral Tipsey's
smuggled goods, Mrs. Hungerford bought French cambric muslin wedding
gowns for the brides, the collars trimmed in the most becoming manner,
as a Monmouth milliner assured me, with Valenciennes lace, from Admiral
Tipsey's spoils. I have given all the particulars of the bridegrooms'
accoutrements, and signed myself the young ladies' "obedient servant and
perhaps _dupe._"
I am going on with "Patronage," and wish I could show it to you. _Do_
get _O'Connor's Child_, Campbell's beautiful poem.
Last Saturday there was the most violent storm of thunder and lightning
I ever saw in Ireland, and once I thought I felt the ground shake under
me, for which thought I was at the time laughed to scorn; but I find
that at the same time the shock of an earthquake was felt _in the
country, which shook Lissard House to its foundations._ I tell it to you
in the very words in which it was told to me by Sneyd, who had it from
Councillor Cummin. A man was certainly killed by the lightning near
Finac, _for_ the said councillor was knocked up at six o'clock in the
morning, _to know_ if there was to be a coroner's inquest.
_To_ MRS. RUXTON.