_Bath, April 7_--The journey was very comfortable; Mr. Thrale was
charmingly well and in very good spirits, and Mrs. Thrale must be
charming, well or ill. We only went to Maidenhead Bridge the first
night, where I found the caution given me by Mr. Smelt,[116] of not
attempting to travel near Windsor on a hunting-day, was a very necessary
one, as we were with difficulty accommodated even the day after the
hunt; several stragglers remaining at all the inns, and we heard of
nothing but the king and royal huntsmen and huntswomen. The second day
we slept at Speen Hill, and the third day we reached Devizes.
And here Mrs. Thrale and I were much pleased with our hostess, Mrs.
Laurence, who seemed something above her station in her inn. While we
were at cards before supper, we were much surprised by the sounds of a
pianoforte. I jumped up, and ran to listen whence it proceeded. I found
it came from the next room, where the overture to the “Buona Figliuola”
was performing. The playing was very decent, but as the music was not
quite new to me, my curiosity was not whole ages in satisfying, and
therefore I returned to finish the rubber.
Don't I begin to talk in an old-cattish manner of cards?
Well, another deal was hardly played, ere we heard the sound of a voice,
and out I ran again. The singing, however, detained me not long, and so
back I whisked; but the performance, however indifferent in itself yet'
surprised us at the Bear however indifferent in itself, yet surprised
us at Devizes, and therefore Mrs. Thrale determined to know from whom it
came. Accordingly, she tapped at the door. A very handsome girl, about
thirteen years old, with fine dark hair upon a finely-formed forehead,
opened it. Mrs. Thrale made an apology for her intrusion, but the poor
girl blushed and retreated into a corner of the room: another girl,
however, advanced, and obligingly and gracefully invited us in and
gave us all chairs. She was just sixteen extremely pretty, and with a
countenance better than her features, though those were also very good.
Mrs. Thrale made her many compliments, which she received with a mingled
modesty and pleasure, both becoming and interesting. She was, indeed, a
sweetly pleasing girl.
We found they were both daughters of our hostess, and born and bred
at Devizes. We were extremely pleased with them, and made them a long
visit, which I wished to have been longer. But though those pretty girls
struck us so much, the wonder of the family was yet to be produced. This
was their brother, a most lovely boy of ten years of age who seems to
be not merely the wonder of their family, but of the times, for his
astonishing skill in drawing.[117] They protest he has never had any
instruction, yet showed us some of his productions that were really
beautiful. Those that were copies were delightful, those of his own
composition amazing, though far inferior. I was equally struck with the
boy and his works.
We found that he had been taken to town, and that all the painters had
been very kind to him, and Sir Joshua Reynolds had pronounced him, the
mother said, the most promising genius he had ever met with. Mr. Hoare
has been so charmed with this sweet boy's drawings that he intends
sending him to Italy with his own son.
This house was full of books, as well as paintings, drawings, and music
and all the family seem not only ingenious and industrious, but amiable;
added to which, they are strikingly handsome.