I A Century of Family Letters [CHAP, i 



a widow. Her daughters, Harriet, Lady Gifford, and 

 Georgina, Lady Alderson, mother of the late Marchioness of 

 Salisbury, often appear in the later letters. 



Louisa Jane Allen (always called Jane or Jenny) was the 

 beauty of the family. Bessy spoke of her incomparable 

 cheerfulness, and said: "With her the sun always shines, 

 and she seems to trip rather than slide down the hiJl of life.'' 

 My mother told us that the warmth and graciousness of her 

 aunt Jane's welcome was quite unique in its charm. She 

 married John, the eldest son of Josiah Wedgwood of 

 Etruria, who soon after his father's death became a partner 

 in Davison and Co.'s bank in Pall Mall. The Bank 

 failed in 1816, and after that time he had no profession. 

 He should be remembered as the founder of the Horticultural 

 Society. " On the 7th March, 1804, there met at his sug^ 

 gestion in Hatchard's shop a little gathering, of whom the 

 most distinguished was Sir Joseph Banks, and from their 

 discussion sprang a society incorporated in 1809, Lord 

 Dartmouth being the first President." 1 



Harriet Allen, the fifth daughter, was " very pretty and 

 very tiny," 2 and was of a gentle unassuming nature. Her 

 marriage to Matthew Surtees, Rector of North Cerney in 

 Wiltshire, was most unhappy. It was made, as her sister 

 Jessie said, with " an almost culpable want of affection," 

 and only in order to escape from the unhappiness of her 

 home. The family greatly disliked Mr Surtees, and he 

 appears to have been jealous, ill-tempered, and tyrannical. 



Jessie Allen, who married Sismondi the historian, was, 

 with the exception of Bessy, the most beloved by all her 

 sisters. She was the favourite of her nephews and nieces, 

 and had an especial love for Emma Wedgwood, the subject 

 of this book. Jessie must have been a delightful companion, 

 full of vivacity and gaiety, and with the power of intense 

 devotion to those she loved. She was handsome, with 

 brilliant colouring, large grey eyes, and dark hair. Her 

 sister Bessy's letters to her ' dearest of the dear," as she 

 calls her, show a peculiar warmth. In one she wrote : ' ' My 

 silence has nothing to do with forgetfulness. Those who 

 love you, my Jess, are not liable to that accident." 



Octavia Allen died at the age of twenty-one, and only 

 appears once or twice in the earlier letters. 



The two youngest sisters, Emma and Fanny Allen, who 



Life of Josiah Wedgwood, by F. Julia Wedgwood. 

 2 Mrs Smith of Baltiboys, in the Memoirs of a Highland Lady, thus 

 characterises her. 



