1813-1814] Fte at Vauxhall 33 



favourite and best mode of showing herself. In common 

 conversing, he told us, she appeared like any other clever 

 woman, but in one of these harangues there is such a burst 

 of feeling, such eloquent language, and such deep thought, 

 and so much action, that it is the most extraordinary and 

 interesting thing he has ever witnessed. Her subjects, he 

 said, were invective against Buonaparte, praise of Berna- 

 dotte, the state of Europe, and above all the happiness of 

 Englishmen. Her daughter was there and seemed a sen- 

 sible, modest, plain girl. She said she was come to England 

 to give her children a religious education. Her book on 

 suicide is just coming out, and is dedicated to Bernadotte, 

 who she says is exceedingly beloved by the Swedes, whom 

 he renders happy as it is possible. She complains heavily 

 of the London hours and large parties. I hope it will not 

 drive her from London before next June. . . . 



Ein/na Allen to her sister Mrs Josiah Wedgwood. 



GREAT GEORGE STREET, July 28 [1813]. 



. . . The next day Tuesday was the Vauxhall day, 1 and 

 so tedious a one it was, and the circumstances of it were 

 altogether so vexatious, that I do not know whether I shall 

 have patience to tell you about it. In the first place Kitty's 

 head was in a gale of wind all day forgot to order her 

 horses, borrowed the Bosanquet's, whose cross coachman 

 was from quarter before ten till half after one driving us 

 there, all which time being stewed four in a chaise, and 

 having near a mile afterwards to walk through a frightful 

 crowd, so exhausted our spirits that we found none to 

 enjoy the spectacle on first entering; yet I must allow it 

 was very striking. Fanny was the only one of us 

 who picked up a beau, and she shared our old friend Hare 2 

 for an hour with Lydia White. His coxcombical powers 



1 Fete at Vauxhall Gardens to celebrate the victory of Vittoria in 

 the preceding month. 



2 Francis Hare (or Hare-Nay lor), b. 1753, d. 1815, father of Arch- 

 deacon Julius Hare, and his brothers Francis, Augustus, and Marcus. 

 He was much in Italy, and was one of the first to give commissions 

 to Flaxman the sculptor when a youth in Rome. 



VOL. I. 3 



