1818J 113 



CHAPTER IX 



1818 



The Josiah Wedgwoods in Paris The Collos Cousins William 

 Clifford Dancing lessons Madame Catalani Emma's first 

 letter Society and housekeeping in Paris Fanny and Emma 

 at school A letter from their old Nurse. 



IN 1818 Josiah Wedgwood, his wife, and his four daughters 

 journeyed to Paris, and stayed there some months. Eliza- 

 beth was 24, Charlotte 21, Fanny nearly 12, and Emma 

 nearly 10 years old. Young as she was, Emma vividly 

 remembered to the end of her long life the impression of this 

 first landing in France. She often spoke to us of the en- 

 chanting strangeness of it all, the foreign aspect of Calais, 

 and even its smell. 



The society of William Clifford added greatly to the 

 pleasure of their stay in Paris. All four daughters were 

 more or less in love with him, even Emma at ten years old. 

 He appears to have been especially attracted by Charlotte, 

 then in the first bloom of her beauty, and felt the charm of 

 her voice and singing. He also greatly admired Mr Wedg- 

 wood, and Bessy wrote of him during this stay: " His whole 

 life seems to be made up of regrets, and his constant refrain 

 is, ' I wish I had known Mr Wedgwood early in life.' 



Madame Collos, who first appears in the letters from 

 Paris, was the daughter of Roger Allen, a younger brother 

 of John Bartlett Allen of Cresselly, and therefore a first 

 cousin to Bessy. Monsieur Collos, her husband, was an 

 officer in the French army. He was taken prisoner in the 

 landing of the French at Fishguard in 1787. Mrs Allen of 

 Freestone remembered seeing the prisoners marched into 

 Pembroke and shut up in the churches, as there was no 

 prison to hold them. When released on parole, Monsieur 

 Collos gave music lessons, and thus became acquainted with 

 his future wife. In 1818 he lived in the Rue de la Grande 

 Truanderie in Paris, and was then a fishmonger by trade. 



