LABr AXXE MONSON 147 



LADY ANNE MONSON 



(c. 1714-1776). 



Such notices as have appeared in general literature of Ladv Anne 

 Monson make no allusion to that aspect of her character which" earned 

 for her what may be termed permanent distinction ; foi- Linnicus 

 named in her honour the genus Monsonia (Mant. i. 14: 1767) and 



his son probably the beautiful species M.filia (Suppl. 341 : 1781) a 



name antedated by J/, lobata Mont, in Gothob. Wet. Samk. Handb. i. 

 Wet. Afd. ii. t. i. (1780) : this reference I take from Iiulcj; Keioemis, 

 not having seen the work quoted. 



The Dictionary of National Biorp-aphy (xxxviii. 196) at the end 

 of its account of George Monson (1730-177(3) has the followino- 

 paragraph : — 



"He married in 1757 Lady Anne Vane, daughter of Henry, Earl 

 of Darlington, and widow of the Hon. Charles Hope Weir, who. was 

 four years his senior. Her mother was Lady Grace Fitzroy, and she 

 was thus a great-granddaughter of Charles II. There was some 

 scandal about her early life ; she was a prominent figure in Calcutta 

 society, and ' a very superior whist-player' (Macrarie, Diary). She 

 died on 18 Feb., 1776. They had no children." 



The " scandal," as we learn from a footnote in Toynbee's edition 

 of the Letters of Horace Walpole (vi. 101) was of the nature of a 

 divorce ; but this is a matter with which we are not concerned : the 

 object of the present note is to call attention to Lady Anne's 

 association with at least two branches of natural historj^ in which 

 she seems to have a-ttained a proficiency as considerable as that 

 commemorated in connection with the card-table. 



George Monson, who obtained a major's commission in 1757, the 

 3^ear of his marriage, sailed with his regiment in the following year 

 for India, where he succeeded to various posts, returning to England 

 in 1764. In 1773 he was named one of the Supreme Council of 

 Bengal, and arrived at Calcutta in October, 1774. In 1776 he 

 resigned his position with the intention of returning to England, but 

 he died on the 25th of September, his wife's death having, as we have 

 seen, preceded his by some months. 



It was on the occasion of her journey to Calcutta in 1774 that 

 Lady Anne visited Thunberg at the Cape — a visit thus recorded by 

 Thunberg under tliat year's date : — • 



" There had arrived from England, in ordpr to proceed to Bengal, 

 Lady Ann Monson, who had undertaken this long and tedious voyage, 

 not only for the purpose of accompanying her husband, wlio went out 

 as colonel of the I'egiment in the East Indies, but also with a view to 

 indulge her passicm for natural history. This learned lady, during 

 the time she staid here, made several veiy fine collections, and par- 

 ticularly in the animal kingdom. And, as I had frequently had the 

 pleasure, together with Mr. Mason [Masson], of accompanying her to 

 the adjacent farms, and, at the same time, of contributing greatly 



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