5 139 
so persuaded Mr. Long that he most kindly undertook to bear all 
the odium of the breaking off, and further paid the father 4 1000 
as compensation for the temporary loss of his daughter’s valuable 
ervices during the engagement. Later this sum by Mr. Long’s 
generosity was extended to £3000,* which was placed in the 
father’s hands, settled on the young lady to be paid when she 
became of age. Besides this she had jewels to the value of 
; cs tooo and other valuable presents.t This episode attracted 
_ much public attention, nothing else was talked of at Bath. Great 
was the envy of the ladies and great the chagrin and disappoint- 
“ment among the young men when the engagement was known.t 
Foote made the whole the ground of a comedy called “The Maid 
of Bath,” a name by which the damsel was well known, and in 
the dialogue she appears as Miss Linnet, an adopted play upon 
her name. Mr. Long is unkindly portrayed, and accused of 
decamping and changing his mind at the last moment.§ He 
appears as Solomon Flint, an amorous old squire, and the 
epilogue speaks of him as— 
The rake of sixty, crippled hand and knee, 
Who sins on claret, and repents on tea. 
This is now seen to be too severe and untrue. Mr. Long lived 
toa good old age.||_ Here may be noticed another of the often 
careless inaccuracies, when in an account of Mr. Long it is written 
that “ though the son of a carpenter now living at Bath” he was a 
man of good fortune. Mr. Long was never other than he here 
appears to be. It was Linley, the father of the young lady, who 
was the son of a carpenter. 
’ The younger Sheridan, Richard, who had joined his family 
4 * “ Octogenarian,” p. 38. t Lefanu. { Watkins. 
; § Bath Chronicle, 27th June, 1771, p. 3, col. 3 
|| Stainforth’s ** Life of Sheridan.” | London Magazine, 1772. 
49 Sanders, 
