163 
announced differently that he was then out of danger.* Some 
weeks passed, however, before his confinement ceased 
Before considering the general reports on this duel, another 
example of the curious differences in a story may be noted as 
in part it relates to Mr. Ditcher. During the first residence 
of the Sheridans in Henrietta Street, London, a daughter Anne 
Elizabeth, their last child, was born, “ who married Mr. 
Ditcher, a surgeon of Bath”t Another account says ‘this 
child was named Anne, after the daughter of Samuel 
Richardson, who married Mr. Ditcher, surgeon, of Bath.t 
By the first statement it would seem that Anne Sheridan 
was married to Mr. Ditcher, by the other it is not clear 
whether Mr. Ditcher married Anne Sheridan or Anne 
Richardson, but as Anne Sheridan would have been hardly 
old enough this reading must be wrong, and so it must be 
intended that Anne Richardson was married to Mr. Ditcher. 
_ Then, turning to another notice, the latest, the confusion increases 
as we are told that Samuel Richardson, the novelist, who was a 
- friend of the Sheridans, had daughters Mary and Anne. Mary 
“married, in 1757, Philip Ditcher, a surgeon, of Bath. She died a 
widow in 1783. Anne died unmarried.§ The decision of the 
points does not form part of the present purpose, so may be left to 
“anyone interested. But there is still another Bath interest 
here, as Samuel Richardson married for his second wife 
Elizabeth, sister of James Leake, the Bath bookseller. She 
Some notes or authorities in full may now be quoted to 
‘close the story of the duel. First Mrs. Lefanu, who is again 
wrong, writes of this event as some time in June.|| The Bath 
‘Chronicle published on thursday, the 2nd July, says— This 
morning at 3 o'clock was fought on Kingsdown, &c.” This 
% 
* Chronicle. + “La Belle Assemblée,” Vol. 29. N.S., p. 48. 
t+ Letanu. § “Dict. Nat. Biog.” || Rae, p. 20c. 
