The Berry papers; being the correspondence hitherto unpublished of Mary and Agnes Berry (1763-1852)

Front matter

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Preface

HE Misses Berry died in 1852, and thirteen years later appeared Extracts from the Journals and Correspondence of Mary Berry, which had been prepared for press by Lady Theresa Lewis. As the title indicates, these volumes included but a selection of the papers left by Mary Berry, and the present work may be regarded as supplementary to the “Extracts.” The hitherto unpublished correspondence includes letters written by, or addressed to, the two sisters, Professor John Playfair, Maria Edgeworth, Richard Owen Cambridge, Elizabeth Montagu, Lord Jeffery, John Whishaw, the sixth Duke of Devonshire, the Carlisles, the Hardwickes, the second Lord Palmerston, Thomas Brand, Lord Colchester, the Countess of Albany, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, Richard Westmacott, Lord Dudley, Lady Charlotte Campbell, Sarah Austin, the Hon. Caroline Howe, Lord Dover, Chevalier Jerningham, Dean Milman, &c. There is also printed for the first time a long series of self-revealing letters exchanged between Mary Berry and the Hon. Mrs. Damer, concerning which the former wrote in 1842: hs

“These letters, selected from a hundred others, I cannot bring myself to destroy. I cannot for my soul obliterate all memory of the truest, the most faithful and

vii viii BERRY PAPERS most generous Friendship that ever animated two human Beings.

‘‘T am aware that when I am gone these letters can interest nobody. Iam aware that they are almost entirely expressions of character and of affection. But I cannot ask my own hands to destroy the flattering proofs of having been the object of such affection, of such constant, unwearied, unselfish Friendship. Would that the conscious pride with which I look back to these recollections was entirely unsullied by my not having borne with sufficient patience in later years some weaknesses and peculiarities which I felt indignant at creeping over such a character as Hers /

“Oh noble, elevated, and tender Spirit! if, from some higher state of existence, thou canst read my inmost Soul, as thou ever didst in this—Read then my self-reproaches. Read the just punishment of such impatience, in the entirely widowed Soul that has thus long survived Thee, wandering through the world—‘without a second and without a judge.’”’?

Most interesting, too, is the correspondence, also printed for the first time, between Mary Berry, Mrs. Damer, and General Charles O’Hara, written when Mary Berry was engaged to the soldier. ‘This parcel of letters,” Mary Berry wrote in October 1844, “relates to the six happiest months of my long and insignificant existence, although these six months were accompanied by fatiguing and unavoidable uncertainty, and by the absence of everything that could constitute present enjoyment. But I looked forward to a future existence which I felt, for the first time would have called out all

PREFACE ix the powers of my mind and all the warmest feelings of my heart, and should have been supported by one who but for the cruel absence which separated us, would never have for a moment doubted that we should have materially contributed to each other’s happiness. These prospects served even to pass cheerfully a long winter of delays and uncertainty, by keeping my mind firmly riveted on their accomplishment. A concatenation of unfortunate circumstances — the political state of Europe making absence a necessity, and even frequent communication impossible; letters lost and delayed, all certainty of meeting more difficult, questions unanswered, doubts unsatisfied,—all these circumstances combined in the most unlucky manner, crushed the fair fabric of my happiness, not at one fell swoop, but by the slow mining misery of loss of confidence, of unmerited complaints, of finding by degrees misunderstandings, and the firm rock of mutual confidence crumbling under my feet, while my bosom for long could not banish a hope that all might yet be set right. And so it would, had we ever met for twenty-four hours. But he remained at his government at Gibraltar till his death, in 1802. And I, forty-two years afterwards, on opening these papers which had been sealed up ever since, receive the conviction that some feelings in some minds are indelible.”

An introductory chapter tells the story of the life — of the Misses Berry from their birth until 1790, when the hitherto unpublished correspondence begins, and it contains some particulars of their family history, their early years, their first visits to the Continent, and their acquaintance with Horace Walpole. From that date the letters have been allowed, so far as possible, _ to carry on the narrative.

x BERRY PAPERS

The sisters lived, respectively, to the great ages of eighty-eight and eighty-nine, and thus were the last links between the early years of the reign of George III and the mid-Victorian era. ‘A very few years since,” Thackeray said in one of his lectures on “The Four Georges,” “I knew familiarly a lady, who had been asked in marriage by Horace Walpole, who had been patted on the head by George III. This lady had knocked at Johnson’s door; had been intimate with Fox, the beautiful Georgina of Devonshire, and that brilliant Whig society of the reign of George III; had known the Duchess of Queensberry, the patroness of Gay and Prior, the admired young beauty of the Court of Queen Anne. I often thought as I took my kind old friend’s hand, how with it I held on to the old society of wits and men of the world. I could travel back for seven score years of time—have glimpses of Brummel, Selwyn, Chesterfield, and the men of pleasure; of Walpole and Conway; of Johnson, Reynolds, Goldsmith; of North, Chatham, Newcastle; of the fair maids of honour of George II’s Court; of the German retainers of George I’s; where Addison was Secretary of State ; where Dick Steele held a place; whither the great Marlborough came with his fiery spouse; when Pope, and Swift, and Bolingbroke yet lived and wrote.” The Berrys went everywhere and knew everyone; and their salon, held first at No. 26 North Audley Street, and later at No. 8 Curzon Street, was one of the features of London society. There night after night were assembled all the wit and beauty of that time. Miss Kate Perry wrote in her privately-printed Reminiscences of a London Drawing-room, “There was a charm about these gatherings of friends, that hereafter

PREFACE xi

_ we may say: ‘There is no salon now to compare with that of the Miss Berrys.’ ”

Besides the Journals and Correspondence now in the British Museum, the principal authorities for the life of Mary and Agnes Berry are the Diary of Lord Colchester ; Thomas Moore’s Journals ; Letters to Ivy from the first Earl of Dudley ; Harriet Martineau’s Biographical Portraits ; Lord Houghton’s Monographs ; Horace Walpole’s Letters; and Warburton’s Memoir of Horace Walpole and his Contemporaries ; Letters of Harriet, Countess Granville; Cobbett’s Memorials of Twickenham; Clayden’s Samuel Rogers and his Contemporaries ; Mrs. Brookfield and her Circle ; Horace Walpole’s Twin-Wives (Temple Bar, March 1891); and Captain Hamilton’s Cyril Thornton.

I am much indebted to Mrs. Charles H. E. Brookfield for the loan of a copy of Miss Kate Perry’s privately-printed and exceedingly rare Reminiscences of a London Drawing-room, which contains much interesting information concerning the Berrys; and to Mr. A. M. Broadley, who has most generously permitted me to insert letters hitherto unpublished from the Countess of Albany, Maria Edgeworth, and Lord Jeffery, to Mary Berry ; and from Mary Berry to Lady Hardwicke, Elizabeth Montagu, Mrs. Lamb, and Kate Perry, the originals of which are in his library. To the Rev. Henry W. Clark, the author of the admirable History of English — Nonconformity, 1 owe many thanks for assistance rendered during the preparation of this work.

LEWIS MELVILLE.

Lonpbon, July 1913.

Section I The Early Life Of Mary And Agnes Berry (1763-1789)

Mary Berry’s (Votes of Early Life—Her silence concerning her father’s forebears—Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe states that her maternal grandfather was a tailor—Her great-uncle Ferguson’s career—His childless marriage—His sister’s sons, Robert and William, his natural heirs—Robert Berry’s early life—His marriage with Miss Seton alienates his uncle—The birth of Mary and Agnes Berry—The death of Mrs. Robert Berry—Ferguson wishes Robert Berry to marry again—His refusal brings about a breach between them— William Berry is informed that he, not Robert, will be his uncle’s heir—Mary Berry’s life-long bitterness at the loss of fortune—Robert Berry’s weakness of character—The girls live with their grandmother in Yorkshire—Robert Berry rents College House, Chiswick—His daughters’ education—Sir George and Lady Cayley—Mary Berry’s first suitor—The death of Ferguson—Robert Berry’s legacy—Mary Berry’s dissatisfaction—a tour in the west of England—A visit to Weymouth—With the Craufords at Rotterdam—A Dutch tour— Switzerland and Italy —An autobiographical passage—Florence— Sir Horace Mann—Turin—Rome—Naples—Montpellier—Paris— Return to England—The Berrys after their return from abroad —Their meeting with Horace Walpole—Their acquaintance with him ripens into intimacy—Walpole’s account of them—His affection for the sisters—He laughs at the discrepancy in age between him and them—Mary his favourite—He writes his Reminiscences of the Courts of George I and George II for their entertainment—He dedicates to them his Catalogue of Strawberry Hill—He introduces them to the Conways—Caroline, Lady Aylesbury—Anne Seymour Conway—Her artistic instincts—Ceracchi’s statue of her as the Muse of Sculpture—Her marriage with the Hon. John Damer— Damer’s extravagance—He commits suicide—Lady Sarah Lennox on the ill-fated marriage—Lord Milton’s brutal behaviour to his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Damer—Mrs. Damer goes to her father’s house—She goes abroad—She rents a house in Sackville Street— Lady Sarah Lennox’s pen-portrait of her—Mrs. Damer’s later life . 3

SECTION II THE BERRYS ABROAD (October 1790 to November 1791)

Mary Berry’s Memoranda for 1790-1—The sisters correspond regularly with Horace Walpole—His letters—His affection for them—His longing for their company—He refuses their offer to return—His jealousy of their friends—Unpublished correspondence of Mrs. AnL

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The

Damerand Mary Berry—The Berrys depart for Italy—Mrs. Damer’s devotion to Mary Berry—Dr. George Fordyce—M. and Mme. de Boufflers— Edward Jerningham, ‘‘the charming man’ — Lady Melbourne—Mrs. Damer winters abroad—Lady Elizabeth Foster —Mrs. Cholmeley—General Charles O’Hara—The Duke and Duchess of Richmond—Lady Bristol—Giardini—Richard Cosway —The Countess of Albany, wife of ‘The Young Pretender ”—An accident to Mary Berry—Her ill-health—The rivalry between the French and English captains of passenger-vessels at Calais— Burke’s Reflections on the Revolutionin France—Horace Walpole’s jealousy—Mrs. Elizabeth Hervey—Mrs. Buller—Cicero’s Letters— Lucan—Lady Aylesbury—Mrs. Damer’s studio—She falls from the scaffold—Protestations of friendship—Lady Duncannon—Mrs. Damer slandered in the Newspapers— William Combe expresses his desire to apologise for his statements—Lady Mount Edgcumbe— Mrs. Damer’s statue of George I1I—The fate of the French Royal family—Lady Mary Churchill—Walpole’s indignation that the Countess of Albany does not recognise the Berrys’ name—The Countess of Albany and Alfieri—Lady Frederick Campbell—Lady Craven— Walpole suffers from rheumatism—Foolish paragraphs in the World—Edward Topham—Mrs. Damer at Felpham— Horace Walpole desires the Berrys to live at Cliveden after their return to England—The Countess of Albany proposes to visit Scotland—Lord Frederick Campbell—Mrs. Damer and her mother —Madame de Cambis—Walpole’s anxiety about the Berrys returning vza France—His appeal to them to alter their projected route— Field-Marshal Conway—German inns—The Berrys’ carriage breaks down near Bologna , ; : : : z : . :

Section III The Berrys At Little Strawberry Hill (1792-1794)

Berrys return to England—Horace Walpole desires them to live at Little Strawberry Hill—Kitty Clive—Walpole’s lines to her—A newspaper attack on the Berrys—Mary Berry thereupon decides not to live at Little Strawberry Hill—Walpole eventually persuades her to do so—Walpole succeeds to the earldom of Orford—His distress thereat—A false rumour that he proposed marriage to Mary Berry —A proposal of marriage to Anne Seymour Damer—William Augustus Fawkener—Correspondence between Mary Berry and Mrs. Damer concerning the proposed marriage—The Berrys at Sir George Cayley’s—Lord Orford unwell—Lady Aylesbury—The Berrys at Scarborough—Lord Hartington—Field-Marshal Conway —Jerningham’s play, 7he Steve of Berwick—“ Pretty Mrs.Stanhope” —Captain Nugent—Lord Moira and the expedition to Brittany— Admiral Lord Howe—Mrs. Damer’s bust of Miss Berry—William Combe—The Berrys in Yorkshire—They return to Little Strawberry Hill—Agnes Berry at Cheltenham—Mary and Mr. Berry at Park Place—The Berrys at Prospect House, Isle of Thanet—The Greatheads—Mrs. Damer at Goodwood—Her new town house— Professor Playfair—Miss Berry’s play

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CONTENTS XV

Section IV The Love-story Of Mary Berry (1795-1796) Page

Mary Berry in love at sixteen—Her one serious love-affair—General Charles O’Hara—His early career—He first meets Mary Berry— His further career—At Gibraltar and Toulon—Imprisoned in the Luxembourg—On his return proposes to Mary Berry—She accepts him—The engagement kept a secret from all but Mrs. Damer— The death of Field-Marshal the Hon. H. S. Conway—Correspondence, mainly concerning O’Hara, between Mrs. Damer and Mary Berry—Agnes Berry’s love-affair—The departure of O’Hara to take up the Governorship of Gibraltar—a pen-portrait of O’ Hara at Gibraltar—Mary Berry’s reasons for not marrying him before his departure—The breaking off of the engagement—Mary Berry’s regrets after forty years . 134

Section V The Berrys At Home And On The Continent (1797-1803)

The death of Mrs. Damer’s half-sister, the Duchess of Richmond— Horace Walpole’s illness and death—Mary Berry’s account of his last days—His will—Mary Berry edits his collected works—The Berrys and Mrs. Damer in 1798-9—The Hon. Caroline Howe—She is mentioned in Walpole’s Ze¢ters—An appreciation of her by Mary Berry—At Strawberry Hill—Mrs. Damer’s private theatricals—The production by amateurs of Mary Berry’s comedy, Fashionable friends—The cast—Joanna Baillie—The play well received—The author determines to secure a public representation—The second Viscount Palmerston—The Peace of Amiens—Mary Berry and Mrs. Damer visit Paris—Berthier, Cambacéres, Macdonald, Fouché, Masséna, Mme. Récamier, Mme. de Staél, &c.—Presented to Madame Buonaparte—Napoleon Buonaparte—Fashionable Friends produced at Drury Lane—The Berrys go abroad in October 1802— At Nice—The death of Caroline, Lady Aylesbury—Mme. de Staremberg—Amateur theatricals at The Priory—Correspondence with Lord Hartington and Mrs. Damer—The propects of a new war—Death of the Duke of Bridgewater—His will—Reported death of “Old Q.”—Sir William Hamilton’s estate—Bridgewater House. 196

Section VI Mary And Agnes Berry In Society (1804-1816)

Agnes Berry’s engagement to her cousin—It is broken off—Agnes Berry’s illness— Miss Kate Perry’s appreciation of her—The sa/om in Curzon Street—Some frequenters—Mary Berry and Sam Rogers—* The Dead Dandy ”—The Berrys receive everybody and go everywhere— Parties at Tunbridge Wells— Paul Amsinck, Master of the Ceremonies—A game of whist—Mary Berry presented to the Princess

Xvi

The of Wales—Her Royal Highness at Strawberry Hill—An intimacy springs up between the Princess and Mary Berry—The Battle of Vimiera—The Hon. Caroline Howe—Lady Charlotte Campbell— Mary Berry’s edition of the letters of Madame du Deffand—The Rev. Sydney Smith—The Rev. G. O. Cambridge—Lord Carlisle— Lord Dudley—The Hon. Mrs. Damer—Mary Berry at Wimpole, Christmas 1811—Agnes Berry to Mary Berry—Lady Charlotte Campbell’s letters—The assassination of Spencer Percival—The grief of the Princess of Wales—The Battle of Salamanca—The Princess of Wales visits the Berrys at Tunbridge Wells, August 1812 —Little Strawberry Hill leased to Alderman Wood—The Berrys in London, 1812—1815—Mary Berry goes to Paris in 1816 to stay with the Hardwickes—Sir Charles and Lady Stuart—Her correspondence with her sister—John William Ward—Lord Rosebery— The Greffulhes—Sir Robert Wilson’s trial—Admiral Linois and General Boyer—Mdlle. George—Talma—The Duke of Wellington —Mdlle. Duchenois—The Duc de Richelieu—Pozzo di Borgo— Talleyrand—Mdlle. Mars—French society—Henry Luttrell—A letter from Maria Edgeworth—Letters from Mary to Agnes Berry .

Section VII The Later Life Of The Berrys (1817-1852)

Berrys at Genoa—Society in that town—The Duke of Devonshire— Lord John Russell—The letters of Lady Russell—The death of Lady Glenbervie—The death of Robert Berry—Mrs. Damer’s tribute to him—The death of Madame de Staél—Lucca Baths— Professor Playfair—Lady Carlisle—The death of Princess Charlotte —Lady Charlotte Campbell’s second marriage—John Whishaw— The publication of The Life and Letters of Rachel, Lady Russell— The Countess of Albany—Lady Hardwicke—Lord Colchester—The Berrys’ movements, 1822-5—They move to Curzon Street—Mary Berry begins to prepare her edition of the correspondence of Horace Walpole—Lady Charlotte Lindsay—7he Comparative View of Soctal Lifein France and England—The death of Mrs. Damer— Lord Dover—The Reform Bill—‘‘The quiet of gunpowder”— Macaulay—Richard Westmacott, R.A.—English art in 1834— Charades—The Berrys at Paris in 1834—Harriet, Lady Granville —William Beckford’s J¢aly, with Sketches of Spain and Portugal— Buckingham Palace—The Duke of Sutherland—The resignation of Sir Robert Peel, 1835—-Lord Melbourne again becomes Prime Minister—Lord Jeffrey—Lord Carlisle on Jesse’s George Selwyn and his Contemporartes—Sarah Austin—Madame Récamier—The Duchesse de Praslin—Chateaubriand—Stratford Canning—The state of Europe in 1848—Kate Perry—Dean Milman—Ruskin— Last years—Death of Agnes Berry—Death of Mary Berry— Epitaph. : ; : : : : : ‘ s , .

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ILLUSTRATIONS

FACING PAGE Mary BERRY AND AGNES BERRY. From miniatures by George

Engleheart in the Pierpont endane Collection. From a photograph lent by Dr. Williamson . : : a Frontispiece

JOHN WILLIAM WarD, First EaRL OF DUDLEY. Fyrom a contemporary sketch by E. Berens E : : 3 ; s NTO)

HORACE WALPOLE. From an engraving by T. Evans after Lawrence 14

THE HOonsLE. Mrs. DAMER. From an engraving by Hopwood after a painting by G.C. . : ‘ : : - ; : ; «> 120

LaDy SARAH LENNOX. From a painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds . 22

EDWARD JERNINGHAM. From an engraving by F. Thomson after Shee. From the Collection of John Lane. . : ; : sea 20)

Lapy DUNCANNON. From an engraving by Mackenzie after Walker in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. 2 : . : eae

Lapy CHARLOTTE CAMPBELL. From an engraving by G. Wilkin after Hoppner . : : 7 : E : : A _ 450

Mrs. CLive’s House art TWICKENHAM. (CLIVEDEN oR LITTLE STRAWBERRY HILL.) From an engraving in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq., by H. S. mt from the ee ire is the same artist. ; é : ‘ . 88

BERRY. Reproduced by kind permission of Mr. Tregaskis . + 104 Joun Puiayrair, F.R.S. “rom an engraving by R. Cooper after Raeburn. From the Collection of John Lane . ; 4 ; aba Mary Berry. from the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esg. . - 196, MADAME DE STAEL af) Bas 5 : ; ; : : - 206 THE SixtH DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE. “vom an engraving by Edward Scriven after G. Hayter . - : - F ; : : . 258 Mary Berry. From a contemporary engraving in the “ Town and Country Magazine” in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. . 286

SAMUEL RocERS. From an engraving by C. W. Sherborn after Hoppner in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. . : : . 288

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XVili BERRY PAPERS

FACING ‘ PAGE THE DOWAGER MARCHIONESS OF DONEGAL. Froman engraving by

Mackenzie after Craig in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esg. . 290

Puitip, EARL OF HARDWICKE. From an engraving in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. . : z : 3 ; : : - 310

MLE. Mars. From the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. : eg ee

MLLE. GEORGES IN THE PaRT OF PHEDRE. Srom an engraving by Leroy after Libourd in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esg. aged

TALLEYRAND. : D : : : : 3 Z ; : wr330

LorD JEFFREY. vom an engraving after W. H. Lizars. From the Collection of John Lane . : 5 ; ; ; ; = . 410

RICHARD WESTMACOTT. from. an engraving by Thomson after J. Derby. From the Collection of John Lane. 5 ; ‘ - 414

Mrs. SARAH AUSTIN. From a drawing on stone by Weld Taylor after HZ. P. Briggs, R.A. : : : : : : 5 : - 428

LETTER FROM MARY BERRY TO CHARLES DRUMMOND. From the Original in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. . 5 : . 436

MarRY BERRY AT THE AGE OF 86. From the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. : : : : : ‘ 5; oar - 438

PETERSHAM CHURCH. Fyrom a contemporary water-colour drawing in the Collection of A. M. Broadley, Esq. . : ‘ é . - 440

Lg ner

THE BERRY PAPERS

THE BERRY PAPERS

Section I The Early Life Of Mary And Agnes Berry (1763-1789)

Mary Berry’s Wotes of Early Life—Her silence concerning her father’s forebears—Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe states that her maternal grandfather was a tailor—Her great-uncle Ferguson’s career—His childless marriage ~—His sister’s sons, Robert and William, his natural heirs—Robert Berry’s early life—His marriage with Miss Seton alienates his uncle—The birth of Mary and Agnes Berry—The death of Mrs. Robert Berry—Ferguson wishes Robert Berry to marry again—His refusal brings about a breach between them—William Berry is informed that he, not Robert, will be his uncle’s heir—Mary Berry’s life-long bitterness at the loss of fortune —Robert Berry’s weakness of character—The girls live with their grandmother in Yorkshire—Robert Berry rents College House, Chiswick—His daughters’ education—Sir George and Lady Cayley—Mary Berry’s first suitor—The death of Ferguson—Robert Berry’s legacy—Mary Berry’s dissatisfaction—a tour in the west of England—A visit to Weymouth— With the Craufords at Rotterdam—A Dutch tour—Switzerland and Italy —An autobiographical passage—Florence—Sir Horace Mann—Turin— Rome—Naples—Montpellier—Paris—Return to England—The Berrys after their return from abroad—Their meeting with Horace Walpole— Their acquaintance with him ripens into intimacy—Walpole’s account of them—His affection for the sisters—He laughs at the discrepancy in age between him and them—NMary his favourite—He writes his Remdndscences of the Courts of George I and George JJ for their entertainment—He dedicates to them his Catalogue of Strawberry Hill—He introduces them to the Conways—Caroline, Lady Aylesbury—Anne Seymour Conway— Her artistic instincts—Ceracchi’s statue of her as the Muse of Sculpture —Her marriage with the Hon. John Damer—Damer’s extravagance—He commits suicide—Lady Sarah Lennox on the ill-fated marriage—Lord Milton’s brutal behaviour to his daughter-in-law, Mrs, Damer—Mrs,

Damer goes to her father’s house—She goes abroad—She rents a house in Sackville Street—Lady Sarah Lennox’s pen-portrait of her—Mrs. Damer’s later life.

N Mary Berry’s Wotes of Early Life, which were found among her papers after her death, there are, strangely enough, no particulars of her forebears, not even a passing reference to her grand-

fathers. “My father was the maternal nephew of an old Scotch merchant of the name of Ferguson,” she says, and no word more. The family history was thus deliberately wrapped in mystery, and nothing was generally known of her antecedents until the publication, in 1888, of the correspondence of Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe, where light is thrown upon them in a passage in one of his letters to the Duke of Sutherland. “As to what you tell me of the Misses Berry, it is delightful,” he wrote. “JT had dreamed they were dead ; but some time ago, when Lord Orford’s latest letters were printed, I visited a club of St. George’s Square old maids, who subscribe and get such books, and who refreshed my memory (the ladies being all angry that the Misses might have been Countesses) with a piece of family history. It seems that the grandfather of these heroines was nothing more than a tailor at Kircaldy, one of whose sons changed his name to Ferguson for the estate of Raith, purchased and left him by a nabob, his mother’s brother. Now the amusing thing is, to think of Lord Orford’s horror had he married either of the ladies, and then discovered the goose in the Countess’s pedigree ! He might have written a companion to The Mysterious Mother, The Mysterious Grandfather, and far more feelingly. Imagine the new Countess, like the old, announcing her crime to her husband, as the other did to ros eel lle Sats her son: ‘Hear, tell, and tremble! Horace, thou didst clasp a tailor’s gosling!’ The Count swoons in the Countess’s arms, and an earthquake shakes all the baubles at Strawberry Hill!” It is, however, fair to state that this account of the humble origin of one side of her family finds corroboration only in the silence of Mary Berry. And even here there is a contradiction, for Miss Berry says it was her father’s uncle who changed his name, and Sharpe that it was her uncle. It is more than probable that the lady was right.

Ferguson came to London in 1709, and set up as a merchant. He proved himself so good a man of business, that long before his death his fortune was computed at £300,000, an immense sum in those days. His wealth, however, did not induce him to retire from mercantile pursuits; and though he possessed a considerable estate at Raith, in Fifeshire—whether acquired by inheritance or purchase is not germane to this story —he remained faithful to Broad Street in the City of London, and died in the dwelling-house over his offices. He had married a Miss Townshend,? but there was no issue of this union, so that his natural heirs were the two sons of his sister, who had married a man of the name of Berry.

These sons were Robert and William Berry. Robert was educated for the bar, but before taking up his profession he travelled for some time on the Continent—

1 C. K. Sharpe, Letters, II. 550. Concerning the alleged proposal of marriage by Walpole, see vol. i. of that work.

* Miss Townshend was a sister of Joseph Townshend, M.P. for Westbury, Wiltshire. Townshend’s other sister married James Oswald (171 5-1769), who was educated at Kirkcaldy Grammar School, where Ferguson made his acquaintance. Oswald succeeded his father as M.P. for Kirkcaldy Burghs, and held office at the Board of Trade and the Treasury. It was at his house that Ferguson met his future wife, indeed until he was recalled to England by his uncle, a command he perforce obeyed, since he was entirely dependent upon him. “The law he seems never to have thought of more; nor was it thought necessary that he should,” his elder daughter wrote. “But in all other respects I can easily suppose his careless disposition, even to his own situation, his turn towards literature and literary society, little suited the hard, narrow mind of the man on whom his fortunes depended.” * It is clear that Robert, who is known to have been a weak man, was unhappily possessed of just those qualities which would alienate a hard-headed man of business ; but there was as yet, however, no overt breach between uncle and nephew, merely an ever-increasing want of sympathy and understanding. In 1762 Robert married a young girl of eighteen, Miss Seton, a distant cousin,? who had, her eldest daughter says, “ every qualification, beside beauty, that could charm, captivate, or attach, and excuse a want of fortune.” It was just this want of fortune that further restrained the relation between uncle and nephew. Ferguson did not dislike his niece by marriage, but he was bitterly disappointed when she gave birth to two daughters—Mary, on March 16, 1763, and Agnes on May 29, 1764. He ardently desired a male heir to his fortune, but, so far as Robert was concerned, he was doomed to failure, for in 1767 Mrs. Berry died in giving birth to a third child, which did not survive its mother. “I have been told that his

1 Mary Berry, Wotes of Larly Life.

2 She was daughter of John Seton of the very ancient Scottish family of Seton of Arbroath by his wife Elizabeth (7ée Seton of Belsies). Among their children were: Margaret, married 1760 Andrew Seton; Isabella, Lady

Cayley of High Hall; Elizabeth, who married in 1762 Robert Berry; and

Jane, married in 1770 Walter Symnot of Balleymoyer, Knight, in the north of Ireland.

uncle was very importunate with my father to marry again directly,” Mary Berry has recorded. “If so, I am sure my father must have finally destroyed his prospects from him, by the manner in which he would have received such a proposal immediately after the untimely death of a beloved wife of three-and-twenty, after four years’ marriage.”

While Robert Berry was falling deeper and deeper into the bad books of his uncle, his younger brother, William, was becoming more and more a favourite. He showed himself a good man of business; he married a well-dowered daughter of the house of Crauford, and was so fortunate as to have two sons in the first two years of his marriage. Mary Berry declares that William deliberately intrigued to oust his brother from his inheritance. ‘He soon perceived,” she said, “the carelessness of his elder brother’s character, and how little it fell in, in any respect, with that of the old man, and how easily he could assimilate himself to all his views.” Whether William did endeavour to oust his elder brother from his uncle’s inheritance, it is not possible now to say; but it is not surprising that a self-made man, or, for the matter of that, any man, should prefer to entrust a great fortune to a reliable rather than a shiftless nephew. Mary Berry, of course, could not be expected to see the matter in this light, and it did not apparently occur to her that her father, on learning that he was not to be the heir, might have endeavoured to do something to provide for the present welfare and the future provision of his daughters.

It was not until 1769, when Mary Berry was six years old, that Ferguson announced that, while he would continue Robert’s allowance of £300 a year, he had made up his mind that the younger brother William should be his heir. “That my father,” Mary Berry wrote years afterwards, “should have allowed himself to be thus choused out of a great inheritance, by a brother who had not a sentiment or feeling in common with him, and by an uncle whom he had never offended, and in whose society he continued to spend three days of every week, while his brother was living in ease, indulgence, and luxury at Raith, and only making a yearly visit of a couple of months to the melancholy residence of Austin Friars,—that the easy temper of my father should have silently acquiesced in all this; that he should not have seen the character, and obviated the conduct, of his brother before it was too late, during all the youth and middle of my life sorely afflicted me.” In later life Mary Berry still took her loss of fortune hard, and in her /ournals and Correspondence she often refers to her father, “whose hereditary neglect of fortune has deprived us of what might, and ought to have been, our own,’? and to “that brother who robbed him of everything but the peace of mind attendant upon a guileless conscience.” 2 Such irritation was not unnatural, but as it was the inherent weakness of her father’s character that led to his being disinherited, how could he have done anything to prevent the catastrophe? It is true that a high-spirited man might have shaken off the dust of his uncle’s house, declined the income allowed him, and earned his own living; but Robert Berry was not such a man. Indeed, had he been such, there would not have been any necessity for such heroic measures, for, in that case, his uncle would not have passed him 1 Mary Berry, Journals and Correspondence, i. 377. * Jbid., i. 384.