THE

GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF
MRS. HANNAH MORE.

BY WILLIAM ROBERTS, ESQ. 4 vols.

HANNAH MORE, the youngest but one of the five daughters of Jacob More, who was descended from a respectable family at Harleston in Norfolk, was born in 1745, in the parish of Stapleton, in the county of Gloucester. Her mother was the daughter of a farmer, whose education had been plain and suitable to her station; but to whose soundness of judgment, and strong good sense in the culture and regulation of her children, the credit and success that attended them, has, as the biographer observes, been deservedly attributed. Mr. More was himself a Tory and High Churchman, the rest of the family were Presbyterians, and the daughters of Mr. Jacob More had frequently heard their father say that he had two great-uncles Captains in Cromwell's army. Mr. Jacob More's mother appears to have possessed a mind of more than ordinary vigour. She used to tell her younger relations, that they would have known how to value Gospel privileges, had they lived like her, in the days of proscription and persecution, when at midnight the worshippers went with stealthy steps through the snow, to hear the words of inspiration delivered by a holy man at her father's house, while her father, with a drawn sword, guarded the entrance from violent or profane intrusion; adding, that they boarded the minister and kept his horse for 10l. per annum. Mrs. Hannah More was named after her mother's only sister, whose memory was so reverentially cherished in the family.-Hannah was distinguished even from an early age by great quickness of apprehension, retentiveness of memory, and a thirst for knowledge; when she was between three and four years old, she had taught herself to read, and repeated the catechism in the church in a manner which excited the admiration of the minister of the parish. Her nurse had lived in the family of Dryden the poet, whose son she had attended in his last illness; and the inquisitive mind of the little Hannah was continually prompting her to ask questions about the celebrated poet. At eight years old her love of learning was conspicuous, and her success so great in the advancement of her studies, that her father, who taught her the rudiments of Latin and the mathematics, was alarmed at her rapid progress towards what he considered female pedantry. The French language she learned from her elder sister, and from the society of some French officers settled in her neighbourhood. That there was some fascination in her manners, and intelligence in her conversation, we may presume from a curious anecdote that is mentioned. When she was about sixteen, a dangerous illness brought her under the care of Dr. Woodward, a physician of eminence in that day, and distinguished by his correct taste. On one of his visits, being led into conversation with his patient on subjects of literature, he forgot the purpose of his visit in the fascination of her talk; till suddenly recollect

ing himself, when he was half way down stairs, he cried out, " Bless me! I forgot to ask the girl how she was ;" and returned to the room, exclaiming,How are you to-day, my poor child?" Among her early acquaintance, she was indebted for the improvement of her taste, and for the acquisition of just critical knowledge, to none more than to a linen-draper of the name of Peach, at Bristol, with whom the following curious story is connected. He had been the friend of Hume the historian, who had shown his confidence in his judgment by intrusting to him the correction of his History, in which he used to say he had discovered more than two hundred Scotticisms; but for him it appears that two years of the historian's life might have passed into oblivion, which were spent in a merchant's counting-house at Bristol, whence he was dismissed, on account of his being too apt to correct the letters he was commanded to copy. More than twenty years after the death of Mr. Peach, Hannah More being in company with Dr. Percy, Gibbon, and others, who were conjecturing what might have been the cause of this chasm in the life of Hume, of two years, was enabled to solve the mystery by relating the above anecdote. In her seventeenth year (1762) she wrote the pastoral drama, "The Search after Happiness," and soon after formed the acquaintance of Langhorne the poet, whose correspondence in 1773, begins the list of that illustrious company of scholars, poets, wits, historians, actors, Bishops, and Blue-stockings,* male and female, by whom Hannah More was received, with the attention and welcome due to her talents and conduct.

At the age of twenty, she cultivated with assiduity the Latin, Italian, and Spanish languages, improving her style by translations of Horace and Metastasio; while her theological studies were directed by Sir James Stonehouse, who had been many years a physician of great eminence at Northampton, but had afterwards taken orders, and settled at Bristol.About the age of twenty-two she received an offer of marriage from a gentleman of fortune, of the name of Turner, more than twenty years older than herself; after some deliberation she accepted it; but even after the bridal dresses were ready, from the capriciousness of his temper, it was broken off. Without any violation of delicacy, considering the age and respective situation of the parties, a settlement was made on her by Mr. Turner through Sir James Stonehouse; and at his death he bequeathed her a thousand pounds. Not long afterwards her hand was again solicited and refused; and as it happened in the former case, the attachment of the proposer was succeeded by a cordial and permanent respect. After this, Hannah quietly settled into perpetual virginity.

About this period she emerged from the privacy of domestic life, and appeared in the world of literature and fashion. Among her ardent and early desires, two appear to have been prominent,-to see Garrick perform the characters of Shakspeare, and to have a view of Johnson,† and

*In a letter of 1778, she says, "I was last night in some fine company. One lady asked what was the newest colour? The other answered, that the most truly fashionable silk was a soupçon de vert, lined with a soupir etouffée et brodée de l'esperance. Now you must not consult your old-fashioned dictionary for the word esperance;' for you will there find that it means nothing but hope; whereas perance,' in the new language of the times, means rosebuds." Among Hannah More's female friends Mrs. Boscawen shines conspicuous. Mrs. Kennicott also appears to have been a charming person.

es

Mrs B having repeatedly asked Johnson to look over her new play of The Siege of Sinope, he always found means to evade it. At last, she pressed him so

the other giants of literature. Accordingly, we now find her writing from her lodgings in Henrietta-street, Covent-garden, about young Sheridan's Rivals, or the Maid of the Oaks,-and breaking her heart if Garrick does not get well!—and dining with Sir Joshua, and visiting the Idler and Rambler. Her taste in painting does not appear to have been very perfect at this time, for we find her at Hampton-court, chiefly admiring some needle-work by good Queen Mary; and "not knowing a more respectable sight than a room containing fourteen Admirals, all by Sir Godfrey!" Her preference of Claremont to Bushy Park reminds us that it would be quite as handsome and genteel, if his Majesty the King of the Netherlands would permit the amateurs of fine scenery, the shepherds and shepherdesses of England, to have a peep at his deserted chateau, for the gratification of their leisure and the improvement of their taste. When we attempted to find entrance, the canine instinct knew a Reviewer

The surly mastiff growling at the gate,
Affrights the beggar whom he longs to eat.

In 1773 or 4, her introduction to Garrick took place, and then followed Mrs. Montagu, and the sage of Lichfield first met her view with a large macaw in his hand, and spouting some verses from one of her hymns.Miss Reynolds introduced her to Burke, concerning whom we are grieved to say, there is very little information or anecdote in Miss More's correspondWe would have gladly spared much of the general literary galaxy, to have obtained some closer peeps at this noble planet. We must give our young enthusiast's letter when she first enters the august precincts of Bolt-court.

ence.

London 1774.

We have paid another visit to Miss Reynolds; she had sent to engage Dr. Percy (Percy's Collection now, you know him), quite a sprightly modern, instead of a rusty antique, as I expected; he was no sooner gone, than the most amiable and obliging of women, Miss Reynolds, ordered the coach to take us to Dr. Johnson's very own house; yes, Abyssinian Johnson! Dictionary Johnson-Ramblers, Idlers, and Irene Johnson! Can you picture to yourselves the palpitation of our hearts as we approached his mansion? The conversation turned upon a new work of his, just going to the press (the Tour to the Hebrides), and his old friend Richardson. Mrs. Williams, the blind poet, who lives with him, was introduced to us. She is engaging in her manners, her conversation lively and en

tertaining. Miss Reynolds told the Doctor of all our rapturous exclamations on the road. He shook his scientific head at Hannah, and said, She was a silly thing!' When our visit was ended, he called for his hat, as it rained, to attend us down a very long entry to our coach, and not Rasselas could have acquitted himself more en cavalier. We are engaged with him at Sir Joshua's on Wednesday evening; what do you think of us? I forgot to mention, that not finding Johnson in his little parlour when we came in, Hannah seated herself in his great chair, hoping to catch a little ray of his genius: when he heard it, he laughed heartily, and told her it was a chair on which he never sat. He said it reminded him of Boswell and himself, when they stopt a night, as they imagined, where the Wierd Sisters appeared

closely, that he actually refused to do it, and told her that she herself, by carefully looking it over, would be able to see if there was any thing amiss, as well as he could. • But, Sir, (said she) I have no time; I have already so many irons in the fire.' Why then, Madam, (said he, quite out of patience,) the best thing I can advise you to do is, to put your tragedy along with your irons.'

* The youth, the sex, the unpretending goodness and virtue, and the talents of Hannah More, were sure to win the love and esteem of Johnson; his behaviour to her was parental and kind, and her presence lit up his brow with smiles. He continued,' she says, 'his jokes, and lamented that I did not marry Chatterton, that posterity might have seen a propagation of poets.'

We must now continue our narrative by extracting a few of the anecdotes with which Miss More's letters are so agreeably sprinkled, concerning those persons, the productions of whose genius must ever render them of the greatest interest to the lovers of literature; yet we hardly know how to make our way among the alluring mass of materials with which we are surrounded. We cannot be very wrong in beginning with Mrs. Montagu, 1775:

Thus grew Hannah More in the favour of the witty and the wise, of the learned and the fair; living with the Garricks, sipping tea at Mrs. Montagu's, visited by Burke, and complimented by Johnson. In one and the same morning, though fortunately at different hours (as they were all bitter foes), Burke, and Dean Tucker, and Mrs. Macauley, were at her levee; Garrick read her very dull poem of Sir Eldred aloud, and Johnson learnt it by heart. Still there was a thorn, then almost unno

We learn from these letters a fact concerning Dr. Johnson, that he seldom cared to speak in mixed parties.' I. p. 64. We have also his opinion of Dean Tucker. I look upon the Dean of Gloucester to be one of the few excellent writers of this period. I differ from him in opinion, and have expressed that difference in my writings; but, I hope, what I wrote did not indicate what I did not feel, for I felt no acrimony; no person, however learned, can read his writings without improvement; he is sure to find something he did not know before.' He said, he knew no one, whose style was more perspicuous, manly, and vigorous, or better suited to

ticed, at the breast of this young and innocent songstress. Her early piety soon began to take the alarm, though all appeared actually safe; and as she sate gazing on the brilliant assemblage of beauty and fashion at the Opera, and listening to the syren warbling of Italian airs,' and surrendering herself up to all the fascinations of taste and art,—a voice suddenly smote upon her ear, and said,—'What doest thou here, Elijah?' The faithful monitor, however, was at her elbow.- -Mrs. Montagu said, 'If tender words are the precursors of connubial engagements, we may expect great things; for it is nothing but-child,-little fool,-love,-and dearest.-Sometimes the Sage was tender, and then it was,-'I love you both, I love you all five,-I will come on purpose to see you,-what! five women live happily together!-I will come and see you,-I have spent a happy evening,—I am glad I came,-God for ever bless you!-you live lives to shame duchesses!'-and then he took his leave with so much truth and tenderness, we were quite affected at his manner." At another time, Hannah and Johnson had a violent quarrel," till at length laughter ran so high on all sides, that argument was confounded in noise, and the gallant youth at one in the morning set us down at our lodgings."

Garrick appears very amiable, clever, and condescending throughout the whole correspondence; and with the mixture of grave and gay, which well tempered alone constitutes a perfectly agreeable character. "Garrick, (she says in one place) was the very soul of the company, and I never saw Johnson in such perfect good-humour. Sally knows we have often heard that we can never enjoy the company of these two, unless they are together."* There is great truth in this remark, for after the Dean and Mrs. Boscawen were withdrawing, and the rest stood up to go, Johnson and Garrick began a close encounter, telling old stories, 'e'en from their boyish days,' at Lichfield. We all stood round them above an hour, laughing in defiance of every rule of decorum of Chesterfield. I believe we should not have thought of sitting down or parting, had not an impertinent watchman been saucily vociferous. Johnson outstaid them all, and sate

his subject.' Every one remembers Warburton's contemptuous mention of the Dean in his letters. We shall add here a passage from another page. 'I never saw Johnson really angry with me but once. I alluded, rather flippantly I fear, to some witty passage in Tom Jones. He replied, 'I am shocked to hear you quote from so vicious a book. I am sorry to hear you have read it,—a confession which no modest lady should ever make. I scarcely know a more corrupt work.' I thanked him for his correction. He went so far as to refuse to Fielding the great talents which are ascribed to him, and broke out into a noble panegyric on his competitor Richardson, who, he said, was as superior to him in talents as in virtue, and whom he pronounced to be the greatest genius that has shed its lustre in this path of literature.' How the sages differ! It is of this very Richardson whose morality is so lauded by Johnson and Miss More (in vol. iv. p. 144), that Miss Hawkins speaks as of a writer, the loathsome and disgusting licentiousness of whose works should preclude not only women, but even men from reading them. If we had room, we should hope to show how much the faults of both these writers had been exaggerated. From her book on 'Female Education,' we should judge that Hannah More had read many books more dangerous than these. As we must leave the subject of Johnson, we may add, Hannah More relates, that Johnson told her the King (George III.) in his conversation with him, enjoined him to add Spenser to his Lives of the Poets, a circumstance not mentioned before? Nor were we before aware (v. p. 191) that Mrs. Boscawen got Spence's anecdotes for Johnson. The anecdote, at p. 377, of Dr. Johnson and Mr. Winstanley is quite new to us.

* See p. 146. Garrick put Johnson in such good spirits, that I never knew him so entertaining or more instructive. He was as brilliant as himself, and as goodhumoured as any one else.'