Wits, beaux, and beauties of the Georgian era . urther acquaintance with so engaging a personahty,have been deterred from any search after her literaryRemains by Mr Seccombes remark that the absence ofexternal facts, and the devotion to la vie interieure, detractfrom the interest of her Journal and correspondence,During the latter half of her Ufe, it is true, the lettersand journal entries devoted to gossip, to that personaltalk which Wordsworth reprobated, are very few. Likethe poet of Rydal Mount, she lived remote from evil speak-ing ; and she might well have said, with him:— Hence have I ge
Wits, beaux, and beauties of the Georgian era . urther acquaintance with so engaging a personahty,have been deterred from any search after her literaryRemains by Mr Seccombes remark that the absence ofexternal facts, and the devotion to la vie interieure, detractfrom the interest of her Journal and correspondence,During the latter half of her Ufe, it is true, the lettersand journal entries devoted to gossip, to that personaltalk which Wordsworth reprobated, are very few. Likethe poet of Rydal Mount, she lived remote from evil speak-ing ; and she might well have said, with him:— Hence have I genial seasons, hence have ISmooth passions, smooth discourse, and joyous thought :And thus from day to day my httlc boatRocks in its harbour, loiiging peacefully. But her boat had not always been in harbour ; and thatpart of her Journal, at any rate, which deals with her tourin Germany in 1799-1801 contains enough acute obser-vation of external things and celebrated persons to satisfythe most exacting reader. No apology need therefore be J«8. /•. //..-, ,;,,/; MRS. IKENCII MELESINA TRENCH 319 made for drawing the attention of a reading public whichhas recently welcomed a reprint of Mrs Montagus brilliantsuperficialities, and of Mrs Carters rather prosy moralis-ings, to Mrs Trenchs delightful little Journal, whichEdward Fitzgerald only wished to be a dozen times aslong, and to her letters, which the same excellent judgepronounced to be next best to Walpole and Cowper inour language. Melesina, who was the only child of the Rev. PhilipChenevix, son of Richard Chenevix, Bishop of Waterford,by Mary Elizabeth, daughter of Archdeacon Gervais, cameof good Huguenot stock on both sides. She was bom inDublin in 1768, had the misfortune to lose both herparents before she had completed her fourth year, andwas brought up and educated by her two ecclesiasticalgrandfathers in succession, seeing little society, and hav-ing no amusement save such as she could extract from aclergymans library
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