(83) Afterwards Lady Crewe; the daughter of Mr, and Mrs. Greville, and a famous Political beauty.  At a supper after the Westminster election on the Prince of Wales toasting, “True blue and Mrs. Crewe,” the lady responded, “True blue and all of you."-Ed.

(84) A celebrated Italian singer and intimate friend of the Burneys.-Ed.

85) See note (15) ante, p. xxvi.  The intended marriage above referred to above came to nothing, Miss Cumberland, the eldest daughter of the dramatist subsequently marrying Lord Edward Bentinck, son of the Duke of Portland.-Ed.

(86) Miss Hannah More, the authoress.-Ed.

(87) Hannah More gave Dr. Johnson, when she was first introduced to him, such a surfeit of flattery, that at last, losing patience, he turned to her and said, “Madam, before you flatter a man so grossly to his face, you should consider whether or not your flattery is worth his having."-Ed.

(88) Mrs. Vesey was the lady at whose house were held the assemblies from which the term “blue-stocking” first came into use. (.See ante, p. 98.) Fanny writes of her in 1779, “She is an exceeding well-bred woman, and of agreeable manners; but all her name in the world must, I think, have been acquired by her dexterity and skill in selecting parties, and by her address in rendering them easy with one another—­an art, hoever, that seems to imply no mean understanding."-Ed. (90) Sheridan was at this time manager of Drury-lane Theatre-ed.

(91) Sir P. J. Clerke’s bill was moved on the 12th of February.  It passed the first and second readings, but was afterwards lost on the motion for going into committee.  It was entitled a “Bill for restraining any person, being a member of the House of Commons, from being concerned himself, or any person in trust for him, in any contract made by the commissioners of his Majesty’s Treasury, the commissioners of the Navy, the board of Ordnance, or by any other person or persons for the public service, Unless the said contract shall be made at a public bidding."-Ed.

(93) Arthur Murphy, the well-known dramatic author, a very intimate friend of the Thrales.  He was born in Ireland in 1727, and died at Knightsbridge in 1805.  Among his most successful plays were “The Orphan of China " and “The Way to Keep Hirn."-Ed.

(94) “The’, Good-natured Man."-Ed

(95) Sophy Streatfield, a young lady who understood Greek, and was consequently looked upon as a prodigy of learning.  Mrs. Thrale appears to have been slightly jealous of her about this time, though without serious cause.  In January, 1779, she writes (in “Thraliana"):  “Mr. Thrale has fallen in love, really and seriously, with Sophy Streatfield; but there is no wonder in that; she is very pretty, very gentle, soft and insinuating; hangs about him, dances round him, cries when she parts from him, squeezes his hand slily, and with her sweet eyes full of tears looks fondly in his face—­and all for love of me, as she pretends, that I can hardly sometimes help laughing in her face.  A man must not be a man, but an it, to resist such artillery."-Ed.