(109) See note (15 ante, p. xxvi.-Ep.

(110) Young Cumberland, son of the author.-Ed.

(111) General Blakeney.-Ed.

(112) A character in Fanny’s suppressed comedy, “The Witlings."-Ed.

(113) Not the celebrated George Selwyn, but a wealthy banker of that name.-Ed.

(114) Lucrezia Agujari was one of the most admired Italian singers of the day.  She died at Parma in 1783.-Ed.

(115) The Rev. Henry Bate, afterwards Sir Henry Bate Dudley, editor of the “Morning Post” from its establishment in 1772 till 1780, in which year his connection with that paper came to an end in consequence of a quarrel with his coadjutors.  On the 1st of November, 1780, he brought out the “Morning Herald” in opposition to his old paper, the “Post.”  He assumed the name of Dudley in 1784, was created a baronet in 1813, and died in 1824.  Gainsborough has painted the portrait of this ornament of the Church, who was notorious, in his younger days, for his physical strength, and not less so for the very unclerical use which he made of it.  He was popularly known as the “Fighting Parson."-Ed.

Section3
(1780-1781-)

A season at bath:  Mr.Thrale’s death.

[There is a long hiatus here in the published " Diary,” and upon its resumption we find Fanny at Bath with the Thrales, in April, 1780; but from her letters to Mr. Crisp we learn that she returned, at Christmas, 1779, to her father’s house in St. Martin’s -street, and spent there the intervening period, frequently visiting, and being visited by, the Thrales.  Bath was at this time the most fashionable summer resort in the kingdom.  Fanny had been there before, in 1776 or 1777, but of that visit no account remains to us.  She has recorded, however, in " “Evelina,” her general impression of the place.  “The charming city of Bath answered all my expectations.  The Crescent, the prospect from it, and the elegant symmetry of the Circus, delighted me.  The Parades, I own, rather disappointed me; one of them is scarce preferable to some of the best paved streets in London; and the other, though it affords a beautiful prospect, a charming view of Prior-park and of the Avon, yet wanted something in itself of more striking elegance than a mere broad pavement, to satisfy the ideas I had formed of it.

“At the pump-room, I was amazed at the public exhibition of the ladies in the bath; it is true, their heads are covered with bonnets; but the very idea of being seen, in such a situation, by whoever pleases to look, is indelicate.”

We may be sure Fanny never exhibited herself in such a situation.  Of her drinking the waters, even, there is no mention in her Bath journal Of 1780.  But the journal records a continual succession of visits and diversions, and keeps us entertained with the most life-like and amusing descriptions of Bath society.  The house occupied by Mr. Thrale and his party was at the corner of the South-parade, and Fanny’s room commanded that beautiful prospect of Prior-park and the Avon which had charmed Evelina.