(173) Soame Jenyns was one of the most celebrated of the “old wits.”  He was born in 1704; was for twenty-five years member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire; died in 1787.  His principal works were “A Free Enquiry into the Origin of Evil,” and “A View of the Internal Evidence of the Christian Religion.”  Boswell writes of him:  “Jenyns was possessed of lively talents, and a style eminently pure and ‘easy’, and could very happily play with a light subject, either in prose or verse; but when he speculated on that most difficult and excruciating question, ’The Origin of Evil,’ he ventured far beyond his depth, and, accordingly, was exPosed by Johnson [in the ’Literary Magazine’), both with acute argument and brilliant wit."-Ed.

(174) “Memoirs of Dr. Burney,” vol. iii. p. 169.

(175) Hester Mulso was born in 1727; she married, in 1760, an attorney named Chapone, who died within a year of the marriage.  Among the many young ladies who surrounded and corresponded with Samuel Richardson, Hester was a first favourite.  The great novelist’s letters to his “dear Miss Mulso” are very pleasant to read.  Mrs. Chapone enjoyed considerable esteem as an authoress.  Her “Letters on the Improvement of the Mind,” dedicated to Mrs. Montagu, went through several editions.  We should like to praise them, but the truth must be owned—­they are Vdecidedly commonplace and “goody-goody.”  Still, they are written in a spirit of tender earnestness, which raises our esteem for the writer, though it fails to reconcile us to the book.  Mrs. Chapone died on Christmas-day, 18o1.-Ed.

(176) Truly said, “my dear Miss Mulso,” but if they cannot feel the wonderful charm and reality of “Clarissa” in the very first volume, they may as well leave it alone.-Ed.

(177) In a corner of the nave of the quaint little church at Chesington is a large white marble tablet, marking the spot where Mr. Crisp lies buried.  The following lines from the pen of Fanny’s father inscribed on it do not, it must be confessed, exhibit the doctor’s poetical talents by any means in a favourable light.  “In memory Of Samuel crisp, Esq., who died April 24, 1783, aged 76.

Reader, this cold and humble spot contains
The much lamented, much rever’d remains
Of one whose wisdom, learning, taste, and sense,
Good-humour’d wit and wide benevolence
Cheer’d and enlightened all this hamlet round,
Wherever genius, worth, or want was found. 
To few it is that bounteous heav’n imparts
Such depth of knowledge, and such taste in arts
Such penetration, and enchanting pow’rs
Of brit’ning social and convivial hours. 
Had he, through life, been blest by nature kind
With health robust of body as of mind,
With skill to serve and charm mankind, so great
In arts, in science, letters, church, or state,
His name the nation’s annals had enroll’d
And virtues to remotest ages told. 
“C.  Burney.”