Seventy people to dinner.... Never was a pleasanter day
seen, and at night the trees and front of the house were illuminated
with coloured lamps that called forth our neighbours from all the
adjacent villages to admire and enjoy the diversion. Many friends
swear that not less than a thousand men, women, and children might
have been counted in the house and grounds, where, though all were
admitted, nothing was stolen, lost, or broken, or even damaged--a
circumstance almost incredible; and which gave Mr. Piozzi a high
opinion of English gratitude and respectful attachment."
[Footnote 1: Streatham.]
"1790, _December 1st_.--Dr. Parr and I are in correspondence, and his
letters are very flattering: I am proud of his notice to be sure, and
he seems pleased with my acknowledgments of esteem: he is a
prodigious scholar ... but in the meantime I have lost Dr. Lort."[1]
[Footnote 1: He died November 5th, 1790.]
In the Conway Notes, she thus sums up her life from March 1787 to
1791:
"On first reaching London, we drove to the Royal Hotel in Pall Mall,
and, arriving early, I proposed going to the Play. There was a small
front box, in those days, which held only two; it made the division,
or connexion, with the side boxes, and, being unoccupied, we sat in
it, and saw Mrs. Siddons act Imogen, I well remember, and Mrs.
Jordan, Priscilla Tomboy. Mr. Piozzi was amused, and the next day was
spent in looking at houses, counting the cards left by old
acquaintances, &c.
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