"Bennet Street, Bath,
Friday, Nov. 14th, 1788."
Whether these terms were accepted, does not appear; but in Dec. 1789
she published (Cadell and Strahan) "Observations and Reflections made
in the course of a Journey through France, Italy, and Germany," in
two volumes octavo of about 400 pages each. As happened to almost
everything she did or wrote, this book, which she calls the
"Travel-book," was by turns assailed with inveterate hostility and
praised with animated zeal. It would seem that sustained calumny had
seasoned her against the malevolence of criticism. On the passage in
Johnson's letter to T. Warton, "I am little afraid for myself," her
comment is: "That is just what I feel when insulted, not about
literary though, but social quarrels. The others are not worth a
thought." In "Thraliana," Dec. 30th, 1789, she writes: "I think my
Observations and Reflexions in Italy, &c., have been, upon the whole,
exceedingly well liked, and much read."
Walpole writes to Mrs. Carter, June 13th, 1789:
"I do not mean to misemploy much of your time, which I know is always
passed in good works, and usefully. You have, therefore, probably not
looked into Piozzi's Travels. I, who have been almost six weeks lying
on a couch, have gone through them. It was said that Addison might
have written his without going out of England. By the excessive
vulgarisms so plentiful in these volumes, one might suppose the
writer had never stirred out of the parish of St.
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