Mr. Piozzi
said I had spoiled my own children and was spoiling his. My reply
was, that I loved spoiling people, and hated any one I could not
spoil. Am I not now trying to spoil dear Mr. Conway?"
When she talks of spoiling, she must not be understood literally. In
1817 she writes from Bath to Dr. Gray:
"Sir John and Lady Salusbury staid with me six or seven weeks, and
made themselves most beloved among us. They are very good young
creatures.... My children read your _Key_ to each other on Sunday
noons: the _Connection_ on Sunday nights. You remember me hoping and
proposing to make dear Salusbury a gentleman, a Christian, and a
scholar; and when one has succeeded in the first two wishes, there is
no need to fret if the third does fail a _little_. Such is my
situation concerning my _adopted_, as you are accustomed to call
him."
Before she died she had the satisfaction of seeing him sheriff of his
county; and on carrying up an address, he was knighted and became Sir
John Salusbury Piozzi Salusbury. Miss Williams Wynn has preserved a
somewhat apocryphal anecdote of his disinterestedness:
"When I read her (Mrs. P.'s) lamentations over her poverty, I could
not help believing that Sir J. Salusbury had proved ungrateful to his
benefactress. For the honour of human nature I rejoice to find this
is not the case. When he made known to his aunt his wish to marry,
she promised to make over to him the property of Brynbella. Even
before the marriage was concluded she had distressed herself by her
lavish expenditure at Streatham.
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