Life And Letters Of Maria Edgeworth/Volume 1/Letter 65

by Maria Edgeworth

To MISS RUXTON.

EDGEWORTHSTOWN, Feb. 1807.

While Charlotte^[1] was pretty well we paid our long-promised visit to Coolure, and passed a few very pleasant days there. Admiral Pakenham is very entertaining, and appears very amiable in the midst of his children, who doat on him. He spoke very handsomely of your darling brother, and diverted us by the mode in which he congratulated Richard on his marriage: "I give you joy, my good friend, and I am impatient to see the woman who has made an honest man of you."

Colonel Edward Pakenham burned his instep by falling asleep before the fire, out of which a turf fell on his foot, and so he was, luckily for us, detained a few days longer and dined and breakfasted at Coolure. He is very agreeable, and unaffected, and modest, after all the flattery he has met with.^[2]

Footnotes

1. Charlotte Edgeworth, the idol and beauty of the family, died, after a long illness, 7th April 1807.
2. Colonel, afterwards Sir Edward Pakenham, distinguished in the Peninsular War, fell in action at New Orleans, 8th January 1815.