Another lady, whose accomplishments he never denied, came to our house one day covered with diamonds, feathers, &c.[1] and he did not seem inclined to chat with her as usual. I asked him why? when the company was gone. 'Why; her head looked so like that of a woman who shews puppets (said he), and her voice so confirmed the fancy, that I could not bear her to-day; when she wears a large cap, I can talk to her.'
When the ladies wore lace trimmings to their clothes, he expressed his contempt of the reigning fashion in these terms: 'A Brussels trimming is like bread sauce (said he), it takes away the glow of colour from the gown, and gives you nothing instead of it; but sauce was invented to heighten the flavour of our food, and trimming is an ornament to the manteau[2], or it is nothing. Learn (said he) that there is propriety or impropriety in every thing how slight soever, and get at the general principles of dress and of behaviour; if you then transgress them, you will at least know that they are not observed.'
All these exactnesses in a man who was nothing less than exact himself, made him extremely impracticable as an inmate, though most instructive as a companion, and useful as a friend. Mr. Thrale too could sometimes over-rule his rigidity, by saying
- ↑ Most likely Mrs. Montagu. 'The Queen of the bas bleus, Mrs. Montagu, crowned her toupet, and circled her neck with diamonds, when she received an assembly of foreigners, literati, and maccaronis, in her dressing-room, the walls of which were newly painted with "bowers of roses and jessamines, entirely inhabited by little cupids."' Early Diary of F. Burney, i. Preface, p. 85. Miss Burney speaks of her 'parade and ostentation.' Mme. D'Arblay's Diary, i. 325.
'Daddy' Crisp wrote of Mrs. Montagu to Miss Burney in 1780: — 'I believe I have told you of several letters the Duchess of Portland shewed me of hers formerly, so full of affectation, refinement, attempts to philosophize, talking metaphysics — in all which particulars she so bewildered and puzzled herself and her readers, and showed herself so superficial, nay, really ignorant in the subjects she paraded on — that in my own private mind's pocket-book I set her down for a vain, empty, conceited pretender, and little else.' Early Diary, i. Preface, p. 34, n. 2. For her pretentious Essay on Shakespeare, see Life, ii. 88. See also ante, p. 287.
- ↑ Manteau is not in Johnson's Dictionary.
