Mary Egerton, London, to Mrs. Mary Andrews, Isleworth, [Friday], 2 January 1789.

   You were perfectly right in your Conjecture indeed my Dear Mrs Andrews.  On Monday last, I sat abusing you in our Parlor to Mrs W–   Ever too warm & impetuous I can no more help expressing my resentment  & dissatisfaction than < > pleasure for a moment, the expression of Tenderness & Esteem which arise at every Testimony I receive of your Affection for me – You will be candid enough however to acknowledge that appearances are much against you – besides we naturally judge of others by our selves & on the perusal of your Letters, I always feel an incessant impulse to sit down & answer [it] immediately – I cannot account in the most favourable manner for your withholding from me the pleasure of a reply for the space of three Weeks –

   I smile my dr Friend at the Picture your Fancy has so sweetly [painted] of our Society! – are not your Colors too glowing, & your Shapes too perfect for an exact representation of Nature?  If it be not impertinent, I will take the liberty of having a nearer Prospect to give you an accurate Sketch of the scenes you have represented from Memory & Imagination –

   To begin then, and drop the Allegory – my Pianoforte is not in Tune – My Drawings do not please – nor has my Pencil hitherto found much Employ in tracing the true features of Mrs C– for two reasons – first because the Sketch I attempted of her is as usual spoiled by being finished or rather unfinished in a dark Room, & secondly because she is occasionally out, that it is impossible to have her sit.

   Miss Orton has been a good deal absent from home since I last wrote.  When she is with me, her endearing manners & amiable temper do indeed a great deal contribute to my satisfaction – but the longer I am with her the < > seems to be true – < > pleasure in every other respect Society cannot be perfectly satisfactory. I declare to you my dear Mrs A– there are unfortunately but two Persons I know of in the World whose Conversations are always a very real delight – From yours I am almost entirely precluded – and when Mr W. visits me the constant interruptions & < > unavoidably result from the presence of indifferent, insipid Persons who make it nearly impossible to enter on any Subject that is desirable & improving.

   I have seen Charlotte very little indeed since her return from being much confined at < > by the extreme severity of the Weather –  ’twould do < > the uncommon humility that graces them – but < > – spite of all their Sense can do to the contrary, it is I conceive next to impossible to hold an intercourse with the Beaumonde & not in some measure be contaminated by its residue –

   Thus much on the Subject of Society – With regard to myself, the extreme uniformity of my life is such, as hardly to allow room for any Interruption – as usual, my own Apartment is the chief Theatre of my Exploits – there I am usually shut up from Breakfast to Dinner with no other company than my faithful < > and when the much necessary Enjoyments are over, the remaining time is mostly occupied in writing, drawing &c  The Evening is too often devoted to < > when that is not requisite some more agreeable occupation takes place – the most provoking circumstance is however that after the appearance of Time being so properly divided, & so much being done, I have myself advanced hardly one step forwarder in any Theory I have undertaken – Say my dear friend, the Description finished, is it quite so replete with delights as you had conceived? Or does discontent and peevishness cast a gloom over the Scene and make it inimitable to Pleasures < > Disposition would enjoy? 

   I have been reading lately Mrs Yearsleys Poems & a Novel of interesting Memoirs – Of the former I shall say nothing, because incompetent to the task of Poetical Criticism – The Character of < > I think amiable & interesting – her letters are interspersed with reflections more useful than what are generally to be found in books of that Description – in the earliness of her death & the grief she all along continues to betray, weakens them in my opinion, appear more the result of Disappointment than the effect of Reflection – I have likewise just read in French Abbe le < >, from which I hope to derive much satisfactory information – thus you see I have not been quite idle in the [usual] way.

   My Brother is not yet returned from Birmingham – I have felt some uneasiness on his account, but I shall forbear to say why, lest as on a former account, I should wish hereafter to retract – The Lady in our first floor has left us and is to be succeeded tomorrow by Ly Sculley – Mrs Dele likewise does not mean to stay here much longer – her conduct seems very far indeed from giving any hope of those Graces that should return the character of either Matron or Wife! –

Friday Morng Jany 3rd

   The postponement of procuring the Paper until Yesty eveg when Mr W brought it, induced me to defer sealing my Letter until now, that I might have the Pleasure of conversing as long as I could, with my Dr Mrs Andrews.

   On reperusing what I have written, I feel an apprehension that you should correct me for the acct I have [...]

Text: Timothy Whelan, gen. ed., Nonconformist Women Writers, 1720-1840, 8 vols. (London: Pickering & Chatto, 2011), vol. 6, pp. 4-5 (annotated version); Reeves Collection, Box 14.8.(c.), Bodleian. No address page. Final page has deteriorated and is no longer readable.

Ann Yearsley (1752-1806) of Bristol, known as the “Milkmaid poet’ because of her former occupation, published Poems on Several Occasions in 1785, with considerable assistance from her benefactress, Hannah More.  More placed the proceeds from the sale of Yeasley’s Poems in a trust, but Yearsley accused More of defrauding her. Eventually Yearsley gained control of the money, and published another volume, Poems on Various Subjects, in 1787.  Which volume Mary Egerton is reading in the above letter, however, is unclear.

The Miss Orton mentioned above is of interest to this site. The Ortons (whether the same family is unclear) were close friends of Eliza Gould (1770-1810), and in whose home she stayed during her time in London c. 1796-97, prior to her marriage to Benjamin Flower. See Eliza Gould to John Feltham, c. March 1799.