306
NOTES AND QUERIES. [12 s. i. APRIL 15, me.
" White, Miss Lydia, at Stephen White's,
Miskin, near Cowbridge, or Queen's Parade,
Bath," runs the second. On May 13, 1780,
Wilkes repeats the following little dialogue
in a letter to his daughter from Bath :
" ' Why, you are as old again as I am, Mr. Wilkes,' said Lydia. ' Had you been a French girl, Lydia, you would have said, I am as young again as you are, Mr. Wilkes.' "* In another letter written to his friend William Sharpe of Newport on June 7, 1788, Wilkes pays a compliment to her personal Appearance :
" I gave one [i.e., a medallion] to the pretty Lydia White of Bath, with the following lines, "which I transcribe almost trembling for you, and you only
Afric's black son in chains before you see, As you have oft fair England's progeny, But twined with flowers we scarcely would be
free."
Gent. Mag., Ixxiv. pt. i. 520.
The original letter is in the possession of Mr. A. M. Broadley.
A careful search through Wilkes' s * Diary ' <Add. MSS. 30, 866) might show that " the patriot " dined in Lydia's company occa- sionally when he paid a visit to Bath.
The last unfamiliar reference that I find .among my notes is contained in ' The Private Correspondence of a Woman of Fashion,' by Harriet Pigott, i. 200-1. It describes a dinner party given by one Mrs. A r in Paris in January, 1815:
" The blue, the very blue, Lydia W e was
really the representative of art by the side of beautiful nature. She has all the swell of inde- pendent fortune, with the coldness of mediocrity of talent ; unlike those literary females who moved in the original Blue-Stocking Club of Mrs. Montague [sic], and in the circle, never to be surpassed in mental grace, of the Duchess of Devonshire], where talented women were ap- preciated, who in their turn knew how to appre- ciate the genius of men ; where shone in native lustre the expansive mind of Fox, and the buoyant, careless, patriotic Sheridan, and where 'the personal powers of conciliation cast a magic spell over all. Really some of these very modern English blues have a presumption, an affectation -of intellectual superiority, that is quite fatiguing to unaspiring persons of plain useful common sense. This blue spinster is said to feel her own literary loneliness, and to be industriously courting Hymen's chains. It was edifying to see how ^dextrously the fair Lydia contrived to manoeuvre her person into a chair between the Generals
B s and R y, flirted her fan, held her head
on one side, and played off all the graces of a vain young belle of eighteen."
HORACE BLEACKLEY.
- Does this give the clue to her age ? Was she
27 in 1780, and thus born in 1753, dying at the end of 1826 or the beginning of 1827, in her 76th year ?
INSCRIPTIONS IN ST. JOHN'S CHURCH,
ST. JOHN'S WOOD ROAD.
(See ante, pp. 145, 204.)
WEST GALLERY.
- 37. Lieut.-General Charles Morgan, many years
Senior Officer on the Bengal Establishment, H.E.I. Co., d. Mar. 21, 1819.
- 38. Eliza, w. of Lieut.-General Alexander Kyd,
d. Jan. 22, 1819, a. 56. Lieut.-General Alex. Kyd, H.E.I.C.S., Chief Engineer Bengal Establishment, b. in North Britain, Mar. 14, 1754 ; d. in London, Nov. 25, 1826.
39. Col. Patrick Douglas, H.E.I.C.S., d. Mar. 16, 1821, a. 62. Jane, his wife, d. Aug. 20, 1840, a. 7(3). Isabella Douglas, his sister, d. Oct. 13, 1820, a. 65.
40. George Charles Holford, Esq., youngest son of John Josiah Holford, Esq., of York Place, in his 40th year, after three years' gradual decline passed in Italy, and six months after his return to England, d. at his residence, Heron Court, Richmond, Surrey, Feb. 15, 1844. John, his infant son, d. Oct. 16, 1835. Erected by his widow.
41. Admiral Sir John Lawford, K.C.B., d. Dec. 22, 1842, a. 83. Anna Maria, his widow, d. June 24, 1853, a. 95.
42. The Rev. Thomas Stephens, LL.D., of this parish and of Southfield Park, Kent, d. Aug. 19, 1832, a. 78.
Inter spem curamque, timores inter et iras, Omnem crede diem tibi diluxisse supremum. Arms : Per pale or and (vert), a chevron engrailed counterchanged between three choughs proper. On an escutcheon of pretence : Gules, on a chevron arg., between 3 or, 3 (martlets ?).
EAST GALLERY.
43. Col. Sweny Toone of the E.I. Co.'s Military Service, b. at Finglass, co. Dublin, Director of the E.I. Co. in England, married in 1787 Sarah Frances, dau. of Francis Gray of Lehena, Cork, Esq.; d. at Keston Lodge, Kent, Dec. 2, 1835,
a. 89. His two youngest daus., Carolina Jemima,
b. Jan. 16, 1799, d. Jan. 31, 1815 ; Frances Hen- rietta, b. Aug. 21, 1796, d. Dec. 27, 1818. His two youngest sons d. in Bengal : Henry at Cal- cutta, Mar. 31, 1811, a. 18 ; James at Ghazeepqre, Nov. 30, 1822, a. 21. Sarah Frances, his wid., b. at Cork, July 24, 1763; d. Jan. 31, 1848, at Keston Lodge.
Arms : Arg., on a fesse sable three mullets or the field. In chief an Eastern crown gules between two torteaux, and in base an eagle s head erased of the second. Impaling barry of six arg. and az., in chief three torteaux.
- 44. William Ruddiman, Esq., M.D., formerly of
Madras, d. Jan. 20, 1826, a. 71. Erected by his I son Thomas.
- 45. John Tunno, Esq., of Devonshire Place, i
d. May 15, 1819, a. 73. Erected by his son. [A portrait bust.]
BEHIND THE ORGAN.
- 46. Sophronia Rebecca, wid. of Lieut.-General
G. Stibbert, d. Oct. 18, 1815.
47. Maria Anna, w. of Thos. Hayward Budd of Bedford Row, Esq., d. April 25, 1819, a. 40.
