Marriage | Page 4

dowager as they severally inquire for me
at the circulating library, and are assured by the master that 'tis in such
demand that though he has thirteen copies they are insufficient to
answer the calls upon it, but that each of them may depend upon having
the very first that comes in!!! Child, child, you had need be sensible of
the value of my correspondence. At this moment I'm squandering
mines of wealth upon you when I might be drawing treasures from the
bags of time! But I shall not repine if you'll only repay me in

kind--speedy and long is all that I require; for all things else I shall take
my chance. Though I have been so impertinent to your book, I
nevertheless hope and expect you'll send it to me. Combie [1] and his
daughter (or Mare, as you call her) are coming to town about this time,
as I'm informed, and you may easily contrive to catch them (wild as
they are) and send it by them, for there's no judging what a picture will
be like from a mere pen-and-ink outline--if that won't do, is there not a
coach or a carrier? One thing let me entreat of you: if we engage in this
undertaking, let it be kept a profound secret from every human being. If
I was suspected of being accessory to such foul deeds, my brothers and
sisters would murder me, and my father bury me alive--and I have
always observed that if a secret ever goes beyond those immediately
concerned in its concealment it very soon ceases to be a secret."
[1] Lady Juliana.
[2] Glenfern. Dunderawe Castle, on Loch Fyne, was in Miss Ferrier's
mind when she drew this sketch of a "solitary Highland dwelling."
Again she writes to her friend and copartner in her literary work:--
"I am boiling to hear from you, but I've taken a remorse of conscience
about Lady Maclaughlan and her friends: if I was ever to be detected,
or even suspected, I would have nothing for it but to drown myself. I
mean, therefore, to let her alone till I hear from you, as I think we
might compound some other kind of character for her that might do as
well and not be so dangerous. As to the misses, if ever it was to be
published they must be altered or I must fly my native land."
[1] Campbell of Combie.
Miss Clavering writes in answer:--
"ARDENCAPLE CASTLE, Sunday Morning.-
"First of all I must tell you that I approve in the most signal manner of
Lady Maclaughlan. The sort of character was totally unexpected by me,
and I was really transported with her. Do I know the person who is the

original? The dress was vastly like Mrs. Damer, [1] and the manners
like Lady Frederick. [2] Tell me if you did not mean a touch at her. I
love poor Sir Sampson vastly, though it is impossible, in the presence
of his lady, to have eyes or ears for anyone else. Now you must not
think of altering her, and it must all go forth in the world; neither must
the misses upon any account be changed. I have a way now of at least
offering it to publication by which you never can be discovered. I will
tell the person that I wrote it (indeed, quothà, cries Miss Ferrier, and no
great favour; see how she loves to plume herself with borrowed fame!).
Well, however, my way is quite sure, and the person would never think
of speaking of it again, so never let the idea of detection come across
your brain while you are writing to damp your ardour.
[1] Daughter of General Seymour Conway, and a distinguished sculptor.
She was niece of the fifth Duke of Argyll.
[2] Lady Frederick Campbell is believed to have suggested the
character of Lady Maclaughlan to Miss Ferrier, and there is little doubt
she was the original. She was the widow of Earl Ferrel's, of Tyburn
notoriety, and was burnt to death at Coombe Bank, Kent, in 1807.
"Positively neither Sir Sampson's lady nor the foolish virgins must be
displaced."
Again she writes from Inveraray Castle (of date December 1810), eight
years before the work was published:--
"And now, my dear Susannah, I must tell you of the success of your
first-born. I read it to Lady Charlotte [1] in the carriage when she and I
came together from Ardencaple, Bessie [2] having gone with mamma.
If you will believe, I never yet in my existence saw Lady C. laugh so
much as she did at that from beginning to end; and, seriously, I was two
or three times afraid that she would fall into a fit. Her very words were,
'I assure you