Memoir of Francis Hodgson
Francis Hodgson to Henry Drury, [1813]
My dear Harry,—You have doubtless
greatly enjoyed your Devonshire visit, notwithstanding your seclusion and most
natural dislike to reviewing. I feel the latter dislike as much as you can,
but, as to retirement, I confess a few friends and a cottage would be my summum bonum, could I command such blessings in the
environs of London. It is not solitude, but knowing
that you cannot have society, which is unpleasant. I will deliver your message
about a Fen Scheme to Hart when I return
to King’s. Lonsdale is there at
present, in very ill-health. . . . I write this from London, where I have come
to meet my sister
1 from Kensington. I have been rambling about with her
all the morning to see sights. Miss
Linwood’s worsted pictures, in which I think she has
worsted all our painters, if you canvass her merits ever so severely. Bullock’s Museum, a farrago of birds,
beasts, snakes, shells, and butterflies; and Mrs.
Salmon’s original and royal waxworks, where, in addition
to the old curiosities (which I have not seen these twenty years, but well
remember) there is the
1 Afterwards married to her cousin the
Rev. Geo. Coke, of Lemore, in
Herefordshire. |
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| MRS. SALMON’S WAXWORKS. | 253 |
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Duchess of Brunswick, lying in state in a
room lighted with wax tapers, with two waxen bishops at her head, a waxen
Princess of Wales weeping over her, a wax
waiting-woman, and a wax emblem of Peace, strewing flowers at her feet. Two wax
mutes stand at the door of the chamber. Perhaps you have forgotten the room
upstairs. Werter and Charlotte and the pistol were being cleaned; so
was Buonaparte, and the lady who bled to
death from pricking her finger while working on a Sunday; these interesting
groups, therefore, were lost to us. But we saw Alexander, and the Queen of Darius and her waiting-maid, and
the nurse on her knees begging the life of the prince, a fine chubby child,
beside her; Alexander looks about sixty years of age, but
perhaps he has grown old apace since I last saw him; and Antony and Cleopatra certainly have lost some of their youthful charms.
But Mrs. Siddons’s sister still
begs as piteously as in life; and Mother
Shipton (saving her leg, which is out of joint, and has ceased
kicking) is as attractive as ever. Henderson in Macbeth must
have been very grand. I took him at first for the beefeater that used to stand
at the door. But, as Mr. Puff has it,
‘I would not have you too sure he is a beefeater.’ The
lady abbess and her nuns, who ![]()
| 254 | MEMOIR OF REV. F. HODGSON. | |
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slit their noses and lips to
disgust the marauding Danes, and so preserve their virgin vows, are in full
perfection, only I observed that neither their noses nor lips were slit; and
the Lady Margaret of Holland is lying in bed as usual,
just having produced her 365th child, according to the prayer of the
beggar-woman whom her ladyship offended. The nun, the priest, the
waiting-woman, all wax sorrowful at her side. But perhaps you will say I am cereus in vitium, and so farewell for the present,
and
Believe me, my dear Harry,
Ever yours affectionately,
Alexander the Great (356 BC-323 BC)
Macedonian conqueror; the son of Philip II, he was king of Macedon, 336-323 BC.
William Bullock (1780 c.-1849)
Naturalist and antiquary who in 1795 opened a museum in Liverpool; in 1809 his
collections opened in London as the Liverpool Museum.
Anne Elizabeth Coke [née Hodgson] (1803-1831)
Daughter of James Hodgson by his second wife; she was the half-sister of Francis Hodgson.
In 1825 she married the Rev. George Coke.
George Coke (1797-1865)
Son of the Rev. Francis Coke; he attended St. John's College, Cambridge and was rector of
Aylton in Herefordshire and of Piddle Hinton in Dorset. In 1825 he married Anne Hodgson,
the younger sister of Francis Hodgson.
Thomas Hart (1770-1826)
Of Eton and King's College, Cambridge where he was fellow (1793-1817) and vice-provost
(1815-17); he was a friend of Francis Hodgson and Henry Drury.
John Henderson (1747-1785)
English actor called the “Bath Roscius” who excelled in Shakespearean roles.
Francis Hodgson (1781-1852)
Provost of Eton College, translator of Juvenal (1807) and close friend of Byron. He wrote
for the
Monthly and
Critical Reviews, and was
author of (among other volumes of poetry)
Childe Harold's Monitor; or
Lines occasioned by the last Canto of Childe Harold (1818).
Mary Linwood (1755-1845)
Maker of pictures in needlework which she exhibited in her museum at Leicester
Square.
John Lonsdale, bishop of Lichfield (1788-1867)
A leading figure in the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge; he was a contemporary
of Francis Hodgson at Eton and future Bishop of Lichfield (1843).
Emperor Napoleon I (1769-1821)
Military leader, First Consul (1799), and Emperor of the French (1804), after his
abdication he was exiled to Elba (1814); after his defeat at Waterloo he was exiled to St.
Helena (1815).
Mrs. Salmon (1650-1740)
Maker of waxworks; her museum was opened in the 1690s and continued operation in Fleet
Street into the nineteenth century.
Mother Shipton (1530 fl.)
A quasi-historical personage whose predictions are recorded in
The
Prophesie of Mother Shipton in the Raigne of King Henry the Eighth (1641).
Sarah Siddons [née Kemble] (1755-1831)
English tragic actress, sister of John Philip Kemble, famous roles as Desdemona, Lady
Macbeth, and Ophelia. She retired from the stage in 1812.
