Lady Morgan’s Memoirs
Countess of Moira to Robert Owenson, 26 March 1800
Moira House, Dublin.
March 26th, 1800.
I have just received Mr.
Owenson’s letter dated the 24th; and though my eyes are
still weak from the effects of a late inflammation in them, I do not delay the
acknowledgment of it, lest the many trifles which often intervene to prevent
one’s intentions, that are neither foreseen, nor can be avoided, should
arrive to prevent my quickly assuring him, that I feel sensibly his paternal
anxiety, and shall be very happy at any time to be serviceable to his
daughters; and the pains he has taken in their education and the success of it,
are points that I am well acquainted with. My friend, Mr. Gouldsbury, I have the pleasure to assure
you, thinks extremely well of your literary daughter, and as a very sensible,
worthy and an informed personage, Mr. Owenson will be
persuaded he has a strong advocate with me for that daughter; but,
unfortunately, it must be confined rather to my inclination than power to serve
her. The change that has taken place in my ![]()
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circumstances
(one that must take place with every woman whose lot it becomes to exchange a
large property for a jointure) does not permit me to expend what I did when I
patronized Dermody out of my pin-money.
That eccentric being owed everything to you, and even my notice of him; I in no
degree regret my assistance of him; he had talents, and he might, with the
friendship he experienced from you, and through your kindness in procuring for
him the protection of others, have done well. He got an ensigncy through the
favour of my friend, which, when the corps was reduced, left him on half pay;
yet that was sufficient to support him whilst he employed his talents, but he
sold it, and the last I heard of him was from a letter he wrote to me,
stationed then as a common soldier. Several individuals whom I formerly had it
in my power to educate, from appearing to me to be possessed of natural genius,
and these depressed by the want of means to cultivate them, have been
successful in life; some have proved ungrateful, but others highly the
contrary, and one who may have benefitted by my aid is sufficient to repay the
failure of others, were they never so numerous; therefore I have not any reason
to complain; I only lament that it is not now in my power to give to others a
like chance of profit, or ingratitude, by rendering them assistance. Your
daughter is perfectly welcome to dedicate her work to me. But I live so much secluded, that I
can be of little, if of any, service to her,—and I would have her and you
to reflect, if some other individual who lives more in the world may not ![]()
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be more serviceable to her, in getting for her
subscribers. If so, let her decide for those who may be thus useful preferably
to me. My good wishes for her, you, and the rest of your family, shall in that
case, equally attend you, and I desire Mr. Owenson to
believe me at all times his and their
Very sincere friend,
For Mr. Owenson.
My eyes remain still so weak that I have with some
trouble written these almost illegible lines.
Thomas Dermody (1775-1802)
Prolific Irish poet whose early promise a child prodigy went unfulfilled; after the
publication of James Grant Raymond's 1806 biography he became a type of the wastrel
bard.
Ponsonby Gouldsbury (d. 1830)
Rector of Tullamore, County Meath, Ireland; he had been a scholar at Trinity College in
1769.
Robert Nugent Owenson (1744-1812)
Originally MacOwen; Irish actor who performed in London (where he was a friend of Oliver
Goldsmith) and founded theaters in Galway and London; he was the father of Lady
Morgan.
Elizabeth Rawdon, countess of Moira [née Hastings] (1731-1808)
The daughter of the ninth earl of Huntingdon and his third wife, the evangelical Selina
Hastings; in 1752 she married Sir John Rawdon, afterwards earl of Moira; she patronized
Thomas Percy and his Irish literary circle.
