I have just read your Wild Irish Girl, a title which will attract by its novelty, but which does not well suit the charming character of Glorvina.
As a sincere and warm friend to Ireland, I return you my thanks for the just character which you have given to the lower Irish, and for the sound and judicious observations which you have attributed to the priest. The notices of Irish history are ingeniously introduced, and are related in such a manner as to induce belief amongst infidels.
It is with much self-complacency that I recollect our meeting, and my having in a few minutes’ conversation at a literary dinner in London, discovered that I was talking to a young lady of uncommon genius and talents.
I believe that some of the harpers you mention were at
the Harpers’ Prize Ball at Granard, near this place, in 1782 or 1783. One
female harper, of the name of Bridget, obtained the second
prize; Fallon earned off the first. I think I have heard
the double-headed man. My daughter published an essay on the subject of that
prize in an obscure newspaper, of which we have no copy. I shall try at the
printer’s to obtain a
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I think it is a duty, and I am sure it is a pleasure, to contribute as far as it is in my power, to the fame of a writer who has done so much, and so well, for her country.
Maria, who reads (it is said), as well as she writes, has entertained us with several passages from the Wild Irish Girl, which I thought superior to any parts of the book which I had read. Upon looking over her shoulder, I found she had omitted some superfluous epithets. Dare she have done this if you had been by? I think she would have dared; because your good taste and good sense would have been instantly her defenders.
