Wednesday. July 13.
Much better day,—in spite of the violent rain last night which agitated me teeth and all!— Arabel & I got out of bed & ran to Minny (little dears!) and I was in a thunder-&-lightening fright; & my teeth did what my tongue does sometime—chattered. Dreaming over Udolpho. My impression is that Mrs. Radcliffe’s spell-word is “Tremble” not “Weep”. She is not great in pathos.
Wrote a part of a letter to Papa. None from him. Grumbled & had my hair curled, & went to Colwall with Bro, to meet as I understood only Lord Somers & Lady Margaret. Found there Mrs. G Jones[1] & Miss Biddulph, & Col: Drummond & Mrs. Drumond.[2] Provoked— But I can wear sackcloth, (sometimes), without making faces—so I made none on this occasion. Mrs. Jones & Miss Biddulph are unassuming & apparently amiable, & not silly; but their faces & manners & conversation want expression. “Stirring up with a long pole” would be as useful with regard to them, as to the wild beasts late of Exeter Change.[3] Col: Drummond “thinks himself an Adonis” according to the general opinion. As long as he does not think himself a Solon, I wont complain. A goose may plume herself; & so may he, … on his externals. Mrs. Drummond talks like thunder. Lady Margaret sate next me after dinner, & we had some interesting conversation, about German & Italian. I confessed that if ever I learnt German, it shd. be more for the sake of reading the Sorrows of Werter[4] than Klopstock’s Messiah.[5] So it shd. We got home at half past ten; &c--
1. The mother-in-law of Mr. Biddulph’s daughter Augusta Eleanor.
2. Members of the local social circle, who lived at Underdown, ½ mile from Ledbury.
3. The menagerie was removed from Exeter ’Change in 1828, prior to the demolition of the building during the widening of the Strand in 1830. Until then, “ … the sight-lover had to pay half-a-crown to see a few animals confined in small dens and cages … the walls painted with exotic scenery, in order to favour the illusion; … The roar of the lions and tigers of Exeter ’Change could be distinctly heard in the street, and often frightened horses in the roadway” (Walter Thornbury and Edward Walford, Old and New London, 6 vols., London, 1873–78, III, 116).
4. [Johann Wolfgang von Goethe], Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (Leipzig, 1774).
5. [Gottlieb Friedrich Klopstock], “Der Messias: ein Heldengedicht [first three cantos], (Halle, 1749).
