Beschreibung:

Seven autograph letters signed "A Seward" to her cousin, Mrs. Thomas (Jane) Martin of Nottingham.
Lichfield: 13 April 1785-24 March 1803. 25 pp., folded (varying in size, from 230 x 187 mm to 257 x 200 mm), with integral address sheets. Condition: folds, postmarks, remnants of red wax seals, seal holes with slight loss to text, minor foxing to a few leaves, the 23 December 1786 letter with tape repairs, affecting some text. 13 April 1785: Seward expresses irritation at the unscrupulous copying of her latest publication, "I sent to the Gent. Mag. a memoir of my Carpenter Bard,and extract from those his letters…a poem of his, & one of mine, address'd to him. They appear'd in the last Publication; &, the very day after…the Editor of the Whitehall Evening Post had the effrontery to copy the memoir, as if address's to himself …," and gossips about various acquaintances and the particular matter of Thomas Martin's land, which she would like to lease: "When you write to your caro sposo [Mr. Martin], have the goodness to tell him, that his Tenant, Mr. Gill of this place, has play'd a very shabby trick [extortion of the land lease] … I believe this sort of gratuity is common for Tradesmen's shops, but unprecedented for Pasture… I cou'd wish that he wou'd immediately give his present Tenant warning…of my own desire to become Mr. Martin's Tenant." As for family matters, her father's health remains "much the same…I hope rather better than worse." 11 February 1786: The letter opens with Seward's contentment at her cousin's improving health and an account of her father's state, "My poor Father has been much better… The only possible means of persuading him to stay at home was, by representing to his growing passion for money, the saving which wou'd be produced in his yearly income by laying aside the Chaise…" Seward then discusses her inheritance from the Grange estate, which she desires to sell, and the current entertainment: "We have a wretched set of Players here, amongst whom one charming actress [Mrs. Reilly] appears as an oriental pearl wou'd do amidst a knot of gangreen'd french beads…" 17 June 1786: Although Seward's letter begins typically, with an update on her father's health, "Great is the comfort of finding my Father as well as when I left him," the greater portion is devoted to commentary on the music and musicians of the Abby Festival, "…Mr. Harrison opened the Messiah with great pathos, & elegance; tho' his voice is not of sufficient power , nor his enthusiasm of sufficient glow , to give the full effect, which Handel designed, to the energetic part of that first divine Recitative… Rubinelli is the present rage…," and of her latest socializing, "I made several new acquaintances among the Literati, to [whom I] was introduced by Miss Williams, my fair Sister of the Lyre [whose] charming Poems are just published… I receiv'd the following brilliant & flattering Impromptu from a Gentleman of this set, whose name is Gregory… When Guido was asked, as we read, to define Where he caught his fine taste, and his manner divine, He produc'd a stout Porter, of muscular size, With a Cerberus front, & with Gorgon-like eyes From this exquisite model he sketch'd out a face Replete with all softness, expression, & grace. So Seward, with matchless, with magical art, From the rhymes of old Creech, & the prose of Kit Smart, From Duncombe, from Dunster, & each bald translation, Produces bright streams of divine inspiration… 8 October 1786: Seward begins with concern for her cousin's eyes, and explains she cannot leave her father since she was absent so much of the summer: "…there wou'd be neither pity, nor conscience in leaving my poor Father again this autumn…" On the death of her cousin she laments, "Poor Ned Martin's release from a World, in which his great infirmities gave him so little chance for comfort, is surely a blessing to himself… Poor Child--never shall I forget the strange, huge, swoln, distorted Infant he was, when I saw him lying in the cradle, at 6 months old." The remainder of the letter describes a visit to Mr. and Mrs. Gran