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The Birtwhistles of Craven and Galloway
Appendix 3 cont.
She needed such a guide, as the race of good old women in the country is wholly extinct. (Perhaps she spelled herself very much like Lady Ann, and wrote at least as well, if we may judge by that celebrated lady’s autograph. Her father’s secretary had £5 per annum; but those who could read his writing deserved it as much). Native shrewdness and a real ambition to please, the first principle both of politeness and genius, made this untutored rustic assiduous in devices to suit the fond fancies of her nominal parent. She accompanied him in his evening walks among the fells and waterfalls near his domain, cause the wild rose- bushes to be fostered, and his favourite oaks woven into a canopy. These were the arts of her private hours; in public she had attractions no less powerful. Cheered and soothed by the semblance of a daughter’s kindness, the visionary man became fond of society, and solicitous to see his daughter loved. It was a subject of strange curiosity and much admiration to the people of the provincial town; and when whispers were circulated that she was going to walk, to ride, or to appear at church, crowds were sure to assemble. On the anniversary of her arrival, Abraham was once more ordered to provide a splendid feast for his tenants and dependents. When they were all assembled in the old dining room of the baronial mansion, the Lord of the Manor had brought the nominal Lady Ann to her place at his head, and made this unexpected oration to his vassals; “Gentlemen, as you well know, I have been thought mad above twelve-months by all my friends, and by some, mad since birth. Of the first opinion you shall judge presently; of the second you ought to have some doubts, as I have myself. Who among you has not seen the labour and the sums lavished to make my former daughter seem what an uneducated woman is? What did the modern and highly fashioned Lady Ann acquire which her representative will not display as gracefully? – Was it any ornamental art?- None, for the refinement of good taste forbids a woman of rank to be her own artist. Was it an easy and natural neglect of polished decorum and courtly complaisance? Judge for yourself whether the ease of ignorance is not more perfect than the assumption of affected apathy. This pupil of nature will be rude with more amiable rashness, and please by greater novelty. Judge too how cheaply I have gained for this young stranger all the glory of that notoriety which fashionable women perish to obtain! The wardrobe of old Lady Ann De Clifford made her the object of more pleasant and less envious wonder than a belle or heiress of the newest ton. She will shew how nearly the excess of ignorance approaches the perfection of modern education- it excels it, perhaps; for she who knows nothing has nothing to unlearn, while the pupils of false taste acquire sciences she must			disdain to shew, and learns morals never meant for use. She needs nothing but the art of forgetting, which I mean to teach her. I present her to you as my adopted and future heiress, certain that no one will remember her deficiencies or origin. Let her but seem to have learned more than ever could have been useful, and I make no use of what she has really learned, and she will be all that fashion can make her, and all that Lady Ann De Clifford need be in 1819”.
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