AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF MISS KNIGHT.*
FIRST NOTICE.
TEE name which figures on this title-page is probably but little known to the present generation except by sonic references to its author in Croker's Edition of Boswell's "Johnson;" but many who are versed in the annals of European society during the early part of this century will have wished to learn something more of one who was occasionally a prominent member of its most distin- guished circles, and who enjoyed unusual opportunities of observa- tion among some of the most remarkable personages of her time. The journal of a clever and ladylike woman, who saw many men and many cities, and whose testimony is not heightened by the warmth of too lively an imagination, nor blackened by the tints of malice, must be—what we have found it to be—unusually interesting reading. It is, moreover, put before us in a form which must be considered ex- ceedingly creditable to its .publishers, and to those to whom they have entrusted it. Due editorial care, and a proper judgment in selection and annotation, are so extremely uncommon among those who generally prepare books of this class for the public, that we feel bound to express our cordial thanks to Mr. Kaye and his co- adjutor, Mr. James Hutton, for the complete and at the same time unobtrusive fashion in which they have performed their task. A short foot-note is appended to all names, with regard to which a • Autobiography of Oorndia Haight, Lady Companion to the Princess Char- lotte ot wales. With is from her Journals 11.nd Anecdote Books. In two
volumes. W. IL Allen Saul Co.
reader of the present day is likely to feel curiosity ; anti where the autobiographer refers to published books, their full title is given. In these and all similar points nothing is left to be desired by the most lazy or ignorant of readers. Miss Ellis Cornelia Knight was born in the year 1757. • Her life naturally divides itself into four portions. She was the daughter of Admiral Sir Joseph Knight, a thoroughly good officer, hy his second wife, a lady whose intellectual qualities and fineness of character are affectionately, and doubtless deservedly, eulogized by the daughter whom she so completely formed. Up to the age of eighteen, Cornelia appears to have resided with her mother in England, and during her childhood and youth had the opporl unity of seeing much of the lite- rary society which has made that age famous. At the house of Sir Joshua Reynolds, whose sister was Mrs. Knight's intimate friend, she met with Johnson, Burke, Goldsmith, Langton, and Beauclerk. She liked Burke the best., and was "delighted with his conversation." Goldsmith amused her by his " buffoonery," which seems to have been of a very inoffensive and not vulgar character. We forget whether this story has been published before: " On some occasion he was told that he must wear a silk coat, and he purchased one second-hand which had been a nobleman's, without observing that there was vi- sible on the breast a mark showing where a star had been." Johnson's treatment of Lady Knight is a strong testimony to her intellectual merit, for she could venture to dissent from him without ever receiv- ing from him a disagreeable reply. He was very intimate with Sir Joseph, and it was on leaving his ship that he sent the request to the first lieutenant, in whom strong language lie was told was necessary, "that lie would not use one oath more thanwas absolutely required for the service of his Majesty."
In 1775 begins the second period of her history. Sir Joseph Knight died, and his widow failing to receive a pension, went to live on the Con- tinent. At Paris Cornelia met with 13oscovicli and Lalande, and says, a propos of the latter's " Voyage d'Italie," that a Venetian senator, on. being asked how he liked it, answered, " i11. Lalande, nous desirons tom que vows fassiez un second voyage." Boscovich was famous, not
only for his scientific powers but for voyage."
faculty of extemporizing in
Latin verse. It was then the year 1776, and Miss Knight saw many a ho were destined to be victims of the Revolution : the king with his grave, melancholy air, the queen, less beautiful than graceful and pleasing, and the handsome and distinguished Princesse de bamballe. Front Paris she proceeded to Toulouse, where she spent the winter, attended the Floral Games, and heard some of those " premiated" compositions of which the French have always been so fond. She also heard the original version of the "Maid and the Magpie," which was anything but a comedy, the unfortunate heroine of the story having been actually executed before the real purloiner of the jewels was discovered. On her way to Italy, Miss Knight passed some time at Montpellier, where she attended the opening of the Assembly of the Slates of Languedoc., and took notes of a speech from the Arch- bishop of Narbonne, which, in the enlightened commercial principles it lays down, is considerably in advance of the creed of many of his countrymen, even at the present day. Of the relation between the local magnates and the deputies of the royal nut hority, she gives a picture which will be interesting to the readers of " De Tocgaeville." At Rome, the journey to which from Marseilles, owing. to various travelling mishaps, took no less than forty days, the Knights found many of their own people, forming a list of aristocratic names still familiar, but not otherwise remarkable. The most prominent person in Roman society was the French Ambassador, the Cardinal de Bernis, of whose career she notes some interesting details. His cha- racter, one fancies, might have suggested that of interesting in Dumas's " Trois Mowiquetaires." Of Roman society, Miss Knight gives a favourable account, which, we imagine, would still be applicable to the best natii e circles in all other parts of Italy. It was characterized by great propriety of manner with great wit and cheerfulness, also by great regularity in the manner of amusement. Ladies always fre- quented the same part of the room, and talked to the same people, but no one interfered or made remarks, nor were the cicisbei (thinks the autobiographer) other than innocent—as a general rule—in their attentions. Perhaps it may be a consequence of this tolerant spirit that the anecdotes given by Miss Knight, in this part of her work, are not very piquant. The following is, perhaps, the most amusing: " Mr. Jenkins told us of a curious affair that happened at Urbino. The governor of that town, Monsignor Lucchesini, whose power was almost absolute, being offended with the nobility of the place because they had beaten one of his ser- vants, searched through the records for some obsolete law with which he could plague them. He found an obsolete ordinance, which forbade the nobility of Urbino to stir out at night without carrying torches, which all Italians haves great aversion to doing. So he insisted upon this law being put in force, and when they refused to obey, he ordered the barigel [sheriff] to compel them to do so. That off. er, however, told him that he dared nut act against all the principal families of the town ; but the prelate still remained obstinate. Whereupon all the families of the nobility assembled, and agreed to go with. their torches to the door of a lady's house, whom mon..igitor visited every evening by stealth. Ac- cordingly, they posted themselves at the door just at the time he usually went away, and he had the pleasure of being escorted home in the full light of all their torches."
Miss Knight confirms all that we have heard of the excesses in which the young Pretender lost himself during his residence in Italy, but takes too favourable a view of the conduct of the Countess of Albany in the Alfieri affair. At the house of Cardinal de Bernis she met the Emperor Joseph 11., travelling as Count Falkenstein, and the King of Sweden, who was known as Conte de Hasa. The former won golden opinions from the Italian; but the latter was mean in money matters, and used to scratch his head with his fork at dinner, and then use it to eat with; and he took advantage of ins position to see everything worth notice without paying anything. Miss Knight also made the acquaintance of Koehler, who had been General Elliott's aide-de-camp at Gibraltar, who told her many anec- dotes which will increase, if possible, the reader's admiration forthe bravery and kindness of that hero's character. After a visit to Naples, in 1785-6, which seems from the Court downwards to have been in a singularly uncivilized condition, as regards manners and dress, Miss Knight returned to France, in which the revolutionary ferment was beginning to make itself apparent ; but in 1789 she returned to Italy, and stayed for some time at Genoa, the society of which she describes as truly deserving the name of "Merchant Princes." Its members were keen in business matters, but magnificently liberal in their private establishments. The commercial element was so pre- dominant that military men were but little thought of, though the navy enjoyed much consideration. In 1791, Miss Knight was once more in Rome, where, after the vain attempt on the part of France to make the Pope recognize the Republic, she witnessed the expulsion of three thousand French inhabitants, and remained in that city till 1798, when the occupation by General Berthier obliged her to make her escape to Naples. The chapters which relate to her residence in the capital of the Two Sicilies are among the most interesting in these volumes. She was intimate with Sir William and Lady Hamilton, and one of the first events which occurred after her arrival was the announcement by the English ambassador, at a grand dinner party at his own house, of the approach of Nelson's squadron, which Lord St. Vincent had just despatched from Gibraltar. The sensation produced by this news was indescribable ; it was for weeks the only subject of con- versation, and the telescope was daily directed to the western horizon to catch the first glimpse of the protecting sails. At last a group of masts was visible between Capri and Pausilippo, from which a sloop soon detached itself to ask for intelligence of the French fleet of which Nelson was in pursuit. None could be obtained, and the squadron again disappeared, leaving the Neapolitans in a fever of expectation. Miss Knight's account of its fulfilment is so graphic that it must be given in her own words :
"Our telescope was constantly directed towards the entrance of the beautiful bay, the prospect of which we so perfectly enjoyed from our windows. At length, one morning, while I was reading to my mother, I happened to torn my eyes towards the sea, and thought I discerned a sloop of war in the offing. I con- sulted the glass, and found that I was not mistaken. I also plainly saw that a blue ensign was hoisted, but this was no proof that the vessel belonged to the squadron of Sir Horatio Nelson, for blue was also the colour of Lord St. Vincent's flag. My attention was instantly distracted from my book, and my dear mother was rather displeased with my evident preoccupation, for I did not venture to confess my hopes lest I should raise hers too high, and cause her the pain of disappointment. "I forget what I was reading, but it was something that peculiarly interested my mother, and she began at last to think that I could not be so negligent without a cause of some importance. She rose from her seat, and went to the telescope. The sloop was now approaching nearer and nearer to the land. The book was laid aside, and we alternately kept an eye at the glass. Presently we saw a boat put off from the shore, and pull out to the ship. Two officers were on deck, and drew near to the side. We clearlydistinguished a gold epaulet on the shoulder, and this was quite sufficient to convince us that one was the commander of the sloop and the other a captain going home with despatches. News of a victory, no doubt. We observed the gestures of the officers while they were conversing with the persons in the boat, Englishmen resident at Naples. We fancied we could see them, with the commotion natural to sailors, and particu- larly on such an occasion, depict by their action the blowing up of some ships and the sinking of others."
The battle of the Nile had been fought and won. Miss Knight ran to General di Pietra—her next-door neighbour and a veteran in the war between Spain and Austria—to communicate the news. The exclamations of the servant were heard in the dining-room, where a party was assembled, before whom she was obliged to go in and tell her story, which was received with bursts of applause, toasts, and shouts of exultation, and so many glasses were broken that the General said lie should not have one left to drink Nelson's health in on his arrival. The French and their sympathizers were proportion- ably downcast; the consul, brother of the Abbe Sieyas, did not venture into his balcony, " and even Madame de Sieyes and her pug were seldom visible." Nelson came soon after, and took up his quarters at the English Ambassador's, where he renewed his ac- quaintance with the fascinating Emma, whom he had first met in 1793, and received the outwardly sincere but really envious con- gratulations of Caraccioli, who was destined to be so fatally linked with their common history. Miss Knight was not so absorbed in tier own joy as to forget the foreigners at Rome who were equally interested in the success of the English arms. In her correspondence with Angelica Kauffman, who then resided there, she alluded to the French as "landscape artists," and the English as "historical painters," and signified the cession of Malta by referring to the subject of the picture to the " Acts of the Apostles," a work with which she thought the French spies were most unlikely to be well acquainted. To a gentleman in the Pope's suite at Valence she sent intelligence under the guise of fragments of Greek tragedies recently discovered, and the "Seven against Thebes" and the "Agamemnon" furnished an easy code of symbols. She did not confine her efforts to Greek verse, for she at on this, and a subsequent occasion, two stanzas to the National Anthem, a task which procured for her the title of "Nelson's poet-laureate."
When in the winter of 1798 the French returned in force, reoccu- pied Rome, and the royal family left Naples for Sicily, Miss Knight followed them. At Palermo, Lady Knight died, recommending her to the care of Sir W. Hamilton and Lord Nelson. There was at this period no scandal on the subject of Lady Hamilton, and Miss Knight lived with Mrs. Cadogan, Lady Hamilton's mother, until the English Ambassador was recalled, when she accompanied them both to Eng- land. The remainder of her career will afford matter of sufficient interest for another article.
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