Page:Hannah More (1887 Charlotte Mary Yonge British).djvu/43

Rh became the blood of the Percys; and in so genteel and respectful a manner, that it was impossible for the nicest pride to take umbrage at it."

There must have been much reality and good acting, for when the letter was intercepted by the villain, a voice from the shilling gallery called out, "Pray send it to Mr. Percy." Sally and Patty came up to enjoy the sight, and found that the authoress had just been presented with a wreath of Roman laurel, "the stems confined within an elegant ring." It came from Mrs. Boscawen, and was acknowledged in some fanciful verses, not without grace, though modern taste might smile at the frequent interposition of the hard-worked Apollo. Four thousand copies of the play were sold in a fortnight, and, actually in the life-time of Sheridan, almost in that of Goldsmith, Hannah was exalted as the best dramatic writer of the day.

Vers de société writing was one of the favourite amusements of the day, and Hannah and the clever Mrs. Barbauld vied in their composition. When Garrick gave Miss More the shoe-buckles he had worn at his last appearance on the stage, Mrs. Barbauld wrote—

After a visit to Dr. Lowth, Bishop of London, at Fulham Palace, Hannah wrote a ballad expressing the disgust of Bonner's ghost at the sight of the