Page:The poetical works of William Cowper (IA poeticalworksof00cowp).pdf/58

l Lady Austen was the widow of a baronet, *and sister-in-law of a clergyman named Jones, residing at Clifton, near Olney, with whom Cowper had a slight acquaintance. In the summer of 1 781, whilst he was preparing his first volume for press, Cowper saw the two sisters shopping in the street at Olney. He was so struck with Lady Austen's appearance that lie persuaded Mrs. Unwin to invite them to tea. They came; then he was so shy that Mrs. Unwin had difficulty in bringing him to meet them. But as soon as they met all reserve vanished, and they were "like old friends together." Lady Austen and he soon came to address each other as "William" and "Sister Ann." For awhile all went delightfully. She was lively and full of anecdote, and sang and played well; and she was pleased with him, the well-bred, interesting, thoughtful man. The party dined, walked, pic-nicked together constantly, and Lady Austen announced her intention of taking a house at Olney, as the lease of her town house was nearly out. When she returned to town in October, both Cowper and Mrs. Unwin felt the blank. The "Poetical Epistle" at p. 337 was addressed to her during this absence, and may be read with interest here. It will be seen that he anticipated great results from the new acquaintance, though what they are to be does not exactly appear. It was written in December 1781, yet in the following February a fracas had taken place which nearly brought the acquaintance to an end. The circumstances are unknown, the only account being contained in a letter from Cowper to Unwin. "The lady, in her correspondence," he says, "expressed a sort of romantic idea of our merits, and built such expectations of felicity upon our friendship, as we were sure that nothing human can possibly answer, and I wrote to her not to think more lightly of us than the subject would warrant; and intimating that when we embellish a creature with colours taken from our own fancy, and so adorned, admire and praise it beyond its real merits, we make it an idol, and have nothing to expect in the end but that it will deceive our hopes, and that we shall derive nothing from it but a painful conviction of our error. Your mother heard me read the letter; she read it herself, and honoured it with her warm approbation. But it gave mortal offence. It received, indeed, an answer, but such a one as I could by no means reply to." What are we to make of all this? Had Lady Austen fallen in love with him, and been repelled in this letter. of his at Mrs. Unwin's instigation? Or was Mrs. Unwin jealous without cause? If so, no wonder that Lady Austen was angry. Probability, considering events which followed, inclines to the former view. That it was a quarrel between the ladies especially, appears from an expression of Hayley, who had seen the correspondence. He calls it "a trifling feminine discord."

Meanwhile Cowper might with advantage have learned from this, that two persons who are not brother and sister had better not call themselves so. However, the breath was soon healed. She sent him some worked ruffles as a present, got