ue stockings, and is at operas and other gay
assemblies every night.' Montagu's _Letters_, iv. 117.

[348] See _ante_, in. 293, note 5.

[349] Miss Burney thus describes her:--'She is between thirty and
forty, very short, very fat, but handsome; splendidly and fantastically
dressed, rouged not unbecomingly yet evidently, and palpably desirous of
gaining notice and admiration. She has an easy levity in her air,
manner, voice, and discourse, that speak (sic) all within to be
comfortable.... She is one of those who stand foremost in collecting all
extraordinary or curious people to her London conversaziones, which,
like those of Mrs. Vesey, mix the rank and the literature, and exclude
all beside.... Her parties are the most brilliant in town.' Miss Burney
then describes one of these parties, at which were present Johnson,
Burke, and Reynolds. 'The company in general were dressed with more
brilliancy than at any rout I ever was at, as most of them were going to
the Duchess of Cumberland's.' Miss Burney herself was 'surrounded by
strangers, all dressed superbly, and all looking saucily.... Dr. Johnson
was standing near the fire, and environed with listeners.' Mme.
D'Arblay's _Diary_, ii. 179, 186, 190. Leslie wrote of Lady Corke in
1834 (_Autobiographical Recollections_, i. 137, 243):--'Notwithstanding
her great age, she is very animated. The old lady, who was a lion-hunter
in her youth, is as much one now as ever.' She ran after a Boston negro
named Prince Saunders, who 'as he put his Christian name "Prince" on his
cards without the addition of Mr., was believed to be a native African
prince, and soon became a lion of the first magnitude in fashionable
circles.' She died in 1840.

[350] 'A lady once ventured to ask Dr. Johnson how he liked Yorick's
[Sterne's] _Sermons_. "I know nothing about them, madam," was his reply.
But some time afterwards, forgetting himself, he severely censured them.
The lady retorted:--"I understood you to say, Sir, that you had never
read them." "No, Madam, I did read them, but it was in a stage-coach; I
should not have even deigned to look at them had I been at large."
Cradock's _Memoirs_, p. 208.

[351] See _ante_, iii. 382, note 1.

[352] Next day I endeavoured to give what had happened the most
ingenious turn I could, by the following verses:--

To THE HONOURABLE Miss MONCKTON.

'Not that with th' excellent Montrose
I had the happiness to dine;
Not that I late from