Listings for Reader:
Mary Berry
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: Psalms and chapters
Mary Berry, 'Notes of Early Life': 'My dear grandmother [...] made me read the Psalms and chapters to her every morning; but, as neither explanation nor comment was made upon them, nor their history followed up in any way, I hated the duty and escaped it when I could.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Addison and Steele (ed.) : The Spectator
Mary Berry, 'Notes of Early Life': 'My dear grandmother [...] made me read the Psalms and chapters to her every morning; but, as neither explanation nor comment was made upon them, nor their history followed up in any way, I hated the duty and escaped it when I could. The same consequence took place by the same dear parent making me read every Sunday to her a Saturday paper in the "Spectator," which, till the middle of life, prevented my ever looking at those exquisite essays, or being aware of the beauties of the volumes they were in.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Serial / periodical
Madame Roland : (passages from) Reverie du Bois de Vincennes
Lady Theresa Lewis reproduces passages from posthumously-published writings of the 23-year-old Madame Roland, transcribed by Mary Berry when aged 22, 'as parallel to her own reflections [which also written in French]'.
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
Isocrates : oration
Mary Berry to Anne Damer, October 1798: 'Do you know that I have been working as hard at Greek for this week past as you could possibly desire? The parson who I mentioned in my last, stayed till yesterday. He is a very good scholar, and much in the habit of teaching. He corrected a piece of Isocrates which I had done by myself, and then read on with me in the same oration, and whilst he was here I translated above two pages more, writing them down, I mean, and all the verbs and their parts in the opposite page'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
August von Kotzebue : Lovers' Vows
Mary Berry to a friend, 19 November 1798: 'Don't let me forget to advise you to to read the "Natural Son," or "Lovers' Vows;" it is the entire and literal translation of the play which is now acting with such success at Covent Garden, but [italics]not[end italics] as it is acted; you can get it at Todd's [bookseller's], where I did, to read in the chaise. I think it quite charming, and it affected me much [...] You must allow for German manners and for the (at all times) sad disguise of a translation.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Robert Malthus : Essay on the Principle of Population
Mary Berry to a friend, 19 November 1798: 'Don't let me forget to advise you to to read the "Natural Son," or "Lovers' Vows;" it is the entire and literal translation of the play which is now acting with such success at Covent Garden, but [italics]not[end italics] as it is acted; you can get it at Todd's [bookseller's], where I did, to read in the chaise [...] Another book which I purchased at Todd's and read in my chaise was the "Essay on Population" which Mr. Wrangham left with you. It is uncommonly clearly thought and written, and contains much curious and uncontrovertible reasoning on the subject in question.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Wraxhall : work on period of Henry III (second volume)
Mary Berry to a friend, 14 December, 1798: 'During my illness I have finished the 2nd vol. of Wraxhall which I had just begun at Brandsby, and which I like better and better the farther I go. I have consulted, too, one of his authorities for many things in the age of Henry the Third, Montaigne's Essays, a very curious and an [italics]astonishing[end italics] book, considering the times in which it was written, and which one never consults without entertainment. I have re-read, too, Condorcet's book, and compared his ideas and arguments on the subject of population with those of the Essay [by Malthus] we have been reading, and certainly the Essay has not only the best of the argument [...] but is absolute [italics]conviction[end italics]on the subject of the different ratios in which population, and the means of subsisting that population, increase'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Wraxhall : work on period of Henry III (second volume)
Mary Berry to a friend, 14 December, 1798: 'During my illness I have finished the 2nd vol. of Wraxhall which I had just begun at Brandsby, and which I like better and better the farther I go. I have consulted, too, one of his authorities for many things in the age of Henry the Third, Montaigne's Essays, a very curious and an [italics]astonishing[end italics] book, considering the times in which it was written, and which one never consults without entertainment. I have re-read, too, Condorcet's book, and compared his ideas and arguments on the subject of population with those of the Essay [by Malthus] we have been reading, and certainly the Essay has not only the best of the argument [...] but is absolute [italics]conviction[end italics]on the subject of the different ratios in which population, and the means of subsisting that population, increase'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Michel de Montaigne : Essays
Mary Berry to a friend, 14 December, 1798: 'During my illness I have finished the 2nd vol. of Wraxhall which I had just begun at Brandsby, and which I like better and better the farther I go. I have consulted, too, one of his authorities for many things in the age of Henry the Third, Montaigne's Essays, a very curious and an [italics]astonishing[end italics] book, considering the times in which it was written, and which one never consults without entertainment. I have re-read, too, Condorcet's book, and compared his ideas and arguments on the subject of population with those of the Essay [by Malthus] we have been reading, and certainly the Essay has not only the best of the argument [...] but is absolute [italics]conviction[end italics]on the subject of the different ratios in which population, and the means of subsisting that population, increase'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Condorcet : [book including discussion on population]
Mary Berry to a friend, 14 December, 1798: 'During my illness I have finished the 2nd vol. of Wraxhall which I had just begun at Brandsby, and which I like better and better the farther I go. I have consulted, too, one of his authorities for many things in the age of Henry the Third, Montaigne's Essays, a very curious and an [italics]astonishing[end italics] book, considering the times in which it was written, and which one never consults without entertainment. I have re-read, too, Condorcet's book, and compared his ideas and arguments on the subject of population with those of the Essay [by Malthus] we have been reading, and certainly the Essay has not only the best of the argument [...] but is absolute [italics]conviction[end italics]on the subject of the different ratios in which population, and the means of subsisting that population, increase'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Luigi Tansillo : "The Nurse"
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 11 December 1798: '[William] Roscoe has just sent us a poem of his translation from an Italian poet whose very name was unknown to my shadowy Italian erudition. It is called "The Nurse," from "La Babia" of Luigi Tansillo. I have read it over, tho' not yet with sufficient attention; but I am disappointed in it, because I expect nothing but what is excellent from his pen. The subject, which is reprobating hired nurses and exhorting all women to suckle their own children, does not do in English verse, tho' the [italics]Ariosto-like[end italics] familiarity and simplicity of the original, makes it pretty in the inimitable beauty of the Italian language [...] The poem is published, beautifully printed, with the Italian on the opposite page; it is not long, and you can no doubt get it at York.'
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
John Milton : Paradise Lost
Mary Berry, in reflections on reading (1798): 'When I read "Paradise Lost," I am no more able to conceive the powers of imagination and genius exerted by Milton in the composition of that poem, than I am able to conceive the intellect of Sir Isaac Newton in the demonstration of the phenomena of the universe. Both seem to me beings more exalted above myself in the scale of intellectual perfection, than I am above the brute creation.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Somerville : History of Great Britain During the Reign of Queen Anne; with a Dissertation concerning the Danger of the Protestant Succession
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 12 January 1799: 'Somerville's "Anne" is, I think, more dry than his "William," but clear, distinct, impartial, and wonderfully informing; his chapters on the Union of Scotland are particularly so [goes on to note aspects of Scottish situation during Queen Anne's reign, including rebellious elements ('of none of which circumstances I had before any just idea') and to compare this with current situation in Ireland]'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Colonel Mathew : letter
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 3 February 1799: 'I hope you have read the Irish debates on the Union. I think you will have found in them much abuse, little eloquence, and very little argument [...] I myself was shown a letter by Mathew (Col. Mathew), which, from its handwriting, and the office manner in which it was drawn up, I am sure must have come from a clerk of the Parliament'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
: Cease your Funning
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 3 February 1799: 'I hope you have read the Irish debates on the Union. I think you will have found in them much abuse, little eloquence, and very little argument [...] The famous Irish pamphlet in favor of the Union, called, "Cease your Funning", which after much trouble I got to read, disappointed me; it is sharp and well-kept-up irony from beginning to end, on a pamphlet on the other side, by the Ld Lieut.'s secretary; but it is not very entertaining, and not at all instructive.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
Wilberforce : ?Practical View of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Professed Christians
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 3 February 1799: 'In compliance with your request and my own wishes, I have been and am reading with much attention Mr. Wilberforce's book, and likewise strictures on it, in a series of letters by Mr. Belsham'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Belsham : A Review of Mr. Wilberforce's Practical View of the Prevailing Religious Systems of Professed Christians
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 3 February 1799: 'In compliance with your request and my own wishes, I have been and am reading with much attention Mr. Wilberforce's book, and likewise strictures on it, in a series of letters by Mr. Belsham'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Unknown
William Sotheby : "The Battle of the Nile"
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 19 February 1799: 'Mr. Sotheby sent me his "Battle of the Nile." [...] There seems to be a number of good lines in the poem, but the conduct of it is not to me clear'.
UnknownCentury: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
Hannah More : Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 2 April 1799: 'In the many hours I have spent alone this week, I have been able, though by very little bits at a time, to go entirely through Hannah More [whose "Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education" she writes of receiving on 21 March 1799], and Mrs. Woolstonecroft [sic] immediately after her.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mary Wollstonecraft : unknown
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 2 April 1799: 'In the many hours I have spent alone this week, I have been able, though by very little bits at a time, to go entirely through Hannah More [whose "Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education" she writes of receiving on 21 March 1799], and Mrs. Woolstonecroft [sic] immediately after her.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Charles James Fox : letter to Uvedale Price on series of plays
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 17 May 1799: 'I was much entertained by some letters which [Uvedale] Price showed me from Sr George Beaumont, Fox, and Knight, containing criticisms on the series of plays which he (Price) had set them all reading. They were excellent, the ideas of three very superior understandings and tastes'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
Homer : The Iliad
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, Thursday 23 May 1799: 'I began Homer's Iliad on Wednesday last, to my no small delight, and felt no particular difficulty in the comprehension of the first doz. lines'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Madame de Sevigne : Letters
Mary Berry to Mrs Cholmeley, 5 October 1799: 'Mentioning [...] [Madame de Coigny] puts me in mind of a book which I am now [italics]devouring[end italics] with delight, though no new one, and I am now reading it for the third time. I mean Madme de Sevigne's Letters.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Bartholomew Mercier : Le Nouveau Paris
Mary Berry, letter of 26 December 1799: 'What little I could read during two days and part of two nights has been Mercier's "Nouveau Paris", a sort of continuation of his former "Tableau de Paris". This last, in six vols. is one of the most stupid, unclearly thought, ridiculous books I ever saw, and yet I read it, not without entertainment and instruction'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Bartholomew Mercier : Tableau de Paris
Mary Berry, letter of 26 December 1799: 'What little I could read during two days and part of two nights has been Mercier's "Nouveau Paris", a sort of continuation of his former "Tableau de Paris". This last, in six vols. is one of the most stupid, unclearly thought, ridiculous books I ever saw, and yet I read it, not without entertainment and instruction'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mackintosh : [unidentified "accounts of hs proposed lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations"]
Mary Berry, letter of 26 December 1799: 'What little I could read during two days and part of two nights has been Mercier's "Nouveau Paris", a sort of continuation of his former "Tableau de Paris". This last, in six vols. is one of the most stupid, unclearly thought, ridiculous books I ever saw, and yet I read it, not without entertainment and instruction [...] Of a very different nature is a little book I have lately read over again for the third or fourth time, -- I mean, Mackintosh's accounts of his proposed lectures on the Law of Nature and Nations. Such a compendious syllabus of all the leading principles of truth and virtue I never met with! I mentioned it to you last year, I think, when I first got it.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
William Godwin : St Leon
Mary Berry, in letter of 2 January 1800: 'I have been reading [...] a new novel of Godwin's, in four vols., called "The Travels of St. Leon." it is an odd work, like all his, and, like all his, interesting, tho' hardly ever pleasantly so; and while one's head often agrees with his observations, and sometimes with his reasoning, never does one's heart thoroughly agree with his sentiments on any subject or in any character [...] I should tell you, which I know from Edwards, that it was written for bread, agreed for by the booksellers beforehand, and actually composed and written as the printers wanted it. I think you will see many marks of this throughout the work if you read it, which I should recommend to you, if, like me, you have not seen a [italics]readable[end italics] novel this age.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Germaine De Stael : Delphine (three volumes)
Mary Berry to Anne Damer, from Nice, January 1803: 'In spite of my headaches yesterday, I contrived to read nearly three volumes of Madame de Stael's Delphine [...] It is certainly interesting [...] It is well written, too'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Madame De Sevigne : Letters
Mary Berry to a friend, from Nice, March 1803: 'I am reading over for the fiftieth time, I believe, the letters of Madame de Sevigne. They always improve on me, and are [italics]here[end italics] particularly interesting.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Catherine Fanshawe : "Ode, by Mary Berry."
Lady Theresa Lewis reproduces 1805 letter from Mary Berry (writing as Catherine Fanshawe) to Catherine Fanshawe, in response to poem written by Fanshawe as Berry, and lent to her in manuscript; having praised the piece and offered some specific criticisms, she closes with an injunction that Fanshawe 'show it sparingly to the few who may be worthy, and on no account distribute any copies without [her] [...] licence and authority'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Francesco Baldovini : 'Lamento di Cecco'
Mary Berry, Journal, 21 August 1807: 'Read a little of the "Lamento di Cecco," which, having often heard of, I had never seen before. It is a beautiful, simple, but not vulgar pastoral, in the Tuscan patois; but after the first three or four stanzas, not very difficult to understand. If it were, there are notes, which swell a poem of forty stanzas into a tolerable-sized quarto volume!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mr Greathead : Journals
Mary Berry, Journal, 23 August 1807: 'I remained in my room the whole morning reading Mr. Greathead [her host]'s Journals, which let me more into their every-day life, where they went, and what they did while abroad, than a month's conversation could do.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
: The Scotch Review
Mary Berry, Journal, 29 August 1807: 'In the evening read a good deal of the last Scotch Review [...] What they say of Mr. Hope [author of "Household Furniture and Internal Decorations executed from Designs"], though he lays himself open to ridicule, is ill-natured and often in bad taste. An excellent criticism upon Cobbett's weekly journal, exposing, in the clearest manner, his shameful inconsistencies [...] and holding up upon true Whig principles our real defects and real misconduct [...] only wishing them to be considered as they are, and not confounded with preposterous exaggeration in the minds of the people. But alas! the people read Cobbett, and will never read the Scotch Review.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Serial / periodical
Lister : Life of Clarendon
Mary Berry, Journal, 30 October 1807: 'In the evening began reading the "Life of Clarendon".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Lister : Life of Clarendon
Mary Berry, Journal, 11 November 1807: 'In the evening I read aloud "Clarendon's Life".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Lister : Life of Clarendon
Mary Berry, Journal, 16 November 1807: 'Read "Clarendon's Life" aloud in the evening.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Madame du Deffand : Letters
Mary Berry, Journal, 19 November 1807: 'After dinner read aloud some of Madame du Deffand's letters.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
Madame Neckar : Remains
Mary Berry, Journal, 23 November 1807: 'In Madame Neckar's ridiculous Remains, published by her husband, are some of the very best rules and advice for the manners and conduct of a woman no longer young in society. I will read them again. They always strike me as most justly conceived.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Roscoe : [unidentified pamphlet]
Mary Berry, Journal, 31 January 1808: 'Read through Roscoe's pamphlet and Spence's "England Independent of Commerce."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
William Spence : England Independent of Commerce
Mary Berry, Journal, 31 January 1808: 'Read through Roscoe's pamphlet and Spence's "England Independent of Commerce."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Unknown
Walter Scott : Marmion
Mary Berry, Journal, 9 March 1808: 'I went in the evening to Mrs. D[?amer]. Read "Marmion," just come out, to her.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Walter Scott : Marmion
Mary Berry, Journal, 10 March 1808: 'Read some more of "Marmion".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Homer : The Odyssey
Mary Berry, Journal, 14 March 1808: 'Began reading the "Odyssey" of Homer in Pope's translation. Delighted with it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Caroline Matilda Warren : Conrade, or the Gamesters
Mary Berry, Journal, 20 April 1808: 'At night finished Miss Warren's novel ["Conrade, or the Gamesters" by galloping over half the pages; human patience could not regularly wade through a series of adventures without "ensemble", of violent situations without interest or probability, and of characters equally pious or equally profligate.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Ashe : Travels in America
Mary Berry, Journal, 21 April 1808: 'In the evening began reading Ashe's "Travels in America", in the north-western settlements, behind the United States.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Ashe : Travels in America
Mary Berry, Journal, 22 April 1808: 'In the evening Ashe's Travels [in America] again. They are, I think, very entertaining in spite of an abominable style, which aims at being [italics]fine writing[end italics], without being grammar and without being English. But the wonderful country he describes makes every account of it which one sees and feels is written on the spot, very interesting.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Ashe : Travels in America
Mary Berry, Journal, 24 April 1808: 'In the evening, after dinner, I read aloud the sketch of my preface [to the letters of Mme du Deffand], and finished the evening with Ashe's Travels, which are very entertaining.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mary Berry : Draft preface to edition of letters of Mme du Deffand
Mary Berry, Journal, 24 April 1808: 'In the evening, after dinner, I read aloud the sketch of my preface [to the letters of Mme du Deffand], and finished the evening with Ashe's Travels, which are very entertaining.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Thomas Ashe : Travels in America
Mary Berry, Journal, 27 April 1808: 'In the evening Mrs. D[?amer], and [Thomas] Ashe's Travels [in America].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Ashe : Travels in America
Mary Berry, Journal, 1 May 1808: 'In the evening, [Thomas] Ashe's Travels [in America] as usual.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
William Gell : The Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca
Mary Berry, Journal, 10 May 1808: 'I began reading aloud Gell's "Ithaca".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
William Gell : The Geography and Antiquities of Ithaca
Mary Berry, Journal, 11 May 1808: 'In the evening, Gell's "Ithaca".'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
: The Times
Mary Berry, Journal, 17 May 1808: 'Read in the "Times" the confirmation of the wreck and positive loss of Lord Royston."
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Newspaper
Charles James Fox : Historical Work
Mary Berry, Journal, 2 June 1808: 'I began reading aloud Mr. Fox's historical work, in the beautiful large-paper copy which Robert Ferguson has given me.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Charles James Fox : Historical Work
Mary Berry, Journal, 3 June 1808: 'I continued reading Fox's work. It is very well to read it once out; but it suggests so much thought, and so many new views of things, that I shall read it over more than once to myself in a very different manner to what I am now doing.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Moore : 'Corruption'
Mary Berry, Journal, 9 June 1808: 'Dined at Lady Donegal's with Agnes [Berry, her sister]. Philippa (Godfrey), Charles Moore, and Anacreon [ie Thomas] Moore at dinner. I praised highly the two poems ("Corruption" and "Intolerance") that I had been reading in the morning, before the author (little Moore), without knowing it. After dinner he owned the fact, and was much pleased with my unsuspicious praise.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Moore : 'Intolerance'
Mary Berry, Journal, 9 June 1808: 'Dined at Lady Donegal's with Agnes [Berry, her sister]. Philippa (Godfrey), Charles Moore, and Anacreon [ie Thomas] Moore at dinner. I praised highly the two poems ("Corruption" and "Intolerance") that I had been reading in the morning, before the author (little Moore), without knowing it. After dinner he owned the fact, and was much pleased with my unsuspicious praise.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Moore : 'Intolerance'
Mary Berry, Journal, 11 June 1808: 'In the evening I read 'Corruption' and 'Intolerance' aloud.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Thomas Moore : 'Corruption'
Mary Berry, Journal, 11 June 1808: 'In the evening I read 'Corruption' and 'Intolerance' aloud.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Barillon : Letters
Mary Berry, Journal, 30 June 1808: 'In the evening I read "Barillon's Letters" in Mr. Fox's Appendix.'
Century: Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mrs Warburton : Letters to the Duchess of Argyll
Mary Berry, Journal, 14 August 1808, during stay at Bothwell Castle, seat of Lord Douglas: 'Sat till dinner-time in Lady Douglas's dressing-room, reading old letters to her grandmother, the Duchess of Argyll, from [italics]her[end italics] mother, Mrs Warburton, and to Lady Greenwich from the Duchess of Queensberry and several other persons. Remarkable form and expressions of respect in the letters of Mrs Warburton to her duchess daughter.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
Duchess of Queensbury : Letters to Lady Greenwich
Mary Berry, Journal, 14 August 1808, during stay at Bothwell Castle, seat of Lord Douglas: 'Sat till dinner-time in Lady Douglas's dressing-room, reading old letters to her grandmother, the Duchess of Argyll, from [italics]her[end italics] mother, Mrs Warburton, and to Lady Greenwich from the Duchess of Queensberry and several other persons. Remarkable form and expressions of respect in the letters of Mrs Warburton to her duchess daughter.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
: Letters to Lady Greenwich
Mary Berry, Journal, 14 August 1808, during stay at Bothwell Castle, seat of Lord Douglas: 'Sat till dinner-time in Lady Douglas's dressing-room, reading old letters to her grandmother, the Duchess of Argyll, from [italics]her[end italics] mother, Mrs Warburton, and to Lady Greenwich from the Duchess of Queensberry and several other persons. Remarkable form and expressions of respect in the letters of Mrs Warburton to her duchess daughter.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
Captain Adam : Letter to father
Mary Berry, Journal, 10 September 1808, during stay at Bothwell Castle, seat of Lord Douglas: 'Lord and Lady Rosslyn arrived at four o'clock [...] Lord Rosslyn gave me a letter to read from Captain Adam to his father, praising the conduct of Ronald at Vimeira in the most satisfactory manner. I went away to read it, which I did not do without tears.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
Mary Berry : Draft preface to edition of Letters of Madame du Deffand
Mary Berry, Journal, 22 September 1808, during stay at Bothwell Castle, seat of Lord Douglas: 'I read to Lady Douglas my sketch of a preface for the Letters [of Madame du Deffand], with which she seemed well pleased. Finished reading "The Tale of the Times," a novel, which, like most other novels, begins better than it finishes.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
unknown : The Tale of the Times
Mary Berry, Journal, 22 September 1808, during stay at Bothwell Castle, seat of Lord Douglas: 'I read to Lady Douglas my sketch of a preface for the Letters [of Madame du Deffand], with which she seemed well pleased. Finished reading "The Tale of the Times," a novel, which, like most other novels, begins better than it finishes.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
unknown : [C14th-C15th manuscripts]
Mary Berry, Journal, 21 February 1809: 'This morning I went to the [Middle] Temple to Mr. Lysons', to see some very ancient MSS. of the time of Henry IV., Edward IV., and Richard III., &c. &c., of which he is the depositary, as "Keeper of the Records in the Tower."'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Mary Berry : "Notice upon Madame du D[effand]'s Life"
Mary Berry, Journal, 28 April 1809: 'In the morning I saw Joanna [Baillie]. She stayed nearly an hour with me. I read to her my "Notice upon Madame du D----'s Life," with which she was so pleased that I could not but feel very much flattered.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Mary Berry : "Notice upon Madame du D[effand]'s Life"
Mary Berry, Journal, 12 May 1809: 'This morning I had the Bishop of Rodez with me for nearly two hours. I read to him my preface and my "Notice on the Life [of Madame du Deffand], &c., &c.," with which he was well pleased, saying it was impossible to give a more faithful picture of the person whom he had known during the latter years of his life in great intimacy.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Mary Berry : Preface to edition of Letters of Madame du Deffand
Mary Berry, Journal, 12 May 1809: 'This morning I had the Bishop of Rodez with me for nearly two hours. I read to him my preface and my "Notice on the Life [of Madame du Deffand], &c., &c.," with which he was well pleased, saying it was impossible to give a more faithful picture of the person whom he had known during the latter years of his life in great intimacy.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Joanna Baillie : The Family Legend (acts 1, 2, 3, 5)
Mary Berry, Journal, 7 June 1809: 'Mrs Cholmley and two of her daughters and Walter Scott breakfasted with us. Shortly after came Sir G. and Lady Beaumont, Robert Walpole and Lady Louisa Stuart, and Sir W. Pepys and F. Cholmley. Somebody was to read Joanna Baillie's tragedy, "The Family Legend;" this somebody was obliged to be me, as nobody else knew her hand, or had ever seen the play. I read the first three acts, Cholmley the fourth, and I again the fifth. It had a vast effect upon Walter Scott, and one that was very pleasing, from the evident feeling of one poet from another.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Joel Barlow : The Columbiad
Mary Berry, Journal, August 1809: 'I have been reading a strange poem -- the "Columbiad" of Poet [Joel] Barlow. Who or what he is I know not, except that he is an American, deeply imbued with all the bad taste and all the prejudices which belong to his nation, in its present state of society [makes various negative criticisms] [...] Yet I have been amused at this first American attempt at an epic, with all its faults, all its vulgarisms [...] and all its false reasoning. It is full of ideas, embraces an endless variety of subjects [...] Sets one a thinking, sometimes justly, but oftener to detect and wonder at its commonplace mistakes, and the conceit with which so many false and romantic doctrines are brought forward and dwelt upon [goes on to reflect further].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
unknown : account of military campaign in Spain
Mary Berry, Journal, 14 August 1809: 'In the evening read aloud the account of General Moore's campaign in Spain [makes various enthusiastic exclamations on this].'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
anon : Review of Mary Berry, ed., Letters of Madame du Deffand
Mary Berry, Journal, 16 March 1811: 'I had heard from Lord Stafford, at Lady Spencer's the night before, that the "Scotch Review," with the criticism upon "Madame du Deffand's Letters [edited by Berry]," was out; and this morning before I got my own, Lady Donegall sent me a copy she had got early. I ought to be much content, and I am [...] Blame, or notice of faults, there is none'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Serial / periodical
Joanna Baillie : Hope
Mary Berry, Journal, 19 May 1811, on stay with Joanna Baillie at Hampstead: 'Sat by the fire the whole day. Joanna Baillie gave us her drama upon Hope to read; it is only two acts, and I was soon through it. Very poetical, and much fancy, as all her things have; but this did not equal my expectation [...] It is certainly a dramatic story, but not dramatically managed.'
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
Erasmus Darwin : The Botanic Garden (first thirty lines)
Mary Berry to Horace Walpole [1789]: 'A thousand thanks for the "Botanic Garden." the first thirty lines, which I have just read, are delicious, and make me quite anxious to go on'.
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Unknown
Virgil : Works
Mary Berry, Journal, 27 April 1791: 'Florence. -- Went to see the Laurentian Medicean Library [...] The librarian, a very civil Canonico Bandini, showed us the Virgil of the fourth century, which they call the oldest existing; it is very fairly written, but less easy to read than the one in the Vatican. We saw, too, the Horace that belonged to Petrarch, with some notes in it by his own hand. It is in large quarto, and not a beautiful manuscript from the number of notes and scoliastes interrupting and confusing the text.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Horace : Works
Mary Berry, Journal, 27 April 1791: 'Florence. -- Went to see the Laurentian Medicean Library [...] The librarian, a very civil Canonico Bandini, showed us the Virgil of the fourth century, which they call the oldest existing; it is very fairly written, but less easy to read than the one in the Vatican. We saw, too, the Horace that belonged to Petrarch, with some notes in it by his own hand. It is in large quarto, and not a beautiful manuscript from the number of notes and scoliastes interrupting and confusing the text.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Francesco Petrarch : annotations to manuscript copy of works of Horace
Mary Berry, Journal, 27 April 1791: 'Florence. -- Went to see the Laurentian Medicean Library [...] The librarian, a very civil Canonico Bandini, showed us the Virgil of the fourth century, which they call the oldest existing; it is very fairly written, but less easy to read than the one in the Vatican. We saw, too, the Horace that belonged to Petrarch, with some notes in it by his own hand. It is in large quarto, and not a beautiful manuscript from the number of notes and scoliastes interrupting and confusing the text.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
: The Times
Mary Berry to Horace Walpole, 28 September 1794, regarding remark in the newspapers that the move of the Prince of Wales to Hampton Court would ensure continued social diversion in the area even after death of the elderly Walpole: 'I did not suppose that the Prince of Wales was likely to become your [italics]successor[end italics] in anything, till the newpapers told us so. The enclosed paragraph, which we cut out of the "Times" the other day, amused us all not a little.'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Newspaper
[probably] James Murphy : [probably] Travels in Portugal ... in the Years 1789-90
Horace Walpole to Mary Berry, 22 November 1795: 'I will, while expecting Marchand [...] transcribe the wonderful Sanscrit paragraph which you found t'other morning in Murphy's "Portugal," and which you will like to possess: -- '"From whose splendid virtues, the great men, who delight to sport in the atoms which float in the beams of light issuing from the beauty of the leaf of the sleepy Ketahee of the diadem of the goddess Saraskatee, went to adorn the females of the eight points."'
Century: 1700-1799 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Lucy Hutchinson : Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson
Mary Berry to Anne Damer, from Tunbridge, 1811: 'I read a great deal every morning, and indeed often of an evening [...] I am more delighted with Mrs. Hutchinson [i.e. Lucy Hutchinson's "Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson"] than with any book I have read for an age. She was a really superior woman, both as to head and heart. Her description and account of her husband's attachment to her is the truest, the most elevated and admirable picture of love and true affection from and to a superior mind that can be imagined.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mary Berry : The Two Martius
Mary Berry, Journal, 15 June 1812: 'Called by appointment on Sir G. Beaumont to meet [George] Colman [manager of Haymarket Theatre], and read with him 'The Two Martius.' As Sir George had told him that it was written by a woman, I owned myself to be that woman [...] I read the piece: he stopped me each time where he thought something piquant could be added'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Lord Cathcart : account of Battle of Borodino
Mary Berry, Journal, 9 October 1812: 'Read the newspapers, which contained the extraordinary letter of Lord Cathcart announcing the great defeat of the French, and their nineteenth bulletin dated Moscow!!!'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Newspaper
Princess of Wales : Letter to the Speaker [?Parliamentary]
Mary Berry, Journal, 5 July 1814: 'The Princess [of Wales] sent for me to read a letter that she had sent to the Speaker [re proposed increase to her allowance].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
?Walter ?Scott : Life of Jonathan Swift
Mary Berry, Journal, 21 August 1814: 'I read "Swift's Life" in the new edition of his works by Walter Scott. It does not appear to me that there is much that is new.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
: Gazette
Mary Berry, Journal, 22 June 1815: 'All the details that one hears of the victory of the 18th [June, at Waterloo] show that it was one of the most sanguinary battles that ever took place [...] I went to Lord Palmerston's, where I saw the "Gazette," and examined the large map of the country with Fanny Temple [Palmerston's sister].'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Unknown
: Newspapers
Mary Berry, Journal, 26 July 1815: 'I only went out for a short time to read the papers, in which is Captain Maitland's letter, announcing the arrival of Napoleon Bonaparte upon his vessel at Torbay.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Newspaper
Magalotti : Travels of Cosmo III in England
Mary Berry, Journal, 27 March 1818: 'I went with the Comte Bardi to the Laurentian Library. Saw the travels (MSS.) of Cosmo III. in England in the year 167-, accompanied by Magalotti, who gives the description of the travels, and by an artist who made drawings of all the small towns where they stopped, and of all the country houses they saw. I remarked Wilton, Billingbear, Audley Inn, &c.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Mary Berry : Memoir of Lady Russell
Mary Berry, Journal, 12 December 1818: 'I worked all the morning; before dinner I read in my own room to Lady Hardwicke, Lady Charlotte Lindsay, and my sister, what I had written of Lady Russell's Memoir, with which they expressed themselves much pleased.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Mary Berry : Memoir of Lady Russell
Mary Berry, Journal, 19 December 1818: 'Sir James Mackintosh in my room this morning; hearing me read over and commenting on my "Memoir of Lady Russell," spoke frankly, seemed pleased, and satisfied me very tolerably with his opinion [...] In the evening he read some of Milton's "Paradise Regained" to us.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
Martial : unknown
Mary Berry to Anne Damer, from Rome, 3 April 1821: 'I have got a charming little [italics]savant[end italics], who reads with me two or three times a week [...] I have been excessively amused in reading Martial, Livy, Suetonius, &c. &c. with him on the spot where they were written, and comparing the descriptions with the actual state of the scenes described.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Livy : unknown
Mary Berry to Anne Damer, from Rome, 3 April 1821: 'I have got a charming little [italics]savant[end italics], who reads with me two or three times a week [...] I have been excessively amused in reading Martial, Livy, Suetonius, &c. &c. with him on the spot where they were written, and comparing the descriptions with the actual state of the scenes described.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Suetonius : unknown
Mary Berry to Anne Damer, from Rome, 3 April 1821: 'I have got a charming little [italics]savant[end italics], who reads with me two or three times a week [...] I have been excessively amused in reading Martial, Livy, Suetonius, &c. &c. with him on the spot where they were written, and comparing the descriptions with the actual state of the scenes described.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
?Anastatius : work on travels in East
Mary Berry, in letter of August 1820: 'I have been reading after dinner, when it is too hot to write, "Anastatius." It is, as I had supposed, the substance of the MS. travels in the East which he long ago gave me to read. But in this new form so arranged! in such a pert style -- such an evident copy of Lord Byron's prose'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Oswald : Letters to ministers and 'distinguished persons', 1742-67
Mary Berry, Journal, October 23 1821: 'Went on a visit to Sir John and Lady Oswald. Sir John had given me a collection of his grandfather's letters to Ministers and several distinguished persons of his day, since the years 1742 and 1767 [...] The reading of these letters, which make two large MS. books, occupied me very agreeably all the morning.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
Hon Mrs C. Scott : MS
Mary Berry, Journal, 28 August 1823: 'Loitered in the garden with Car. [Hon. Mrs Scott, novelist], and read the MS. which she gave me.'
Century: 1700-1799 / 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Unknown
unknown : MS letters
Mary Berry, Journal, 23 September 1824, from Edinburgh: 'Went with Mr. and Mrs. Davenport to [...] the Advocate's Library and Stamp Office, where Mr. Thompson, the Deputy Registrar, showed us very curious MS. letters.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Manuscript: Letter
Mrs Somerville : [work on astronomy]
Mary Berry to 'Mrs Somerville', from Bellevue, September 1834: 'I have just finished reading your book [apparently on astronomy], which has [italics]entertained[end italics] me extremely, and at the same time, I hope, improved my moral character in the Christian virtue of humility [...] Humbled I must be, by finding my own intellect unequal to following, beyond a first step, the explanations by which you seek to make easy to comprehension the marvellous phenomena of the universe'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Victor Jaquemont : Letters describing a journey in India
Mary Berry to Thomas Babington Macaulay, 15 October 1834: 'Have they sent you among your books "Victor Jaquemont's Letters?" they are perfectly original [...] I never knew before half so much of the life of our countrymen in India; and the author himself is so natural and unaffected a character, that I had well-night cried at his death, as if it had not been true.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
unknown : Notice on life of M. Gouthier
Mary Berry to 'a friend at Paris,' October, 1835: 'I have read with much attention the "notice" on the life of M. Gouthier that you lent me at Paris, and on which you asked my opinion. 'It is impossible to imagine a more perfect character as a Christian priest'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Unknown
: The Bible
Mary Berry , Journal, 18 September 1836: 'I have been unequal this day to anything but reading my Bible for amusement; for I cannot say that I am capable of any reasonings on it.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Princess Dashkoff : Life and Writings
Mary Berry on the Life and writings (including memoirs) of the Princess Dashkoff, published 1840: 'The whole work -- of which I saw only the first part, which comes down to 1783, when she returned to Russia after her tour through Italy -- is the picture, not only of a human mind and character placed in most extraordinary circumstances, and acting a most extraordinary part, but endowed by nature with those extraordinary powers, and that energy, which I have ever thought [...] always accompanied by [...] warm, pure, and ardent affections of the heart.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mazzini : unknown
Mary Berry to a friend, [1841]: 'I have read every word of Mazzini, and agree entirely with him in his views of what civil liberty ought to be, and with most of his statements on the absence of it in Italy.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Anne Grant : Letters from the Mountains; being the real correspondence of a Lady, between the year 1773 and 1807
Mary Berry to Joanna Baillie, 24 October 1844: 'I have been reading "Mrs. Grant's Letters" with considerable amusement. She often writes very well, and [italics]thinks[end italics] well, within her horizon; but her horizon is a narrow one, and her mistakes of character often laughable.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Mr Everett : Inaugural discourse given at Harvard College
Lady Theresa Lewis reproduces letter from Mary Berry to 'Mr. Everett' of Harvard College, of 25 August 1846, in which she praises, and discusses in detail, the 'inaugural discourse at Harvard College' (on educational issues) of which he had sent her a copy within the past year.
UnknownCentury: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry
Thomas Babington Macaulay : The History of England from the Accession of James the Second
Mary Berry to the Countess of Morley, 24 December 1848: 'Talking of Macaulay, I hope you have got his book, as the [italics]very[end italics] most entertaining reading I ever met with ... The first edition of 3,000 copies was sold in the first week; another, of 3,000 more, is to come out on Thursday next.'
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Mary Berry Print: Book
Joanna Baillie : Plays on the Passions
'Miss Berry [...] told me [Harriet Martineau] how she found on her table, on her return from a ball, a volume of plays [Joanna Baillie's "Plays on the Passions"]; and how she kneeled on a chair to look at it, and how she read on till the servant opened the shutters, and let in the daylight of a winter morning.'
