did not look fifty, no, nor forty-eight even. I
had seen poor Fitz-Patrick not very long before--a man of pleasure,
wit and eloquence, all things. He tottered, but still talked like a
gentleman, though feebly; Edgeworth bounced about and talked loud
and long; but he seemed neither weakly nor decrepit, and hardly
old.

Byron then remarks that he heard Mr. Edgeworth boast of having put down
Dr. Parr, a boast which Byron took leave to think not true. He adds:--

For the rest, he seemed intelligent, vehement, vivacious and full
of life. He bids fair for a hundred years. He was not much admired
in London, and I remember a "ryghte merrie" and conceited jest
which was rife among the gallants of the day, viz.: a paper had
been presented for the _recall of Mrs. Siddons to the stage_, to
which all men had been called to subscribe; whereupon Thomas Moore,
of profane and poetical memory, did propose that a similar paper
should be _sub_scribed and _circum_scribed for the recall of Mr.
Edgeworth to Ireland. The fact was, everybody cared more about
_her_. She was a nice little unassuming "Jeanie Deans" looking
body, as we Scotch say, and if not handsome, certainly not
ill-looking. Her conversation was as quiet as herself. One would
never have guessed she could write her name; whereas her father
talked, not as if he could write nothing else, but as if nothing
else was worth writing.

To turn from them to their works, I admire them; but they excite no
feeling and they leave no love, except for some Irish steward or
postilion. However, the impression of intellect and prudence is
profound, and may be useful.

To the Edgeworths' regret they left London before the arrival of Madame
de Stael, for whom all the world was eagerly looking. The poet Rogers,
noted for malicious sayings, asserted at a dinner-party that this was
not accident, but design; that Madame de Stael would not arrive till
Miss Edgeworth had gone. "Madame de Stael would not like two stars
shining at the same time." Fortunately, for once, he was reproved; for
it happened that, unknown to him, Madame de Stael's son was of the
company, who indignantly repelled the insinuation that his mother could
be capable of such meanness.

As always, Miss Edgeworth was glad to get home again:--

The brilliant panorama of London is over, and I have enjoyed more