She was wanting in refinement, which very few of the eighteenth
century wits and authors possessed according to more modern notions;
and she abounded in vanity, which, if not necessarily a baneful or
unamiable quality, is a fruitful source of folly and peculiarly
calculated to provoke censure or ridicule. In her, fortunately, its
effects were a good deal modified by the frankness of its avowal and
display, by her habits of self-examination, by her impulsive
generosity of character, and by her readiness to admit the claims and
consult the feelings of others. To seek out and appreciate merit as
she appreciated it, is a high merit in itself.

Her piety was genuine; and old-fashioned politicians, whose watchword
is Church and King, will be delighted with her politics. Literary
men, considering how many curious inquiries depend upon her accuracy,
will be more anxious about her truthfulness, and I have had ample
opportunities of testing it; having not only been led to compare her
narratives with those of others, but to collate her own statements of
the same transactions or circumstances at distant intervals or to
different persons. It is difficult to keep up a large correspondence
without frequent repetition. Sir Walter Scott used to write precisely
the same things to three or four fine-lady friends, and Mrs. Piozzi
could no more be expected to find a fresh budget of news or gossip
for each epistle than the author of "Waverley." Thus, in 1815, she
writes to a Welsh baronet from Bath:

"We have had a fine Dr. Holland here.[1] He has seen and written
about the Ionian Islands; and means now to practise as a physician,
exchanging the Cyclades, say we wits and wags, for the Sick Ladies.
We made quite a lion of the man. I was invited to every house he
visited at for the last three days; so I got the _Queue du lion_
despairing of _le Coeur_."

[Footnote 1: Sir Henry Holland, Bart., who, with many other titles to
distinction, is one of the most active and enterprising of modern
travellers.]

Two other letters written about the same time contain the same piece
of intelligence and the same joke. She was very fond of writing
marginal notes; and after annotating one copy of a book, would take
up another and do the same. I have never detected a substantial
variation in her narratives, even in those which were more or less
dictated by pique; and as she generally drew upon the "Thraliana" for
her materials, this, having been careful