Rowlandson the Caricaturist; a Selection from His Works. Vol. 2 by Joseph Grego

Duke of York by G. L. Wardle, Esq., M.P. for Devon, with the Evidence and Remarks of the Members._ Containing fourteen scarce portraits by Rowlandson, amongst which are Mrs. M. A. Clarke, Sir F. Burdett, Duke of York, Colonel Wardle, &c. 2 vols., 12mo. FOOTNOTES: [10] Mary Moser, the lively lady Royal Academician, and famous flower-painter, writing to Mrs. Lloyd, the first wife of the gentleman she subsequently honoured with her hand, conveys the following account of the reigning mode in town, to her friend in the country: 'Come to London and admire our plumes; we sweep the sky! a duchess wears six feathers, a lady four, and every milk-maid one at each corner of her cap! Your mamma desired me to inquire the name of something she had seen in the windows in Tavistock Street; it seems _she_ was afraid to ask; but _I_ took courage, and they told me they were _rattle-snake tippets_; however, notwithstanding their frightful name, they are not unlike a _beaufong_, only the quills are made stiff, and springy in the starching. Fashion is grown a monster! pray tell your operator that your hair must measure just three quarters of a yard from the extremity of one wing to the other.' [11] 'Eighteen years before the date of the investigation (February 1809), Mrs. Clarke, then being about fourteen years of age, resided with her mother and step-father in Black Raven Passage, Cursitor Street. She was a very pretty, sprightly, gaily-disposed girl, being very fond of showing herself, and attracting attention. At this time Mr. Joseph Clarke, son of a respectable builder on Snow Hill (his father was the "great contractor" of his day, and a _man reputed to be enormously rich_) became enamoured of Miss Thompson, who readily received his addresses. She eloped with him, and they lived together about three years, when he married her. She conducted herself with propriety, and they lived together decently several years; in the course of which she bore him several children, four of whom are alive.'--_Gentleman's Magazine_, February, 1809. [12] The name of Mrs. Clarke's father was Thompson, and he, it appears, was a master printer of some respectability, residing in Bowl and Pin Alley, near White's Alley, Chancery Lane, where Miss Thompson was ushered into the world, as Sterne has it, with 'squalls of disapprobation at the journey she was compelled to perform.' Upon the death of Mr. Thompson, his widow married a Mr. Farquhar, who was engaged as a compositor in the printing house of Mr. Hughes. Miss Thompson was occasionally employed in reading copy to the person engaged as corrector of the press, in which situation she soon attracted the notice of the son of the overseer, who, recognising her abilities, had her placed at a boarding school at Ham, where the young lady, whose 'capacity for elegant improvements' was, if we trust her biographers, of an advanced order, soon acquired ornamental accomplishments; and, from the natural quickness of her parts, she returned, after an absence of two years, so completely altered in her ideas that she thought proper to despise and treat with coldness the attentions of Mr. Day, the well-meaning young gentleman who had been at the charge of finishing her education, it is said, with the view to a future union with this sprightly and promising female prodigy. Her biographers have hinted at least one flirtation, possibly of a harmless description, before she arrived at the age of seventeen, when she threw in her future with Mr. Joseph Clarke, the hopeful son of a wealthy builder and contractor in Snow Hill. After a union of many years, during which she had experienced various vicissitudes, we find that the misconduct of her husband, who seems, on the whole--from the accounts of some of his contemporaries--to have done his best to deserve the treatment he received, although there are two sides to this story, determined the fascinating Mary Ann to trust to her own resources for support. During her tenure of the 'neutral territory,' the name of more than one gentleman of gallant reputation and of rank was coupled with her own; but passing over the list of her admirers, we must mention a certain Mr. Dowler (whose name occurred frequently during the investigation), who seems to have had more faithful regard for the lady than her other doubtful lights of love. Mrs. Clarke further became ambitious of shining on a larger scale, and she had the honour of appearing on the boards of the Haymarket Theatre in the character of Portia. Great praise was awarded her performance; her natural abilities, with a certain vivacity, added to a well modulated voice and graceful action, were sufficient to qualify her for a successful actress; but she felt that her proper stage was the world, and she merely secured her