ADDENDA. P. 46. "Her daughters," &c. In The Times for February 20th, 1856, I am charged by a Mr. Hamilton Gray with misrepresenting (or rather with inventing) this passage. "I had," he says, "the pleasure of the acquaintance of the late Mr. Rogers, and, as I believe he was in the habit of speaking truth, I am convinced that his table-talk' never did comprise such mis-statements as the above. After the return of Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi from the protracted tour which they made after their marriage on the Continent, Viscountess Keith, then Miss Thrale, and her sisters were on a footing of frequent intercourse with Mr. and Mrs. Piozzi. They received them at their house, and visited them; and this amicable intercourse continued until Mrs. Piozzi's death, at an advanced age." Now, I most positively assert that Mr. Rogers used the very words in question; and I am much mistaken if several gentlemen who, like myself, were constant visitors at St. James's Place, would not at once confirm my assertion. That his memory sometimes deceived him, is not to be denied; and such, it appears, was the case when he stated that all intercourse had ceased between Mrs. Piozzi and her daughters: but I have so often heard him repeat Mrs. Piozzi's declaration that "she would go down upon her knees to them, if they would only be reconciled to her," that, in spite of what is stated by Mr. Hamilton Gray, I believe that Mrs. Piozzi on some occasion did complain to Mr. Rogers of the alienation of her family. Let me add, that the present volume contains throughout such evidence of my anxiety to record the conversation of Mr. Rogers with correctness, as ought to have saved me from the impertinence of Mr. Hamilton Gray. Since the above was written, Mr. H. Gray's communication to The Times about Mrs. Piozzi and her daughters was copied into The Athenæum; where it was no sooner read by my old friend Mr. J. P. Collier, than he addressed the following letter to the editor of that journal. "I wrote it," Mr. Collier tells me, "as an act of justice to you. I "had no interest in the question. After I had sent it to "The Athenæum, the editor informed me that he wished "to postpone my letter to one from Lady Morgan, which "he thought I ought to see before mine was printed. I "replied that Lady Morgan's letter, whatever were its |