Читать книгу Sweet Hampstead and Its Associations онлайн

85 страница из 97

Placidity and cheerfulness continued with her to the last. She died of gradual decay on March 9, 1825. Meanwhile she had had the pleasure of witnessing the literary success of her brother’s daughter, Miss Lucy Aikin,[64] who had written various historical memoirs and a ‘Life of Joseph Addison,’ which Macaulay criticised, and who, because ‘Miss Lucy Aikin’s reputation—which she has so justly earned—stands so high,’ thinks it right to remind her of her lapses, and of ‘the necessity in a future edition for every fact and date, about which there can be the smallest doubt, to be verified.’ Valuable and wise advice, the rigour of which he softened by adding that ‘the immunities of sex were not the only immunities Miss Aikin might rightfully plead ... several of her works, and especially the very pleasing memoirs of the reign of James I., having fully entitled her to the privileges enjoyed by good writers.’ In June, 1822, this lady and her mother took the house in Church Row which the Barbaulds had occupied, and continued to reside there till 1830, when Mrs. Aikin died. Upon the loss of her mother, Miss Aikin removed to No. 18, on the opposite side of the way, where she remained till 1844, when she came to London.