Note 108 — ON MRS BENNET, [108] OB. SEPTEMBER 1792, ÆTAT. 73.

This lady had a personal friendship with Richardson, the well-known author of Clarissa Harlowe, &c. which, beginning in her youth, continued till his death. Her destiny was uncommon as her merit. Deserted by her husband before she was sixteen, she knew not, through the remainder of her days, whether she was a wife, or widow. She had to struggle with the mortifications of dependence, and a narrow fortune, considering her birth and education. When, in declining life, the latter was augmented from fifty to eighty pounds per ann. she spared twenty annually to the distressed daughter of a deceased gentleman, who during his life had been a generous and protecting friend to herself.