It appears strange that Lady Mary should have been ignorant, when she
wrote the above passage in July or August, 1755, of the authorship of
_Roderick Random_, for in January of that year she had evinced an
interest in Smollett: "I am sorry my friend Smollett loses his time in
translations; he has certainly a talent for invention, though I think it
flags a little in his last work. _Don Quixote_ is a difficult
undertaking: I shall never desire to read any attempt to redress him.
Though I am a mere piddler in the Spanish language, I had rather take
pains to understand him in the original than sleep over a stupid
translation."


_Peregrine Pickle_, however, Lady Mary had read shortly after its
appearance in 1751:


"I began by your direction with _Peregrine Pickle_. I think Lady Vane's
_Memoirs_[14] contain more truth and less malice than any I ever read in
my life. When she speaks of her own being disinterested, I am apt to
believe she really thinks herself so, as many highwaymen, after having
no possibility of retrieving the character of honesty, please themselves
with that of being generous, because, whatever they get on the road,
they always spend at the next ale-house, and are still as beggarly as
ever. Her history, rightly considered, would be more instructive to
young women than any sermon I know. They may see there what
mortifications and variety of misery are the unavoidable consequences of
gallantries. I think there is no rational creature that would not prefer
the life of the strictest Carmelite to the round of hurry and misfortune
she has gone through. Her style is clear and concise, with some strokes