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[Illustration: In loving fellowship farewel! A Opie. 3rd Mo 24th 1841.]




                               MEMORIALS
                                 OF THE

                          LIFE OF AMELIA OPIE,

                         SELECTED AND ARRANGED

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                                   BY
                        CECILIA LUCY BRIGHTWELL.

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                                NORWICH:
                        FLETCHER AND ALEXANDER;
                     LONDON: LONGMAN, BROWN, & Co.
                 *        *        *        *        *
                               MDCCCLIV.




                                PREFACE.

                 *        *        *        *        *

In the preparation of these Memoirs for publication, the principal part
of the labour has been undertaken by my daughter; the pressure of other
engagements having only permitted me to undertake the general direction
and supervision of the whole.

As the Executor of Mrs. Opie, her papers and letters came into my hands;
and it devolved on me to decide in what way to dispose of them. There
had been, (I believe,) a general impression among her friends, that she
would herself prepare an account of her Life; but although she seems to
have made some efforts at commencing the task, and the subject was often
affectionately recommended, and even urged upon her, she has left it a
matter of regret to her friends, (and especially so to the compilers of
these memoirs,) that no “Autobiography” was found among her papers. Nor
did Mrs. Opie ever distinctly give any directions as to the publication
of her MSS. or any Memoir of her Life; but we have, we think, strong
presumptive evidence, that she anticipated, if not desired, that it
should be done.

Not long before she died, she said, that her Executor would have no
light task with her papers; and a few days before she breathed her last,
when she could no longer hold a pen, she called her attendant to her,
and dictated a most touching and affectionate farewell address, to me
and my daughter, directing the delivery of various small articles as
remembrances to a few most intimate friends, and requesting us to
complete what she had left undone; adding, that she had confidence in
our judgment, and believed that we should “do everything for the best.”

It has been with an earnest desire to justify this trust, and to
perfect, as far as in our power, that which she had, in fact commenced,
but left incomplete, that these pages have been put to the press.

It will be seen, in the course of these Memoirs, that the materials from
which they are compiled, are principally Papers, Letters, and Diaries,
of Mrs. Opie’s own writing; a few Letters preserved by her, and judged
to be of general interest, and bearing upon her history, we have thought
it well to give. It would have been no difficult task, to have greatly
extended these Memoirs, had it been deemed expedient to make a free use
of the Letters received by her, and of which a very large number were
found among her papers; but we have not felt ourselves at liberty to
adopt such a course, and we trust there will be found in this Volume few
(may we say we hope _no_) violations of private and confidential
communications.

My acquaintance with the subject of these Memoirs, commenced nearly
forty years ago; and well do I remember the first impressions made on me
by her frank and open manner, the charm of her fine and animated
countenance, her artless cheerfulness and benevolence, and the
extraordinary powers of her conversation. But it was not till the time
of Dr. Alderson’s last illness, that my acquaintance with Mrs. Opie
ripened into confidential friendship. From that period to the time of
her decease, I had the happiness to enjoy much of her society, and to
hear her recollections of her earlier days, and her graphic descriptions
of the scenes and characters, which had been subjects of interest to her
during the course of her long life; and she subsequently often read me a
large portion of the correspondence she continued to maintain.

Gifted with an extraordinary memory, a reverence for truth, extending
even to the minutest details, a disposition to look at the best side of
everything and everybody, and with almost dramatic power in the
exhibition of character and manners; Mrs. Opie when she entered into any
details of her former life, painted the whole scene with such
truthfulness and power, as to make it live before her hearers, and fix
it in their memory.

As an Author, her works have undergone the ordeal of public criticism,
and some additional testimony is afforded by these Memoirs, to the
favourable impression they made. It will be seen that Sir Walter Scott,
Dr. Chalmers, Southey, and other men of note, alike agreed in paying
their tribute of admiration to her power of touching the heart, and
aw