A MEETING WITH MRS RADCLIFFE (c. 1822) CHARLES BUCKE (1781–1846) For this criticism [Bucke had praised Ann Radcliffe very highly in the 1821 edition of his book] Mrs Ratcliffe was pleased to send me her thanks. Sometime after, I was invited to supper. Her conversation was delightful! She sung Adeste Fideles with a voice mellow and melodious, but somewhat tremulous. Her countenance indicated melancholy. She had been, doubtless, in her youth, beautiful. She was a great admirer of Schiller’s Robbers. Her favourite tragedy was Macbeth. Her favourite painters were, Salvator, Claude, and Gaspar Poussin: her favourite poets, after Shakespeare, Tasso, Spenser, and Milton.           There was, for many years, a report that this accomplished lady was afflicted with insanity. How the report came to be raised I know not; but, I believe, it never was the case. She had not only an elegant taste, but a comprehensive understanding. She died in 1823; and was buried in the chapel of ease, (belonging to the parish of St. George, Hanover Square,) at Bayswater.           I have read her Romance of the Forest four times; her Italian five times; her Mysteries of Udolpho nine times; and my imagination is, even now, always charmed whenever I think of either. [SOURCE: Charles Bucke, On the Beauties, Harmonies, and Sublimities of Nature, New Edition, 3 vols (London: Thomas Tegg and Son, 1837), vol. 2, p. 123] Return to Readers' Responses Return to Index of Gothic Readings