CAMILLA LACEY

FANNY BURNEY

13th June 1752 - 6th January 1840

 

At the beginning of the French Revolution Mickleham became the 
refuge of several distinguished French émigrés. M. de Narbonne, 
ex-minister of war, was the most celebrated among them, and 
Talleyrand also was here for a short time, and Madame de Staël. 
Juniper Hall had been taken by some of them, but several settled 
in other houses. Among them was M. d'Arblay, who married Fanny 
Burney, famous then as the authoress of 'Evelina.' M. and Madame 
d'Arblay, after a stay at Great Bookham, settled at a newly-built house 
in West Humble, which they named Camilla Lacey, because it was 
provided by the profits of 'Camilla,' her third novel. It is now occupied 
by Mr. Leverton Harris. 

 

.

This house was their home until 1802, when Madame D'Arblay 
followed her husband to France on his attempt to obtain 
military employment under Napoleon.

 

§ 11. Fanny Burney (Mme. d’ Arblay): her Early Diary, and her Diary 
and Letters.Fanny Burney bore two surnames in succession; but her 
maiden name is that by which all true lovers know her, because it was 
when she had no right to any but this that she wrote and gained her 
fame. She may be Madame d’Arblay on certain formal occasions; but 
the author of Evelina is far too English for a foreign name to sit easy 
upon her. 32  The pictures of important events and the intimate records 
of Fanny’s distinguished friends in her diaries and letters place these 
writings on a very high plane, entitling them to rank as reproductions of 
eighteenth century life not very far below the volumes of Walpole and 
Boswell. She relates all she saw and did with so much spirit and vivacity, 
filling in the blanks of other writers, that the reading of the various 
incidents is an inexhaustible pleasure. It may, indeed, be said that she 
discloses the inner life of three different worlds. In her Early Diary (1768–78), 
edited by Mrs. Ellis (1889), the doings of her family are fully displayed, 
and the professional world of Dr. Burney (“that clever dog,” as Johnson 
called him) is brightly sketched; Garrick, too, is constantly gliding over 
the scene and playing the fool in his inimitable way. But the most popular 
character of all is the eccentric “daddy” Crisp—Samuel Crisp, the recluse 
of Chessington hall near Epsom—who was the special friend and 
correspondent of his “Fannikin.” In the later Diary and Letters (1778–1840), 
edited by Mrs. Charlotte Barrett (1842–6), there is more about the larger 
literary and political world, including the great event of the Hastings trial. 
The full and particular account of court life is of the greatest interest and 
value. On 6 July, 1786, Fanny Burney was appointed second keeper of 
the robes to queen Charlotte, a position she held for five years. She received 
much kindness from the king and queen, who were fond of her; and, 
although, by reason of the rigid etiquette, the service was hard, she had 
much pleasant intercourse with her companions in the palace, whose 
portraits she painted with spirit. Her great and incessant trouble, however, 
was her inevitable long and close association with the terrible Mrs. 
Schwellenberg, otherwise Cerbera. In course of time, the confinement 
which Fanny had to undergo affected her health, and her friends cried 
out for her release, even Walpole uttering complaints. Windham threatened 
to set “The Club” on Dr. Burney to induce him to obtain her freedom, and 
Boswell threatened to interfere—much to Fanny’s annoyance, for she did 
not love the “memorandummer” as she called him. Eventually, arrangements 
were made, and she finally left court in July, 1791, the queen granting out 
of her own privy purse a pension or retiring allowance. A most interesting f
eature of these diaries and letters is the introduction of clear-cut portraits 
of the people whom the writer knew and met. Johnson alluded to her powers 
in this respect when he addressed her as “You little character-monger”; and, 
here, her early novel writing stood her in good stead. The description of 
Boswell’s persecution of her at Windsor, while pressing unsuccessfully for 
the use of Johnson’s letters, and reading to her, at the gates of the castle 
which she would not let him enter, bits from the forthcoming Life, is a fine 
bit of high comedy. Among Fanny Burney’s later friends were the Lockes, 
owners of Norbury park, above the vale of Mickleham. On her frequent 
visits to her hospitable friends, she became intimate with the French 
émigrés at Juniper hall; and, on 31 July, 1793 she was married to one of 
them—d’Arblay—at Mickleham church. The pair had but little upon which 
to set up house; but Locke gave them a site, and the handsome subscription 
of generous friends for the novel Camilla produced sufficient funds for 
building a cottage, which was named Camilla Lacey. The marriage was a 
happy one in spite of lack of means; but, in 1801, d’Arblay determined 
to return to France, and his wife followed him. The restoration of Louis XVIII 
brought better times, but, in July, 1815, general d’Arblay met with an 
accident and was placed on the retired list of the French army. Austin 
Dobson describes him as one of the most delightful figures in his wife’s 
Diary. On 3 May, 1818, he died at Bath. This sad event virtually closes 
the work, and, although Madame d’Arblay lived until 1840, there are few 
letters left after her husband’s death.

From the Jane Austen Centre about Fanny Burney

 

From the Cambridge History of English and American Literature

XI Letter Writers