University of Virginia Library

R to B 14 March (B, VI, 62-68, omit first paragraph p. 64)

Lady Bradshaigh's Late Feb. letter is answered by Richardson's of 14 March. The first paragraph on B, VI, 64 comes from a letter of some years earlier replying to Lady Bradshaigh's request "To reform Lovelace for Clarissa's sake!"

Though Eaves and Kimpel identify this letter as a [Mid-March??] letter, a more precise dating is possible. The last paragraph of the letter was written at 11:00 on a Thursday morning Richardson tells Lady Bradshaigh. The Thursdays in March of 1751 fell on the 7th, the 14th, the 21st, and the 28th. The 28th can be immediately eliminated because the letter in question is an answer to Lady Bradshaigh's of Late Feb., and Richardson had already answered her next letter, that of 17 March, in his letter of 24 March. The 7th can be eliminated with equal ease because had the letter been written on that date, it would have been received by 17 March and answered in Lady

Bradshaigh's of that date, but she does not answer Richardson's letter until 29 March.

With little conjecture, one can also eliminate the 21st. The letter in question was written in answer to a letter from Lady Bradshaigh of Late February, a letter he probably would not have waited three weeks to answer without giving an explanation as to why. Most likely before Richardson had received Lady Bradshaigh's Late Feb. letter he had already sent her the first installment of Grandison. He then wrote her on 14 March to answer her previous letter. Her letter of 5 March requesting Grandison probably arrived on 12 March or after. It would certainly have arrived by 18 March, and he would certainly have known that Grandison was in her hands by that date. She, in fact, had it on 14 March and had read it by 17 March when she wrote Richardson. Knowing these various dates, it is difficult to imagine that were Richardson's letter written on 21 March he would not have posed her the important question he reserved for his letter of 24 March: "But my Harriot!—and do you, can you like the girl?" (B, VI, 85). One can, therefore, be relatively certain that Richardson's reply to Lady Bradshaigh's Late Feb. letter was written on 14 March.