Secretaries of the Interior: Narratorial Collaboration in Sarah Scott's Millenium Hall

Abstract

at the end of Sarah Scott’s A Description of Millenium Hall (1762), the anonymous narrator offers an apology to his un­ named friend in the publishing business, a correspondent to whom he has directed “a very circumstantial account” of the illuminating experiences that attended the breakdown of his chaise in Cornwall.1 Moved to prolixity by the enlightened soci ety he encountered during his excursion, he expresses half­ hearted regret that he “could not restrain [his] pen within moderate bounds” (249); inspired by the myriad merits of his subject, the force of his impressions overwhelmed his sense of epistolary propriety. This willingness to take liberties with the patience of his friend, however, stands opposed to the nice circumspection that the narrator observes in his decorous dealings with the women of the Hall: only an awareness voiced in the penultimate para graph, that he and his travelling companion Lamont could not “with decency” extend their stay, prompted them finally to depart (249). This juxtaposition of countervailing tendencies—a volubility licensed by intimacy and a reserve inspired by seem liness—crystallizes the essential narrative challenge posed by the premise of the text. Millenium Hall comprises an illuminating array of progressive cultural ideas, yet the revelatory access called for by the narrative