At the age of twenty-two Hester Lynch, obeying the instructions of her family, married the wealthy brewer Henry Thrale, whom she bore twelve children. She constantly cultivated her literary interests and held a lively salon in their house at Streatham. Her memory is linked to her association with Dr. Johnson, compiler of the first major dictionary of the English language. On the death of her husband, however, she married not him but the Italian musician Gabriele Piozzi, with whom she had fallen in love. It was with Piozzi that she made her journey to Italy, which lasted from the end of 1784 to the middle of 1787. In Tuscany she came into contact with the circles of the Accademia della Crusca, working on the compilation of a Florence Miscellany in collaboration with Giuseppe Parini and Ippolito Pindemonte, along with a group of British residents in Florence known as the ¨Della Cruscans.¨ Back in England, she organized a new literary salon and carried on writing up until her death. Her memoir Observations and Reflections Made in the Course of a Journey through France, Italy and Germany (Strahn & Cadell. London 1789) stands out from contemporary examples of the genre as it took the form of a diary, something that did not fail to arouse criticism, at times quite harsh.