Godesdone

Mrs Godesdone is a fashionable London hostess and by her own frank admission a 'dear friend' of Christopher Drawlight - surely sufficient condemnation in itself.

It is apparently at Drawlight's instigation that this forward young woman sends an ill-composed invitation to Gilbert Norrell, shortly after his arrival in London, inviting him to an evening party at her house in Manchester-street. Mrs Godesdone offends propriety by addressing herself to a man to whom she has not been introduced and upon whose notice she has not the least claim, and so Mr Norrell is minded to ignore this piece of impertinence - all the more since he has a disgust for this form of entertainment - but then on the advice of John Childermass, his man of business, he reluctantly consents to go. (Childermass reminds him that he has come to London with the express intention of making himself better known: shunning all society is not the way to achieve this.)

Although in her letter of invitation Mrs Godesdone assures Norrell that if he comes he will meet only with her intimate friends the party is in fact a large one, and very crowded. Altogether it gives Mr Norrell no pleasure at all; but yet it is still a somewhat significant occasion for him, as there for the first time he makes the acquaintance both of Drawlight and of Lascelles. Both men later exert an influence over him, though neither for the good.

From a description we are given of another guest at this party (apparently Henry Lascelles) rallying an "excessively pretty young woman in a white-and-silver gown" about a Mr Godesdone, it would appear this pretty young woman is Mrs Godesdone herself[4].