half a century ago. I happen to know the fact, as he and his spouse had an annuity of five hundred pounds on my uncle's property, which ceased at his demise; though I recollect hearing they attempted, naturally enough, to make it survive him. If I can do any thing for you here or elsewhere, pray order, and be obeyed. 1064.-To Thomas Moore. Genoa, April 2, 1823. I have just seen some friends of yours, who paid me a visit yesterday, which, in honour of them and of you, I returned to-day ;-as I reserve my bear-skin and teeth, and paws and claws, for our enemies. I have also seen Henry Fox,' Lord Holland's son, whom I had not looked upon since I left him a pretty, mild boy, without a neck-cloth, in a jacket, and in delicate health, seven long years agone, at the period of mine eclipse-the third, I believe, as I have generally one every two or three years. I think that he has the softest and most amiable expression of countenance I ever saw, and manners correspondent. If to those he can add hereditary talents, he will keep the name of Fox in all its freshness for half a century more, I hope. I speak from a transient glimpse-but I love still to yield to such impressions; for I have ever found that those I liked longest and best, I took to at first sight; and I always liked that boy-perhaps, in part, from some resemblance in the less fortunate part of our destinies― I mean, to avoid mistakes, his lameness. But there is 1. Henry Edward Fox, afterwards (1840) Lord Holland, was the second legitimate son of the third Lord Holland by his marriage (1797) with Elizabeth Vassall, the divorced wife of Sir Godfrey Webster. He edited his father's Foreign Reminiscences (1850), and Memoirs of the Whig Party during my Time (1852). this difference, that he appears a halting angel, who has tripped against a star; whilst I am Le Diable Boiteux,a soubriquet, which I marvel that, amongst their various nominis umbra, the Orthodox have not hit upon. Your other allies, whom I have found very agreeable personages, are Milor Blessington and épouse,1 travelling 1. For the Earl of Blessington, see Letters, vol. v. p. 3, note 1. Marguerite Power (1789-1849), fourth child of Edmund Power, a small landowner in co. Waterford, was in 1804 forced by her father to marry Captain St. Leger Farmer, of the 47th Regiment of Foot. At the end of three months Captain and Mrs. Farmer separated, and she returned to her father's house at Clonmel. In 1807 Lawrence, fascinated by her beauty, painted her portrait at Dublin. For the next six years she seems to have lived under the protection of Captain Jenkins at Stidmanton, in Hampshire. There she met Lord Mountjoy (created, 1816, first Earl of Blessington). For her, Lord Blessington took a house in Manchester Square, where she lived with her brother, who was appointed agent for the Mountjoy estates. In October, 1817, her husband, Captain Farmer, died from a fall out of a window in the King's Bench prison, and four months later (February 16, 1818) she married the Earl of Blessington. Lady Blessington's beauty, her kindliness, wit, and infectious gaiety, together with her husband's splendid hospitality, made their home at II, St. James's Square, one of the most attractive houses in London, the rival of Holland House and Charleville House. Few women visited the house; but the most celebrated men of the day-politicians, lawyers, writers, divines, artists, and actorsgathered under Lady Blessington's roof. Among them were Canning, Lansdowne, and Burdett; Erskine, Brougham, and Jekyll; Rogers, Moore, Galt, and Jerdan; Lawrence, Wilkie, and Kemble. Douglas Kinnaird brought her the latest news of Byron. Earl Grey was her devoted friend. Dr. Parr sacrificed his pipe to enjoy the society of the lady whom he called "the most gorgeous Lady Blessington. In August, 1822, the Blessingtons left London for a continental tour. Stopping at Paris for some weeks, they renewed their acquaintance with Count Alfred d'Orsay, who had been introduced to them in London in 1821 by his brother-in-law, the Duc de Guiche, afterwards Duc de Grammont. Thenceforward he devoted his life to Lady Blessington. He joined them at Valence, and travelled with them to Genoa, which they reached March 31, 1823. In her Diary for that day, Lady Blessington (Madden's Memoir and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington, vol. i. p. 80; and Molloy's The Most Gorgeous Lady Blessington, vol. i. p. 92) writes, "And "am I indeed in the same town with Byron? To-morrow I may, "perhaps, behold him. I never before felt the same impatient longing with a very handsome companion, in the shape of a "French Count" (to use Farquhar's phrase in the Beaux Stratagem 1), who has all the air of a Cupidon déchaîné, and is one of the few specimens I have seen of our ideal of a Frenchman before the Revolution-an old friend with a new face, upon whose like I never thought that we should look again. Miladi seems highly literary, to which, and your honour's acquaintance with the family, I attribute the pleasure of having seen them. She is also very pretty even in a morning,-a species of beauty on which the sun of Italy does not shine so frequently as the "to see any one known to me only by his works. I hope he may not "be as fat as Moore described him; for a fat poet is an anomaly in "my opinion." The following day she was introduced to Byron at the Casa Saluzzo. For the next two months (April 1-June 1) Byron and Lady Blessington met frequently; they rode together, exchanged verses, gave and received advice, interchanged keepsakes, and parted with tears. The impression made on her by Byron is recorded in her Journal of the Conversations with Lord Byron, which appeared in the New Monthly Magazine, July, 1832-December, 1833, and was republished in volume form in 1834. The end of Lady Blessington's life was tragic. Lord Blessington died in 1829, leaving his widow with a jointure of £2000 a year, unpunctually paid. In Seamore Place, and subsequently at Gore House, she and Count d'Orsay continued to entertain with lavish splendour. Her dinners were exquisite-cuisine de Paris exquise (Letters of Joseph Jekyll, p. 272). Women, as before, were rare visitors, and the male guests were more miscellaneous and cosmopolitan. But among her later friends were Bulwer Lytton, Dickens, Landor, and Disraeli. To meet her expenses she took to writing. In 1822 she had published anonymously The Magic Lantern and Sketches and Fragments. In 1833 her first novel appeared-Grace Cassidy, or the Repealers. Thenceforward she published numerous works of fiction, and two excellent travel sketches-The Idler in Italy (1839) and The Idler in France (1841). From 1834 onwards she edited The Book of Beauty, and in 1846 she joined the staff of the newly-founded Daily News. But her literary activity failed to avert financial ruin. In 1849 the crash came. In April she retired to Paris, and less than two months (June 4, 1849) later died. Two inscriptions for her tomb at Chambourcy were written, one by Barry Cornwall, the other by Landor. The latter begins thus: "Infra "sepultum est id omne quod sepeliri potest mulieris quondam "pulcherrimæ," etc. 1. Count Bellair, "a French officer, prisoner at Litchfield." chandelier. Certainly, English women wear better tha their continental neighbours of the same sex. Mountjoy seems very good-natured, but is much tamed, since I recollect him in all the glory of gems and snuff-boxes, and uniforms, and theatricals, and speeches in our house -"I mean, of peers," 1-(I must refer you to Popewhom you don't read and won't appreciate-for that quotation, which you must allow to be poetical,) and sitting to Stroelling, the painter, (do you remember our visit, with Leckie, to the German ?) to be depicted as one of the heroes of Agincourt, "with his long sword, saddle, "bridle, Whack fal de," 2 etc., etc. I have been unwell-caught a cold and inflammation, which menaced a conflagration, after dining with our ambassador, Monsieur Hill,-not owing to the dinner, but my carriage broke down in the way home, and I had to walk some miles, up hill partly, after hot rooms, in a very bleak, windy evening, and over-hotted, or overcolded myself. I have not been so robustious as formerly, ever since the last summer, when I fell ill after a long swim in the Mediterranean, and have never been quite right up to this present writing. I am thin,--perhaps thinner than you saw me, when I was nearly transparent, in 1812, and am obliged to be moderate of my mouth; which, nevertheless, won't prevent me (the gods willing) from dining with your friends the day after to-morrow.3 1. See Pope's lines, "On receiving from the Right Hon. the Lady "Frances Shirley a standish and two pens" (Works, ed. Courthope, vol. iv. pp. 460-462). "But, friend, take heed whom you attack; 2. Byron quotes from The Bold Dragoon, on which Scott probably founded his Bold Dragoon, or The Plains of Badajos. 3. Lady Blessington found that Byron satisfied her ideal of a poet's figure. "He is extremely thin; indeed so much so that his They give me a very good account of you, and of your nearly Emprisoned Angels.' But why did you change your title ?—you will regret this some day. The bigots are not to be conciliated; and, if they were-are they worth it? I suspect that I am a more orthodox Christian than you are; and, whenever I see a real Christian, either in practice or in theory, (for I never yet found the man who could produce either, when put to the proof,) I am his disciple. But, till then, I cannot truckle to tithe-mongers,-nor can I imagine what has made you circumcise your Seraphs. I have been far more persecuted than you, as you may judge by my present decadence, for I take it that I am as low in popularity and bookselling as any writer can be. At least, so my friends assure me-blessings on their benevolence! This they attribute to Hunt; but they are wrong-it must be, partly at least, owing to myself; be it so. As to Hunt, I prefer not having turned him to starve in the streets to any personal honour which might have accrued from some genuine philanthropy. I really act upon principle in this matter, for we have nothing much in common; and I cannot describe to you the despairing sensation of trying to do something for a man who seems incapable or unwilling to do any thing further for himself, at least, to the purpose. It is like pulling a man out of a river who directly throws himself in again. For the last three or four years Shelley assisted, "figure has almost a boyish air; his face is peculiarly pale, but not "the paleness of ill health, as its character is that of fairness, the "fairness of a dark-haired person—and his hair (which is getting "rapidly gray) is of a very dark brown, and curls naturally. . . "He was very gay at dinner, ate of most of the dishes, "drank a few glasses of champagne, saying, that as he considered "it a jour de fête, he would eat, drink, and be merry."-Conversations, p. 2. and 1. Moore's Loves of the Angels was published in December, 1822. |