Imagens das páginas
PDF
ePub
[graphic][ocr errors][merged small]

Engraved for La Belle Assemblée New Series N°5 Published June 1.1810. by J. Bell. Southampton Street, Strand.

FOR

MAY, 1810.

A New Series.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF

ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES,

The Fifth Number,

MRS. FITZHERBERT.

THIS lady has filled so great a space in the fashionable world, and occupied the conversation of the public for so long a time, that a brief sketch of her cannot fail to be agreeable.

If we lived in an age of rigid morality, it would perhaps be prudent to omit the mention of this lady altogether, but as too much is unfortunately conceded to fashion, and notoriety, however obtained, is more envied than censured, we shall make no apology for introducing her portrait into. La Belle Assemblée.

to have given us some fragments of the secret history of the Athenian and Spartan Courts, and to have thrown light upon those parts of domestic life which have often influenced great affairs in a way disproportionate to their seeming import

ance.

Mrs. Fitzherbert, from the best information we have been able to obtain, was married very young to an Irish gentleman of considerable fortune. She had been educated in the strictest principles of the Roman Catholic persuasion. Her union with her husband did not continue long: he died shortly after the marriage, leaving her a widow, but without any children.

The family of Mrs. Fitzherbert was re

In the biography of the world of fashion those characters must be selected which have attracted attention, and drawn upon them the curiosity of every description of people. The choice is not to be made ac-spectable; she was niece, on her father's cording to any moral estimate, but according to the scale of fashionable celebrity and preponderance in the bon ton.

The sage biographer of Cheronea might with propriety have omitted in his inimitable lives the names of Aspasia, Thais, and Cleopatra; but Plutarch had no conception of the weight and importance of the beau mode in these latter ages of the world, otherwise he would not have failed

[ocr errors]

side, to Sir Edward Smythe, of Acton Burnel, in the county of Salop; and is distantly related to the noble family of Sefton, in Ireland.

The sister of Mrs. Fitzherbert was married to Sir Carnaby Haggerstone, a Baronet of considerable respectability and fortune in the county of York.

The intimacy between Mrs. Fitzherbert and a certain illustrious personage com

as in her mental qualities. She seems to have cultivated the minor morals with great assiduity, and to have considered politeness as the science of fashionable life, and the principle of action amongst a certain rank of beings. She has lately taken under her tuition an orphan daughter of the late Lord Hugh Seymour, who lives with her, and is almost wholly formed under her eye. The origin of this attachment was in the friendship which had long subsisted between the mother of this young lady and Mrs. Fitzherbert; and it is certainly to the credit of Mrs. Fitzherbert, that the voice of a dying mother designat

menced early in the year 1786. When this connection was first made known, a rumour was circulated, and received from popular credulity a much greater share of credit than it deserved, that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales was privately married to Mis. Fitzherbert. The public alarm upon this report was excessive. It was mentioned in Parliament, and questons were put, which not receiving the prompt auswer that was expected from the friends of the Prince, the apprehension of the people was augmented, till it became necessary at length to give the report a formal denial, and some of the Parliamentary friends of his Royal Highness chal-ed her as the guardian and instructress of lenged an inquiry into his conduct, in her only daughter. order to ascertain the malignity of the source from whence the falsehood issued. This inquiry, however, was rendered unnecessary, by the frank declaration of the friends of the Prince, and the subject dropt into oblivion.

A suit in Chancery was instituted a few years since by the relations of Miss Seymour, for the purpose of recovering her from the care of Mrs. Fitzherbert; and the present Loid Chancellor made an order for the child to be given up to her natural From the period of their first connec- relations. Mrs. Fitzherbert appealed to tion, the friendship of the Prince and Mrs. the House of Lords, and the decree was Fitzherbert continued with very little in- reversed. She is now, therefore, the estatermission. It is unnecessary to be parti-blished guardian of this young lady. cular in this slight sketch, and as our intentio is not to offend, or to wound the feelings of any party, it will be prudentdence, which reflected great credit upon to drop the veil.

During the progress of this suit, many circumstances transpired from the evi

Mrs. Fitzherbert. Her conduct towards this young orphan seemed to be affectionate and tender without example. The evidence of a Bishop was delivered into Chancery, who testified that he had ex

Mrs. Fitzherbert is universally acknowledged to be a woman of refinement and elegant manners, of accomplishments equally solid and fascinating, and acquirements of a very high degree in the intel-amined the course and mode of Miss Seylectual scale. Her powers are of that kind which the hand of time cannot wither, which survive the charms of youth and the decay of beauty. Her attractions are as conspicuous in her manners and her taste,

mour's education, and had every reason to think it both moral and religious. This young lady resides constantly with Mrs. Fitzherbert at the summer residence of the Prince at Brighton.

ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS.

HYMENEA IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND.
[Continued from page 167.]

"IT was thus agreed on all parts," red to Edward beyond the mere circumcontinued my aunt, "that the marriage of stance of his death. To what purpose Sir William and Clarissa should take place, should they disturb her repose; why should and that no intimation should be given to they interrupt that happy serenity of temClarissa that any thing peculiar had occur-per which led her to what they wanted?

"You and I," said my aunt, "understand very different things by the same word, and perhaps this is the source of our disagreement, which is rather in terms than in argument; by sentiment I understand. that propensity to take every thing for the

'Clarissa,' said the Doctor, is one of those tempers upon whom every thing sits light; her mind is ardent but instable. She will make you a most affectionate wife as long as you live and can be with her, but if you die, or become long absent, you must expect to be forgotten as soon as Edward.best, and to make the best of every thing. It is right that you should know what you I take sentiment as the lawyers take equity, have to expect. By not expecting too as a reasonable departure from the strictness much you will suffer no disappointment; of reason, and by which some allowance is half the misery of life arises from extrava-made for the illusions of fancy. How happy gant expectations. We are apt to fo; man would be our lot if we could always live in estimate of life from the size and colour, fancy instead of realty, if imagination was through which it presents itself to our view to give us a stage instead of nature." through the medium of our imagination, and because nature, even in her happiest mood, can never reach the spirit of fancy, can never paint with its brilliancy, we feel ourselves disconcerted, and lose the refish || of the good we have, because we cannot reach all that we had hoped. If hope some times indemnifies us for the miseries, it not unfrequently, when unwisely encouraged and indulged, leads us into real misery. Such is Clarissa; you now know what you have to expect.'

[ocr errors]

This is a kind of nonsense, my dear aunt, so like sense, that I conceive it my duty to express my clear opinion of it. We are reasonable and accountable creatures; we are not born to sleep and to dream; sleep is but the repose after labour which nature has made necessary in o der to invigorate labour; dreams, or dreaming, is the exercise of fancy above nature; the mind is still active whilst all the motions of the body are suspended. Imagination, in its best exercise, is but a waking dream; in

adopts the scenes and realities of nature, it is in its proper place, but no where else.

“And I am perfectly satisfied,' said Sirits proper, sphere, where it illustrates and William. What is it to me whether my widow weeps six months or twelve, or till her weeds wear out, or till her shoes be old? Give me the woman who can love me whilst living, and I will readily dispense with her sorrow when dead; surely it is enough for me if I am loved as long as I live, if the comforts of domestic life do not follow me into my tomb."

"Well," said I to my aunt, "I cannot but acknowledge that these two lovers, Clarissa and Sir William, were well worthy of each other; the delicacy of the one is very well matched by the delicacy of the other; they both seem to me as destitute of a heart as a calculating Jew.”

"I wonder," said my aunt, "that you should make this objection, who of all people in the world seem most adverse to any thing in the shape of sentiment."

"Where sentiment is in opposition to reason,” said I, “I cannot place myself on its side. I abhor that sentiment which, having no foundation in nature or sense, only renders us unfit for the condition of life; but where sentiment is but another name for virtue and delicacy, where it is not a fiction but a reality---,"

"To return, however, to my narrative," said my aunt." The nuptials of Clarissa and Sir William were such as were suited to their rank; and though every one did not approve of the conduct of Clarissa, the splendour of their equipage and style of living, made every thing to be shortly fogotten. What a world is that in which we live, Hymenæa; tell me what is the crime, short of any thing infamous, which is not pardoned, and not overlooked in those who can cover it with wealth: rank and money are every where the presump tions of worth, and the world bow before them wheresoever they are found.”

"I am happy," said I, "that you have become a satyrist. The first step is to see the foilies of others, the next to apply the rule to ourselves. Every person of fashion must become a misanthrope, in a degree, before I can indulge any hope of his amendment."

"Well,” replied my aunt, smiling, "if sagacity in seeing the faults of others be the first step at self-ref rmation, you may doubtless find reformers at every tea-table

« AnteriorContinuar »