OF DISTINGUISHED FAMILIES; A SECOND SERIES OF ANECDOTES OF THE ARISTOCRACY. BY J. BERNARD BURKE, ESQ. AUTHOR OF "THE PEERAGE AND BARONETAGE." SECOND EDITION. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. II. LONDON: COLBURN AND CO., PUBLISHERS, 13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET. 1851. THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN LIBRARIES ANECDOTES OF THE ARISTOCRACY. FONTHILL ABBEY. WHEN the young heart beats with excitement, enchanted by the ever-popular Arabian Nightswhen older eyes pore with delight over the exaggerated romances which the troubadours of Provence brought into fashion in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries,—and when we compare the style of life which can alone have given birth to such productions with that which we now see general around us, where material improvements command a constantly increasing portion of public attention, and theories which are not to save or to make money are despised, it is not wonderful if we should exclaim, that the age of romance is gone for ever! VOL. II. B |