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296 Original Letter from Miss Linley, afterwards Mrs. Sheridan. [Oct.

the means of making me still more wretched, as there is no one on earth whose good opinion I would wish to retain more than yours. I should never have troubled you with this long let ter, if I had not hoped from your gentle disposition that you would, by considering what I have gone through, be sooner brought to forgive my errors. I have been many days writing this, but I have not yet heard the event of Sheridan's journey. I am greatly distressed, and my mind is at present in great agitation. God only knows what will become of me; I have almost lost every hope of happiness in this world. Death or a convent is the only view on which I can turn my eyes with any pleasure. I hope one way or other my fate will soon be decided, as I cannot endure my present feelings. Once more, adieu! May God for ever bless and make you as completely happy as I am miserable. Write to me I entreat you; let me not think I am forsaken

by all the world. You are the only comfort remaining; let me therefore be assured of your friendship; the world I despise. Give my kindest love to your sister; may she with you continue to enjoy a long course of uninterrupted happiness, and may those pangs ever be a stranger to your breast, which now rend the heart of your sincere though wretched friend.

P. S. As I will think my dear friend has been the partaker of my griefs, I have opened my letter once more to assure you that I am now a little easier. I have this moment heard that Sheridan is returned. He has seen Mathews, and obliged him to fight; he disarmed him, and gave him his life, after making him promise to beg pardon in the newspapers *. Every thing is settled to his satisfaction, and I expect to see him every minute. I am just told he is below. Adieu! my dear girl, and believe me yours. E. LINLEY.

Throughout this interesting sketch, Miss Linley studiously conceals her marriage with Sheridan, which was not then publicly known. Subsequent to this, she appeared in the oratorios at Covent Garden; and Sheridan, though prevented by the vigilance of her father from a private interview, had frequent opportunities of seeing her in public. At length, after a series of stratagems and scenes, which convinced Mr. Linley that it was impossible much longer to keep. them asunder, he consented to their union, and on the 13th of April, 1773, they were married by licence.

This amiable and accomplished woman died of consumption at Bristol, on the 28th of June, 1792, in her 38th year. The devotedness of affection with which she was regarded during life, not only by her own father and sisters, but by all her husband's family, showed that while her beauty and music enchanted the world, she had charms more intrinsic and lasting for those around her.

"We have already seen," says Mr. Moore, "with what pliant sympathy she followed her husband through his various pursuits,-identifying herself with the Politician as warmly and readily as with the Author, and keeping love still attendant on genius through all his transformations. As the wife of the dramatist and manager, we find her calculating the receipts of the House, assisting in the adaptation of her husband's opera, and reading over the plays sent in by dramatic candidates. As the wife of the senator and orator, we see her with no less zeal, making extracts from state-papers, and copying out ponderous pamphlets-entering with all her heart and soul into the details of elections, and even endeavouring to fathom the mysteries of the funds. The affectionate and sensible care with which she watched over, not only her own children, but those which her beloved sister, Mrs. Tickell, confided to her, in dying, gives the finish to this picture of domestic usefulness. When it is recollected, too, that the person thus homelily employed was gifted with every charm that could adorn and delight society, it would be difficult, perhaps, to find anywhere a more perfect example of that happy mixture of utility and ornament, in which all that is prized by the husband and the lover combines, and which renders woman what the sacred fire was to the Parsees-not only an object of adoration on their altars, but a source of warmth and comfort to their hearths."

This alludes to the first duel fought by Sheridan, when Mathews was compelled to ask his life. Mathews, being afterwards almost universally shunned for his disgraceful conduct throughout this affair, which he had shamefully misrepresented, at length wished to retrieve his character by fighting a second duel. Sheridan readily accepted the challenge. Mr. Moore has given the particulars very minutely. Both the combatants were desperately wounded, and their swords broken. As neither would descend to ask their lives, they were separated by their seconds.

Mr.

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1825.]

OF

Antient Seals.-Double Font at Beton.

Mr. URBAN, Lincoln's Inn, June 17. BSERVING that one of your Correspondents is in search of the crests and badges of the Baronial families_represented by the house of Percy, I send you a drawing of the Seals of Sir Guy Bryan, Sir Robert Fitzpayn, and Sir Robert de Poynings, three of the noble ancestors of the Duke of Northumberland. Sir Tho

mas Rytson of Hengrave was a pur. chaser from Henry, fourth Earl of Northumberland, of the manor of Ack ford Fitzpain, in Dorsetshire, and these seals are among the title deeds remaining at Hengrave.

Sir Guy Bryan, K.G. bore Or, three piles Azure (see Plate I. fig. 1.) and appears from his seal, which is loose, to have used griffins for his supporters; he died in 1390, having been summoned to several Parliaments in the

reigns of Edw. III. and Rich. II. The heiress of Bryan intermarried with Fitzpayne..

Sir Robert Fitzpayne gave for his arms Gules, three lions passant Argent, a bendlet Azure (see fig. 2.) This seal is appendant to a deed dated the day before the feast of the Conver

sion of St. Paul, 40 Edw. III. whereby he granted to Sir Guy Bryan, Sir Martin Moulisch, Canon of Salisbury, and other trustees, his manors of Ackford Fitzpayn in Dorsetshire, Stourton in Wiltshire, Bryghampton, Spekyntone Staple, and Sedene in Somersetshire, with the advowsons of the Churches of the same places. His only child Isabel was wife of Sir Richard de Poynings.

Sir Robert de Poynings, son and heir of Richard and Isabel, by deed dated 26 June, 4 Henry V. enfeoffed Walter Metford, clerk, Sir John Pelham, and other feoffees, with his manor of Ackford Fitzpayn. Upon his seal he bears quarterly 1 and 4, barry of six Or and Vert, a bendlet Gules, Poynings, 2 and 3, Fitzpayn. His crest is a griffin's head, with wings displayed; and he uses two badges, a key with the handle uppermost, under a crown, and a unicorn passant. Probably the latter was derived from Bryan. (see fig. 3.) Sir Robert Poyning's eldest son Richard died in the life-time of his father, leaving an only child Eleanor, wife of Henry, Earl of Northumberland.

In an heraldic MS. in my possession
GENT. MAG. October, 1825.

297

of the time of James I. the two badges
given to the Earl of Northumberland
are, the crescent, and the key and
crown; but the latter is used differ-
ently from Poynings, the key being
turned up and passed through the
crown. The unicorn is one of the
supporters of the Percy family.
Yours, &c.
JOHN GAGE.

T. 4.) is in the possession

HE matrix (of bronze) of the

of Lieut.-gen. Hutton, to whom it was presented a few years ago by a gentleman in Ireland, who brought it from Demerara, where it had been used some time in a merchant's store for sealing bottled liquors, &c. It is said to have been carried to Demerara by an officer who had found it among some ruins in Spain.

The legend, big, castri roffensis, it is apprehended, can only apply to Rochester in Kent, and any elucidation as to its use, &c. would much oblige. It is probably about 300 years old. EDIT.

Mr. URBAN,

HE

May 30.

de accompanying drawing of a

double Font in the Church of Béton, about eight English miles from Rennes in Brittany, was sketched by a youth of fifteen, who is a great admirer of Antiquities (see fig. 5). The font has the figures 404 upon it, the first figure is obliterated from age; probably 1404 is the date; and on the margin at top are some ancient letters, which appear to be Celtic, but too imperfect to copy or decipher.

The Church is of a much older date. The steeple was destroyed in the Revolution, but the tower still remains, though much dilapidated; the windows are Gothic, varying but little from the niches on the font; and a house of about a century old has been added to the ecclesiastical building, which was occupied two years since by Capt. Wells of the British Navy. The Church is small, has only one aile, one window is stopped up, and the tracery in the East and West windows are in a very imperfect state. Over the windows are labels, terminated at top alternately with a cross and á fleur de lis. (see figs. 6,7.)

I am, Sir, one of your oldest admirers and subscribers, AN OCTOGENARIAN.

Mr.

Mr. URBAN,

On Laughter.

Oct. 7.

IN an antient Welch poem ascribed
correctly to the tenth century, and
noticed by Mr. S. Turner, III. 516,
are the following lines:

"Hast thou heard the saying of Taliesin,
In conversation with Merdhin?

It is natural for the indiscreet to laugh im-
moderately."

This remark of so ancient a poet seems to show that Laughter, which is confined entirely to the face of man, and is an operation of the muscles seated in the mouth and cheeks, may claim of two distinct characters, this which belongs to folly, and the other to scorn. It has been attributed to the fifth pair of nerves, which sending branches to the eye, ear, lips, tongue, palate, and muscles of the cheek, parts of the mouth, præcordia, &c. a sympa thy is formed between them all, so that when one of them is acted or excited either by external accident, or internal imagination, the others are proportionably affected: if they please the fancy, they affect these muscles with Laughter. (Rees's Cyclop.)

Many philosophers have denounced it as not only exposing the force of internal feeling, which they think should always be reserved, but also that it is a species of levity and contempt which it is either improper or immoral to entertain and to express. I believe the Society of Friends, to whom we may almost exclusively yield the palm of moral philosophy in mind and practice, above all other sects, in their earliest education check any propensity to laugh; and they are brought up so much in the habit of self-denial and forbearance, that though we see great cheerfulness among the Friends, yet we never detect them laughing; they avoid it in common communications as an act of levity; but as an excitement to scorn or contempt they deem it a transgression against Christian forbearance and meekness.

Bailey says, the ancients always painted its genius in a garment of various colours, to represent its varying humour, its unsteady demeanour. It arises in general from the excitement created by surprise, which is in fact wit; from smart repartee, sarcastic recitation, from equivoque and enigma, from sudden and unexpected humour of either expression or action; but then it evinces great want of self-possession;

[Oet. and when it is suffered to become im

moderate, it is of painful consequence to persons of weak nerves. The roar and noise of merriment, when accompanied with loud laughter, is inimical to all conversation, and generally, as is said to children, ends with gravity or regret, certainly with great fatigue, before the parties separate.

power of exciting Laughter upon the But if external objects have the nerves above mentioned, it must have and wise design; for it is known to been so constituted with a pleasant aid the digestive faculties which gravity depresses and checks,-it is known to add to the stock of cheerfulness in society, as the flowers of the field are known to augment the diffusion of fragrance, and to purify the air,—and Sun's light: the reverse of all these so up to the many blessings of the would have wrapped the glories of all nations in gloom,-and thus a smile transcendant charm of female manners, on the cheek of innocence is the most which can adorn, and animate, and give value to human existence ;-but the pure essence of a mind elevated far this does not extend to laughter; it is higher than the boisterous and frolicsome indulgence of vulgar freedom.

Laughter and its concomitants, the Dr. Johnson gives ten definitions of greater part of which rank themselves cule, and the rest under merriment,under contempt, derision, scorn, ridiand are so used by the writers whom he recites.

ter of Laughter is very accurately deIn the sacred Scriptures the characpicted as follows: 1. Where it is accompanied with contempt and scorn; Gen. 17. 17 ; Job 1. 10; 12.4; 22. 19; 41. 29; 2 Chron. 30. 10; 2 Kings, 19. 21; Isa. 37. 22; 80.6; Ps. 52. 6; 59. 8; 22. 7; 27. 13; N. 2. 19; Ec. 23. 32; Mat. 9. 24; Mar. 5. 40; Lu. 8. 53. These eighteen passages are not the whole of the same import, but it is accompanied with disbelief, Gen. are sufficient for my purpose. 2. Where sinfully merry, 18. 12. 3. Where it is thoughtless and 6. 23. Prov. 5. 4; 14. 13; Lu. Eccl. 2. 2. 5. Where it is comforta4. Where it is deemed mad, ble, and where sorrow is turned into joy, Lu. 6. 21; under which head may be arranged moral joy or rejoicing, though it is very seldom that in these instances the gaiety of heart is stretched beyond cheerfulness; for

Laughter

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