THE Most Noble the Marchioness of Stafford is a Peeress in her own right. Her Ladyship, before her marriage to the present Marquis, enjoyed the title, honours, and fortune of the family of Sutherland; her Ladyship being at the time of her alliance with the Noble Marquis, Countess of Sutherland in her own right. This lady has long occupied an elevated situation in society, which she has filled with becoming dignity, and a most amiable condescension to those about her. She is a lady of very refined taste, and a liberal disposition, and inculcates in her own conduct the benefits which may be derived from rank and high station. She has never stepped forth as the patroness of those dissipated follies of the age which have usurped upon the sobriety and ancient simplicity of the English character, and changed our British Nobles into the counterpart of the French Noblesse before the revolution in that country. She has led in none of those arbitrary eccentricities which have prevailed in the present day, and by means of which wealth has sported away the burthen of its superfluities, to the great injury of morals. She is, in fact, a lady, whose dignified station has served to display the great merits and social utility of her character. Ff2 ORIGINAL COMMUNICATIONS. HYMENEA IN SEARCH OF A HUSBAND. My aunt, Lady Lovelace, having recovered from her chagrin, became again as lively as ever, and accepted with pleasure an invitation which Lord and Lady Castledowne sent to request her company and mine in a water-party on the Thames. The morning was fine, and the boat, into which the Earl handed my aunt and myself, was decorated with all the taste of a Venetian gondola. The canopy was of light blue taffeta, draperied with silver cords; the rowers, six in number, were in white, with blue silk handkerchiefs round their necks; and in another boat, which followed ours at a little distance, was a fine band of music. I had hardly taken my seat under the cerulean awning, when I found Sir Bingham Courtown at my side.—“This waterparty, charming Miss Wellwood," said he, was devised by me; at least I persu ded my amiable Countess here not to refuse the invitation which the Marchioness of Chertsey sent for her Ladyship and party. It will introduce us to one of the most delightful dejunes in the world." Mr. Editor, you can imagine my embarrassment at this last rhapsody of Sir Bingham. Lady Castledowne and my aunt laughed, and declared themselves highly offended at the sweeping encomiums of both gentlemen on the youngest lady in company. "In these days of the rights of primogeniture," exclaimed Lady Lovelace, "it is but just that I should assert my privilege, and demand, on the strength of forty years' maturity in grace and beauty, the | laurel, or rather the myrtle, før my brows.” While Lord Castledowne inade her some gallant and gay reply, the Baronet whispered in my ear,—“ What they speak in badinage I utter from my heart. More is in this breast, loveliest Hymenæa, than—.” What he would have then said I cannot pretend to guess, for the soft avowal, which hardly faltered on his tongue, was interrupted by a little wherry having come close to us, and two gentlemen, on Lord Castledowne's invitation, jumped into our boat. By the terms of his salutation, I soon learnt that the one was the young With, perhaps, rather too much simpli- Lord Errantale, lately returned from a city, I asked my gay informer whether it Mediterranean excursion, and the other was to be given on the water? Sir Bing- his travelling companion, a man a few ham laughed aloud at this question.-years older than himself, of the name of "Very good, egad!" exclaimed he; "only hear, Lord Castledowne, Miss Wellwood fancies we are all to play the parts of Nereides and Tritons, and sip our tea and coffee on the translucent waves!" Todd. Lord Errantale was a handsome young man, with large rolling eyes and an indolent air. He looked round on the party seated under the canopy, and taking up It is not to be wondered at," returned his eye glass contemplated Lady Castlethe Earl, bowing to me," that the Queen downe for a moment very steadily, and of Beauty, having risen from the deep, then springing forward in affected recolshould think of spreading so fair a ban-lection, begged pardon for not having requet on her own element." "Pon honour, my Lord," cried the Baronet colouring, "it is rather too bad in you to take the lead in these sort of speeches to the loveliest woman in the world!" cognized her Ladyship at first.-" Upon my word," cried he, "I see so many faces that it is quite impossible to remember those of half my friends!" "Happy man!" exclaimed I, half unconsciously. No person heard me, and the young Peer, throwing himself into a seat beside the Countess, continued:-"I am really so embarrassed with the crowding images of thousands of people intro duced to me, that I may truly say my head is a perfect chaos!" "It would be impossible to doubt it, my Lord," returned Lady Castledowne. Errantale bowed as if he had received a compliment. "No one, my Lord," joined in my aunt," who has read your works need such an apology; every page bears witness to the wonderful occupation of your mind." "And what Review is that," asked the Earl," which your Lordship believes to be one of the three destinies of literary immortality? I should like much to be introduced to this modern successor of the Delphic Oracle?" "Its name," replied Lord Errantale, tery." "You do me honour," replied he, complacently smiling; and with a half sleepy bend of his head, bowing to Lady Love-looking solemn, “must remain a myślace. I was astonished to see how the self-love of this foolish young man mistranslated such evidently ironical speeches. "But which of my works do you like best?" said he, again addressing my aunt; "I hope your Ladyship will grant the wreath of your approbation to my own favourite? If one may be allowed, of two bagatelles, to grant so high an honour as your Ladyship's veto to either!" As I had read both, I was curious to hear my aunt's reply. "I dare not take the critic's chair," replied she, "though led to it by your Lordship. Allow me rather to appeal to the Earl of Castledowne," said she, with rather a wicked smile. "It was only yesterday he passed his opinion to me on the merits of your last; and what he said was certainly a just tribute to the merits of A Trip through Portugal." "Heaven bless us !" whispered Lady Castledowne to me, "what is your mischievous aunt about? Why, she knows that Lord Casledowne cut up the poor miserable performance without mercy." “Pray, my Lord," said Errantale, turn ing to the Earl, with an expecting simper, pray indulge me with the happiness of your opinion on my work." 66 Impossible!" cried the Earl, bowing to the confident author;" it would not be proper for me, in delicacy to your Lordship's feelings, to say any part of that opinion to your face which that Lady heard me utter behind back." your "My good Earl," exclaimed Errantale, The Earl turned round to conceal his hardly stifled laughter; and amidst the music of flutes and horns, we soon after drew near the green and velvet shore which slopes down from Villa-Ambrosia, the enchanting seat of the Marchioness of Chertsey. The whole of the river, at this part, seemed covered with gay boats, filled with ladies in dresses which vied in colours and variety with the bright parterres of the garden..... The villa was constructed in the Italian style; and the whole of the lawn, to the water's edge, seemed enamelled with splendid groups, walking or sitting amidst flowering shrubs of every hue and climate. A delicious fragrance came upon the breeze as we approached the shore; it was breathed from the odoriferous plants on the lawn, and the perfumes which adorned its numerous visitors. Sir Bingham Courtown handed me from the boat to the lawn.-"To such a fairy scene on the banks of the Humber, would I gladly conduct the fair queen of my heart!" whispered he to me, while he pressed my hand and sighed. I drew away my hand, and wishing not to notice his gallantry, answered with a laugh; "then I hope your fair queen is a native of the Humber's banks; else, I fear, she would find its climate rather too bleak for such a southern festival!" He now spoke with an earnestness I could not mistake." I am sincere," added he; "I now lay my life at your feet; aliow it but to be dedicated to you, and you shail command it at will."-He clasped my hand violently as he spoke. "None in the world," replied I; "his manners are perfectly disagreeable to me; though not absolutely libertine, they are so free, so careless of the refinement, and even discretions of mind and action, that he is a person quite disgusting to me in any other light than an occasional acquaintance." "I am glad to hear you speak so determinately, and with such dicrimination of his character," returned my kind friend; My answer was simple and firm. It was" it assures me you are not acting a mere to decline the honour he proposed to me. He remonstrated, he expostulated, he beseeched, he almost threatened self-murder, if I continued to refuse him. He would have thrown himself on his knees as he held me obscured between a short passage of orange trees; but, in few words, repeating my rejection, I broke from him, and burried after my party. caught hold of the arm of Lady Castledowne, who, having been disengaged from her conductor, Lord Errantale, by a passing groupe, was the first I reached. I hurried her along, till we were lost from the eyes of the Baronet in the gay crowd; and then explained to her surprised Ladyship the reason of my unceremonious haste. She smiled when I ended. "My Lord and I," said she, “ both foresaw Sir Bingham's proposal and your rejection; yet, as even the most discreet young women are sometimes hurried out of their judgment by the impetuosity or perseverance of a lover they might not otherwise approve, we had intended to have taken an opportunity of giving you a sketch. of the Baronet's real character. This my husband thought he was bound in honour to do, as Sir Bingham owed his introduction to you, to him. We did not guess that your lover would have been so prompt in his declaration; but no barm has issued from our delay in speaking, as you have dismissed his addresses." "It was preposterous to think of making them at all," returned I," on so short an acquaintance." "Oh! my sweet friend," rejoined the Countess; "I fear from that remark, delicacy rather than disinclination has prompted your present refusal. Sir Bingham may have a chance by perseverance!" maidenly part, but decidedly from knowledge and just reasoning. Sir Bingham is exactly what you think him. He cannot be called a libertine in the present extended sense of the word; but in the opi nions of our sober grandsires and granddames, he would not have been considered as much less. He does not keep more mistresses than one, that the world knows of; but he has been suspected of expensive intrigues with two or three ladies of fashion, who hesitated not to make sacrifices of their womanly honour to the ho nour of paying their gambling debts. A few unchaste condescensions gained them the purse of poor Bingham; and thus, betrayed by his vanity and their arts, he has become almost a beggar !" I coloured when Lady Castledowne paused at this sentence. She saw that I understood my fortune had been the stimulus to Sir Bingham's precipitate declaration; and she resumed: "I do not wish to insinuate, my dear Miss Wellwood, that our Baronet did not see as many charms in your person as in your rent roll; but the passion of a common lover of the sex is not worth a thought in the estimation of a woman of delicacy. Sir Bingham's warmest sighs were for your estates; and possessing them, your modest graces would soon have been despised and neglected, for a re-union with the bold, indelicate, and sordid wantons who, sinning under some degree of disguise, are yet shamefully tolerated by persons of rank, as women still belonging to their circle. Such creatures have been the early acquaintance of Bingham: they have depraved his taste, debased his manners, and corrupted his heart; hence he is free in his conversation, and without refinement or discretion in his mind or actions. Such a dise. Now, we have become so liberal' that man is allowed to range from fair to fair without a frown from any of the sex, but she whom he may desert for some new rival. A woman is permitted to defile the marriage-bed, to abandon the children she bore in wedlock, and flying to an adul terer's arms, obtain a divorce as the reward of her iniquity; and next day crown her shame with triumph, by marrying the partner of her guilt. When the criminal pair have mocked the laws of God by perjuring themselves before his holy altar, they are deemed, by the public, lawful I join in your sentiment," replied the Countess; and the longer I live in the world cannot but more severely lament the laxity of modern manners, the little respect that is paid by all ranks and situations to uncorrupted virtue. I am astonish-man and wife; and, in place of being ed when I contemplate the present state of society. When I was a girl, the smallest taint in the character of a man, which related to his conduct with regard to our sex, was sure to excite so strong a displea. sure in the breasts of the matrons, that they shut their doors against him: and the sight of the seducer of women made the single of our sex avoid him as a basilisk. This constrained men, if they had amours, to keep them secret; and thus evil example was spared, and virtue honoured." "When females forfeited their chastity, were they married women, no power on earth could ever induce the meanest of society to tolerate them, but as weeping Magdalens, visited and consoled by stealth. Did an unmarried woman forfeit her honour, her happiness went with it; for no circumstances could ever bring her amongst her virtuous associates again; they might pity and bewail her; but she had passed the bourne whence no female traveller is suffered, but in sackcloth and ashes, to return. "These laws might seem severe; but, like the angel with the flaming sword, they were the sure guardians of women's para avoided with horror, after a few wry faces, their crime is forgotten, and they are received, visited, courted, esteemed, praised, as if nothing ill had ever happened. Trust me, my dear Miss Wellwood, this crime alone, this wide sin of adultery, which introduces others, too horrible to name, in its train, is of a dye so black, that the vengeance of Heaven must, ere long, fall upon the abominable generation. I tremble for my country; nay, I sometimes weep, for the contagion of vice now reaches from the marbled dome to the thatched cottage. How soon may all lie a flat desolation, like the burning wastes of Sodom and Gomorrah!" As the Countess finished this animated speech, her Lord, who had overtaken us meanwhile, tapped her on the shoulder, and having heard part of what had passed, smilingly whispered: "If you can per suade Miss Wellwood to dine with us tomorrow, I will promise that she shall have an antidote for your direful prophecy.And now let us advance to make our bows to the Marchiness, seated under the arbour of the seasons." (To be continued.) |