quently and essentially; in addition to this, that celebrated statesman has doubtless reaped considerable benefit from her conversation. Cicero, that he might qualify himself for the forum, spent the intervals of his leisure in the company of the most accomplished Roman ladies, on purpose to polish his style. Accordingly, while he studied the law under Scævola the augur, polite literature under the poet Archias, philosophy under Phædrus the epicurean, Plato the academic, and Diodorus the stoic, he conversed with Lælia, Mucia, the two Liciniæ, one of them the wife of L. Scipio, the other of the younger Marius, who all excelled in that delicacy of the Latin tongue peculiar to their families, and valued themselves on preserving it in their posterity.

We cannot here resist the pleasure of adding some lines from the Botanic Garden of Dr. Darwin, who has happily introduced the subject of these memoirs as an occasional visitor at Buxton :

-"So in green vales amid her mountains bleak BUXTONIA Smiles, the Goddess-nymph of Peak,

* EPIGRAM

On the DUCHESS of DEVONSHIRE,

Written in consequence of her Grace's canvas in support of Mr. Fox.

"Array'd in matchless beauty, Devon's Fair,

In Fox's favour takes a zealous part:

-beware!

But on! where'er the pilferer comes

She supplicates a vote, and steals a heart."

+ Legimus epistolas Cornelia, matris Gracchorum-auditus est nobis Læliæ, Caii filiæ, sæpe sermo: ergo illam patris elegantia tinctam vidimus; et filius ejus Mucias ambas, quarum sermo mihi fuit notas.-Brut.

Ff3

Deep

Deep in warm waves and pebbly baths she dwells,
And calls Hygeia to her sainted wells.

"Hither in sportive bands bright DEVON leads
Graces and Loves from Chatsworth's flowery meads,
Charm'd round the NYMPH, they climb the rifled rocks,
And steep in mountain-mist their golden locks;

On venturous step her sparry caves explore,

And light with radiant eyes her realms of ore!

In

Oft by her bubbling founts, and shadowy domes, gay undress the fairy legion roams,

Their dripping palms in playful malice fill,

Or taste with ruby lip the sparkling rill;

Crowd round her baths, and, bending o'er the side,
Unclasp'd their sandals, and their zones untied,
Dip with gay fear the shuddering foot undress'd,
And quick retract it to the fringed vest;

Or cleave with brandish'd arms the lucid stream,
And sob, their blue eyes twinkling in the stream.
-"High o'er the chequer'd vault with transient glow
Bright lustres dart, as dash the waves below;
And Echo's sweet responsive voice prolongs
The dulcet tumult of their silver tongues.—
O'er their flush'd cheeks uncurling tresses flow,
And dew-drops glitter on their necks of snow;
Round each fair Nymph her dropping mantle clings,
And Loves emerging shake their showery wings."

By way of conclusion we have to observe, that the Duchess of Devonshire has been no less the patroness and afforded a subject of just praise to the literary, than she has been the ornament, the eulogy, and the model of the fashionable world. She distinguished herself very early as a warm admirer and proficient in many of the elegant arts, and an invariable as well as liberal encourager of those who have adorned and cultivated them.

Of

Of the authors most celebrated among us for polite composition, there are few who, although too honest and proud to adulate, have not made honourable mention of the spirit, generosity, and goodness of this eminent and amiable lady. Messrs. Hayley, Sheridan, Pratt, Tickel, both the Colmans, Mr. Fox, Lord Carlisle, and almost every other name dear to the Muses of this country, have, in various forms of tribute, offered incense at her shrine; and, above all, she has the superior merit of, never having failed to advocate the cause of misfortune!

This latter trait, indeed, in her Grace's character is the more amiable, the more noble, the more sterling, as it has very frequently been independent on every title but that of misery to her protection. To be unhappy, and to be told how she may best alleviate or wholly remove it, is an all-sufficient motive with the Duchess of Devonshire to tax her power and her interest to the utmost; in truth, not seldom to her own manifest inconvenience.

The writer of the passages now immediately addressed to the heart of the reader has, in several instances, been not only an eye-witness, but the honoured agent and instrument of this excellent woman's bountiful disposition, which has adininistered relief to various objects of her pity and protection; and the principle of native goodness, strengthened by constant habit, has, even to the moment at which these truths are consigned to paper, gained such force, that neither her Grace's own frequent bounty-created difficulties, on the one hand, nor the returns of in

gratitude, yet more hard to bear, on the other; nor the usually decreasing influence of time upon sensibility; nor any other circumstances have been able to abate her zeal in doing good offices, and thus

"Freeze the genial current of her soul."

In a word, she remains, in respect of benevolence, like the great fountain of all compassion and all bounty, without the "shadow of change." And it is a mere act of justice to observe, that to the extent of means, her sister, the Countess of Besborough, is not more allied to her by affinity than by the kidness of heart and benignity of nature which distinguishes and endears the name and family of Spencer.

THE EARL OF ROMNEY.

NON SIBI SED PATRIÆ.

THE old English baron was a noble and independent character. He united in his own person the seemingly discordant professions of a legislator and a warrior, while his residence was at once a castle and a court. At a certain time of the year, most generally one of the great festivals, he repaired at the summons of the prince to wheresoever the latter chose to convoke his parliament, which at that period may be said, like the tribunals of justice, to have been itinerant. On sounding his horn at the entrance of a royal forest he had a right to kill a deer, to feed his numerous retinue; and at Oxford, Winchester, or Westminster, he and his followers, who were all armed, frequently occupied a distinct quarter of the city.

In the country, where he was in no danger of being eclipsed, he maintained a superior degree of grandeur, and lived in a state that somewhat resembled royalty. If he happened to be the comes or earl, the twentieth penny was levied in the county court towards his maintenance, and a golden fillet (the emblem and origin of the coronet of the present day) served by way of investiture. If his district was palatinate, the name of the king was omitted in the distribution of justice, and his own substituted in its stead. He was also commander in chief of all the forces within his jurisdiction, and in certain particular emergencies had the navy, such as it then was, at his immediate disposal.*

On receiving the royal writ, he was bound to repair with his retainers to the camp during the space of forty days. He was sometimes prevailed upon, during the times of our Henrys and our Edwards, to extend the term of service, and fight for the cause of England on a foreign shore. It was by such men, then known by the legal phrase of tenants in capite, as holding their lands immediately from the crown, and those who held under them by an intermediate or baser tenure, that the battles of Poitiers and Cressy were won; by them also were the still more bloody and destructive wars between the white and the red rose -the rival houses of York and Lancaster-carried on. In time of peace their armour, spears, and two

This was always the case with the lord warden of the cinque ports, originally styled Comes littoris Saxonici, or Count of the Saxon shore.

banded