nest and impressive deliberation, until, as he pronounced the concluding words, he slowly closed the volume. The effect on his whole audience was remarkable. A quiet and thoughtful gravity had given place to the mirthful lines so recently traced on every visage, as Mr. Howard rose and invited them to accompany him to the Hall, where the members of the household were already assembled in expectation of his appearance to close the day, according to the custom of this Christian family, by the beautiful and simple rites of family worship; such was the graceful close of this pleasant evening's pastimes, which, from its peculiar attractions, we narrated with unusual detail, before describing the proceedings of the

FIFTH EVENING.

Another day brought round its accustomed pleasures and once more the Library of Derley Manor exhibited its group of happy young faces, all reflecting the delighted remembrance of the pleasant intellectual pastime of the previous evening. Old Mr. Howard, who had entered with such genial humour into the spirit of their diversions, and had furnished for their evening's entertainment so acceptable a selection

from the poets, made his appearance among them once more, in order to complete the royal duties incumbent on him by nominating a successor. The morning of that day had been clear and frosty, though the snow lay thick around, and the leafless trees were festooned with the long icicles which the evening frost made from the melting snow that slowly yielded to the rays of the mid-day sun. Notwithstanding the thick covering of snow on the ground, and the keen frost in the air, most of the young guests of Derley Manor had rejoiced once more to escape from their forced confinement to the house. Some of the ladies walked in the garden, but it had a dreary and comfortless look. The flowers were all deep buried under their winter coverlet. The bare trees, clad only with clumps of snow or sparkling with their pendant icicles, looked far better when viewed from the comfortable parlour windows, than in the nearer prospect which the more venturous explorers gained by their ramble amid the snow. The bushes and the hardy evergreens seemed buried in heaps of the same universal covering, save where here and there the wind had shaken loose a tuft of the glistening holly leaves, and showed beneath the sparkling clusters of its red berries. The ladies, young and old, speedily retreated back to the warm

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fire-side in the old parlour, but meanwhile, the more venturous youths had carried their explorations beyond the garden walls, and the news soon reached the circle in the parlour, that the pond was covered with a merry party of skaters and sliders. The ladies again resumed their boots and pelisses. Furs, cloaks, and shawls were speedily in requisition, and they were not only soon beside the pond enjoying the exhilerating sight, but the ice being thick and the pond shallow, the least courageous of them had been persuaded, before the day was over, to take their seat in a sledge or car, hastily constructed for their use, and drawn by relays of the boisterous sliders with and rapid motion along the ice.

easy

Such were the occupations that had sufficed to wile away the short winter day in exhilerating sport, and brought the whole party together in the evening full of pleasurable excitement, prepared to enjoy with double zest the intellectual pastime with the beauties of the poets. Mr. Howard selected for the Queen of the Evening, Miss Mary Bevans,-a young lady who had been the first to venture in the car and set the example to her fair companions of enjoying their share of the sport on the ice.

I fear, said Queen Mary, on taking her seat as the

ruler of the evening,-that I shall not be able to provide for you such acceptable entertainment as swiftly beguiled the passing hours during our last meeting here. Nevertheless the subject which I shall invite you to illustrate is one that offers abundant attractions, if treated with the care it merits, I mean

The Beauties of the Poetesses.

It is scarcely necessary that I should do more than enumerate the Fair Poets of our country, their names include some of the noblest of their sex. The great ruler of England, Queen Elizabeth, amused her moments of leisure with the pleasures of verse, and her hapless prisoner the lovely and unfortunate Mary, Queen of Scots, beguiled the long hours of her captivity with the same soothing occupation. Others of noble birth, and royal lineage have followed their example. I shall not, however, detain you by the quaint verses of these elder poetesses, but shall rather tempt you to select from the sweet songstresses of recent times. the entertainments of this evening.

One of the most gifted poetesses of modern times, is Mrs. Tighe, a native of Ireland, whose exquisite poem, constructed from the beautiful Greek allegory

of Psyche, is scarcely surpassed by any poem of modern times. Miss Blanchford, the daughter of an Irish clergyman of good family, married her cousin Henry Tighe, of Woodstock, in 1793, at the early age of nineteen. Her husband was warmly attached to her, and sympathised with her in her literary tastes; but consumption was hereditary in Mrs. Tighe's family, and its fatal seeds ripened with her womanhood. Amid the languor of incipient disease and failing strength she wrote the exquisite poem of Psyche, and with the profits of four successive editions, she enlarged the Orphan Asylum at Wicklow by an addition which still bears the name of the Psyche Ward. Great, however, as was her poetic genius, it has won more admiration from strangers, than from the relatives who might well have been proud of their connection with the gifted Poetess. She died in 1810, at the early age of thirty-six. Her husband testified his admiration and sorrow by engaging the chisel of Flaxman to adorn her tomb with a suitable memorial; but other members of the family, proud of their lordly acres, seem to have thought their rank degraded by the creations of the Poetess, and we search in vain for some worthy biographic narrative of her brief career. Others, however, have appreciated her