LETTER IV.

MRS GELL.

Lichfield, Dec. 3, 1797.

I HAVE lately suffered, during a week, all I underwent in the summer, from a severe return of my hemorrhage. My appearance became again a rival spectacle of horror to "the bloodboltered Banquo," whose visibility the silly foppery of modern refinement has banished from the stage, to the great injury of the noblest tragedy in the world. Absurd!-that our feelings, which tolerate scenic witches, should be revolted by the sight of a scenic ghost.

Do you not pity me?-think of awakening from imperfect slumber, with streams of bood running down my throat, and threatening suffocation, till, on my starting up, they found a less fatal channel, and deluged my pillow! You will conceive that such visitations, by the glimpses of the moon, made the night hideous; but while I have bled, dear Mrs H. has died! I understood that she had obtained the pleasure of your acquaintance. We met at Derby last spring. She then appear

ed in the strongest-possible health. Never was there a firmer constitution. I have not known her to complain of bodily indisposition. She had a Gallic gaiety of spirit, which the infelicities of her destiny could but transiently, however violently, impede. The short paroxysm of anguish passed, the tide of vivacity returned, and bore down every thing before it.

Nature, after striking off this one singularly characteristic impression, broke the mould in which she made Mrs Hayley.

Fire in her affections, frost in her sensations, she shrunk from the caresses even of the husband she adored. Hence, while she had a morbid degree of tenaciousness respecting his esteem and attention, she was incapable of personal jealousy ; and would amuse herself with the idea of those circumstances, with which she could so perfectly well dispense, being engrossed by another.

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Alike during the years of their union, and in those of their separation, she gloried in the talents of her bard, as she used to call Mr H., and delighted to praise his virtues, perpetually producing specimens of the first, and giving instances of the latter.

While her heart was warmly attached to the many whom she believed her friends-for to wish and to believe were twin feelings with Mrs H.

while she could not bear, without visible pain and ardent vindication, the slightest word which had a tendency to question their pretensions to talent and virtue; yet, respecting strangers, or acquaintance that did not interest her, she had a quick sense of the ridiculous, which produced very pointed satire-but, never tired of placing an absurd speech, or mean action, in new lights of ludicrous exhibition, the fertility of her imagination counteracted the fine edge of her wit, worked her theme thread-bare, and fatigued her auditors.

With sportive fancy; with no inconsiderable portion of belles-lettres knowledge; with polite address, and an harmonious voice in speaking, and with the grace of correct and eloquent language; with rectitude of principles, unsuspecting frankness of heart, and extreme good humour; she was, strange to say! not agreeable, at least not permanently agreeable. The unremitting attention her manner of conversing seemed to claim; her singular laugh, frequent and excessive, past all proportion to its cause, overwhelmed, wearied, and oppressed even those who were most attached to her; who felt her worth, and pitied her banishment from the man on whom she doated-in whose fame she triumphed, tenacious of its claims, even to the most irritable soreness. Yet her rage

for society, and excessive love of talking, were so ill calculated to the inclinations and habits of a studious recluse, as to render their living together inconsistent with the peace of either. However, while their separation was the quiet haven of his spirit, it was, unfortunately, a source of pain and mortification to her, though they, by no means, in their degree, amounted to the portion of discontent, which resulted from partaking his solitude. But Mrs H. had not, any more than our prime minister, that true wisdom which balances evils, and chooses the least.

Her unhappiness in the disunion, came on by sudden violences of sensation, like the grief of the Otaheiteans, who, when the thought of a lost friend occurs, start into agony, shriek, and wound themselves, and then, as instantly recovering, laugh, sing, and dance..

I am extremely curious to know how and why she died; as the event, simply announced in the newspapers, is all I know. If her intentionally blameless spirit slid out of existence by any of those countless doors which diseases and accidents open, her death will relieve Mr H.'s mind from much anxiety, occasioned by her total want of common-life discretion, and of economy;-yet had she no personal extravagancies, though a separate maintenance, with her thoughtless disregard

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of pecuniary calculation, proved inconvenient to the but competent limits of her husband's income, and to the expence of keeping up his beautiful place, and its pleasure-grounds, to which he is enthusiastically attached. About a month ago, I heard, from a person to whom he had mentioned his intention, that he had determined to leave E -, through motives of prudence. Soon after I read her decease in the newspapers. hope there was no self-violence*; but her strong health, the extreme, though transient bitterness with which she felt every new mortification, would prevent my being surprised, if information that her expences were likely to banish Mr H. from his beloved home, had produced a rashness. Alas! should it be so, Mr H.'s quiet will have received a cureless wound. If not, he will be the happier for this removal.

Your letter to me, of September, describes a literary society, whose pleasures you seemed poignantly to taste, and to which, I know, your mind is congenial. This to Mr Saville paints an interesting and lovely retirement, with a force and beauty which charm us. The last letter breathes

* The author, soon after the date of this letter, had the satisfaction of learning that Mrs H. died of an epidemic fever, and that her fears of self-violence in the case had no foundation.-S.