now in great concern for the terrible death of General Conway's son-in-law, Mr. Damer, of which, perhaps, you in your solitude have not heard. You are happy who take no part but in the past world, for the mortui non mordent, nor do any of the extravagant and distressing things that perhaps they did in their lives." A coroner's inquest sat on Mr. Damer's body, and a verdict of lunacy was returned.] The Earl of Carlisle to George Selwyn. August 20 [1776]. MY DEAR GEORGE: I told you I wrote to about the Paris business. I will transcribe the words of his letter in reply. "If Lord S., upon the death of Lord Cathcart,' or upon any other account, should resign, I should be very happy to contribute to your lordship's succeeding him in that agreeable, but I believe troublesome employment." Les mots sont chiches; the objection frivolous. I shall say no more upon this subject; we have always agreed upon it. What were Mr. Damer's motives for so dreadful an action? There was no man more indifferent to me, but the account shocked me extremely. It 1 Charles, ninth Baron Cathcart, a lieutenant-general in the army, was born in 1721, and died four days previous to the date of this letter. He was aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland, and was severely wounded at the battle of Fontenoy, in 1745. He had only recently returned from Russia, at which court he had long been British ambassador. is a bad example to others in misery. It makes people think of having recourse to that method of finishing their calamities, without which, perhaps, it had never entered into their heads. If it were not so selfish an action, it would be difficult, I think, to condemn it in some cases. There never appeared anything like madness in him, yet the company he kept seemed, indeed, but a bad preparation for eternity. I have written to Fitzwilliam, and shall see him before he leaves this country. Lady Carlisle continues to mend, and the children are all well. bless you, my dear George; believe me to be God Ever yours most affectionately. The Earl of Carlisle to George Selwyn. August 29 [1776?]. MY DEAR GEORGE: It was my intention to have written you a long letter by this post, but, like many of my intentions, it is entirely frustrated. We have had the archbishop and family at dinner to-day, which has been but a formal business; but, what with our last success in America, the weather and the roads, we got through the day pretty well. Hare, Hanger, and Fawkener are here. Lady Louisa left us yesterday. We continue I 'Lady Louisa Leveson Gower, eldest daughter of Granville, Earl Gower, afterward first Marquis of Stafford, and sister to Lady Carlisle. She married, in 1777, Sir Archibald Macdonald, lord chief baron of the exchequer. our resolution of remaining here till about the 25th. I wish very much that it were possible for you to come to us, as I flatter myself you would pass your time at least as well as in a post-chaise with John St. John. About two months ago, that poor wretch, Sir H- wrote to me an affecting letter from a prison at Paris, acquainting me he was almost starved to death. We have dined with him in his happier days. To shorten my tale; I sent him some money, desiring Sir John Lambert to give it him. I have received a letter from Sir H. thanking me for a much less sum than I intended him; and another from Sir John, telling me that he had suppressed my letter to Sir H. for many reasons of his own; and that if I still persisted in giving him so much, and no great sum either, it had better be given to him at different periods; and that he was not worthy of any assistance, because he was confined, not for debt alone, but for crimes not fit to be mentioned. It has made me very peevish, for I think his behaviour impertinent enough upon this occasion. The making himself the judge whether a letter ought to be delivered or not, is assuming rather too much for an agent; and there are so many inconsistencies in his letter, that warrant any suspicions of his dirt in keeping the paltry sum from the poor devil, whom he says ought to suffer every misery for the commitment of crimes which his extreme delicacy will not permit him to mention. I have always understood dissipation was one of the principal vices of this unfortunate creature; but if dissipation is not to be mentioned, the Lord have mercy upon us all. I am called away. I am, my dear George, Yours, etc. ANNE, COUNTESS OF UPPER OSSORY. THIS is the first of a series of interesting letters from a beautiful, accomplished, and injured woman. Anne, Countess of Upper Ossory, was the only child of Henry, first Lord Ravensworth. On the 29th of January, 1756, she formed a splendid match with the too celebrated minister, Augustus Henry, third Duke of Grafton, whose private vices and political misconduct have been commented upon by Junius with so much bitterness. The duke's profligate amours, and, more especially, his intrigue with Nancy Parsons (a once beautiful but superannuated courtesan), which has been immortalised by Junius, led to his estrangement from his charming duchess, and to their subsequent divorce. This latter event took place on the 23d of March, 1769, and the duchess subsequently became the wife of John, Earl of Upper Ossory, by whom she was the mother of two daughters. Horace Walpole (who appears to have been an ardent admirer of her beauty, her good sense, and many endearing qualities, and who more than once speaks of her enthusiastically as "my duchess"), in his poem of "The Three Herons," pays her the following pleasing compliment, long after her beauty must have been on the wane: "For me, suffice in Ampthill's groves, Cradle of Graces and of Loves, I first announced, in artless page, And promised, where my Anna shone, The death of Lady Ossory took place in Grosvenor Place, on the 23d of February, 1804. Countess of Upper Ossory to George Selwyn. MY DEAR SIR:-I cannot resist sending you my compliments of congratulation on an interview between Madame Fagniani and her daughter being over, with which I understand you are satisfied. C'est beaucoup dire. I confess I am particularly glad of this event, not only as I think it the most advantageous thing which could happen to our little friend, but also to your friends, as I trust you will be more at liberty, and that we shall sooner or later profit from it. Lord Ossory desires his kindest compliments. I am always, dear sir, your obliged and faithful ANNE UPPR. OSSORY. |