been introduced, as to attend their routs, and give them at her own house; but these were not the amusements congenial to her mind, and she determined that, as she yielded to her husband's inclinations in town, she would live to please herself in the country. For this purpose she kept a pack of fox hounds, that were reckoned the stanchest in the country; her stud was in the highest condition; her pointers excellent; and the partridges felt she had not forgot to take a good aim. Obliged, by fashion's law, to pass some of the winter months in London every year, she soon threw off the restraint that tyrant custom imposes on the sex: amused herself by riding her favourite blood horse, Tarquin, against the male equestrians in Hyde-Park, or driving her phaeton, with four fleet coursers in hand, through the fashionable streets, turning a corner to an inch to the wonder and terror of her beholders. The ladies, who were constantly hearing her admired by the men for her prowess, and venturous feats of horsemanship, finding lady Fearnought was quite the rage, sickened with envy; determining, as they could not persuade her to follow their fashions, they would aspire to imitate hers. From thence we may date the era of women venturing their pretty necks in a fox-chase, shooting flying, and becoming female charioteers, to rival the celebrity of the fair huntress, who was at the head of the haut-ton, with all these dashing ladies; and we had Fearnought riding hats, Fearnought boots and spurs, and Fearnought saddles! When Lady Fearnought had been married about fourteen years, she had the misfortune to lose her husband, who was thrown from his horse during a fox-chase, and fractured his skull, by attempting a desperate leap. His beloved lady who had cleared it a few moments before, saw the accident, immediately sprung from her horse, and while she sent for a surgeon and a carriage, no house being near the spot where the accident happenned, she threw herself on the ground by his side, and laying his bleeding head on her lap, shed a torrent of genuine tears over the only man she ever loved. He was unable to speak, but seemed sensible of her tender sorrow; for he feebly pressed her hand, and before any assistance arrived he expired in her arms. She mourned for him with unfeigned sorrow: "her occupation seemed to be gone;" her horses fed quietly in their stables, while for the space of three months the hounds slept in their kennels, and she wore a black riding habit for six. But time, which ameliorates the keenest anguish, and reconciles us to all things, aided by the conviction that we cannot recall the tenauts of the tomb, failed not to pour its lenient balm into her wounded bosom; and Lady Fearnought" was herself again." Sir Charles left an only son by this lady, the present Sir Henry Fearnought, who following the example of his father and mother, we see him now at the pinnacle of fashion, a Nimrod in the chase, a Jehu in London streets, a jockey riding his own matches at Newmarket, a bore at the opera, and a pigeon at the ladies' farotables! but he is a mixed character: he seeks celebrity by mixing with men of quality and fashion; to gain the reputation of being one himself, he imitates all their follies, though they are not the sort from which by inclination, he is enabled to receive any pleasure; for this he associates with the wives and daughters of needy nobility, with whom his money will compensate for his manners, though, did he give the sensations of his heart fair play, he would mix among the buxom daughters of his fox-hunting neighbours. To gratify his desire for fame, he will draw straws for hundreds, race maggots for thousands has a chariot built by Leader, in which he never rides; keeps an opera-dancer whom he seldom sees: but this is to give him eclat with the fashionable world, and stamp him as a man of high ton! for, to indulge his real taste, he steals in a hackney-coach to the embraces of his dear Fanny Frolic, once the dairy maid of his mother, but now his mistress, in a snug lodg ing in Mary-le-bone, whom he admires for the vulgar but native charms of rosy cheeks, white teeth, and arms as blue as a bilberry. for Lady Fearnought, his mother, at the present period is not yet forty, though she appears much older; for she is grown robust. Her complexion is died of the deepest bronze, occasioned by living so much on horseback, and exposing herself to the warring elements in all seasons; the burning sun, or the pelting storm, deter her not from her accustomed avocations. By her management of herself she is so truly case-hardened, that she sets coughs, colds, and sore throats, at defiance! She rises at daybreak, plunges directly into a cold bath, makes a meat breakfast, then mounts her fleet mare, and, according to the season, either hunts, shoots, or courses, till dinner. After having visited her stud, sits down to backgamison with the vicar; but if she has a visiter that can play, she prefers her favourite game, chess. But though she has done every thing to preserve her health, and destroy her beauty, still she is a fine woman, and remains a favourite of the neighbouring gentlemen; is their companion in field sports, and often entertains with a dinner the members of the hunt in the vicinity. SINGULAR CIRCUMSTANCE OF A BALL FOUND IN THE HEART OF A BUCK. From the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. A Buck that was remarkably fat and healthy in condition, in August, 1816, was killed in Bradbury Park; and on opening him it was discovered that, at some distant time he had been shot in the heart, a ball being found in a cyst in the substance of that viscus, about two inches from the apex. The surface of the cyst had a whitish appearance; the ball weighs two hundred and ninety-two grains, and was quite flat. Mr. Richardson, the park keeper, who opened the animal, is of opinion that the ball had struck some hard substance before, entering the body of the deer. That the animal should subsist long after receiving this ball is endeavoured to be accounted for from the instance of a soldier who survived forty-nine hours after receiving a bayonet wound in the heart how ever the recovery from a gun shot wound in an animal inferior to man can in no respect materially alter the importance of the fact, and of the great extent to which this vital organ may sustain an injury from external violence. MY FANCY. What is it that impels mankind Fancy |