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can sympathize in yours. I feel toward you as some traveler returned from a perilous voyage, where he narrowly escaped shipwreck, feels, when he sees a dear friend exposed to similar danger, and would fain make his sad experience useful to him. I am glad you have heard from our friend

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find a friend when one most needs consolation is indeed something to be grateful for; and I am glad when any thing brings back old and dear associations. Perhaps, if we could all see each other's hearts, there would be no misgivings, for coldness of manner often covers warmth of heart, as, to use a very homely simile, wet slack covers over the warm fire beneath. My nieces send you their cordial regards. Count D'Orsay will be the bearer of this. God bless and comfort you! prays your cordial friend, M. BLESSINGTON."

"Gore House, February 10th, 1843.

"I am deeply sensible of your sympathy, and truly value it. You, who knew the interesting creature who has been taken from us, can imagine our grief. She had wound herself around the fibres of my heart, and it will be long ere I recover the sorrow her death has occasioned me. The development of the mind of this dear child has long been to me a subject of study and delight. Such an extraordinary intellect, and so warm and tender a heart. At ten years old she had a knowledge and piety almost unexampled, without having lost the least portion of that innocence and gayety which form such an attraction in childhood. Her poor mother bears this trial wonderfully, and I do believe the certainty of soon joining her lost child assists her in supporting it. M. BLESSINGTON."

"Gore House, December 10th, 1844. "And so our friend is gone! Does not his visit now seem like a pleasant dream, from which one is sorry to awake? Will you tell me how I can send him the Keepsake' and 'Book of Beauty?' 'The Chimes' delighted me, although it beguiled me of many tears. It will do great good, for I defy any one to read it (and all the English world will) without being deeply affected in the fate of that class whose cause he so powerfully advocates. Yes, this book will melt hearts and open purse-strings. There is a truthfulness in the writer, not only in his works, but in his life, that makes itself felt, and commands our sympathies. I could not lay down The Chimes' until those of my clock had told three in the morning, and I was embarrassed to meet the eyes of my servants, mine were so red from my tears. Do name a day to come and dine with us. It will be very kind, in this cold, dark weather; and more so, as Count D'Orsay is absent, and will be for some days. I heard from our friend, Sir E. B. Lytton, yesterday, and am glad to hear he is in better health than usual. I long to have another book from him, for it seems an age since the last. My nieces send you their kindest regard. "M. BLESSINGTON."

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* The death of Miss Isabella Fairlie is referred to.-R. R. M.

VOL. II.-G

"Gore House, January 1st, 1845. "If the warmest sympathy of your friends at Gore House could alleviate your grief, be assured its bitterness would be softened. We feel so sincere a regard for you, that the loss you have sustained can not be a matter of indifference to us, and therefore we hope that you will come to us en famille, without the fear of meeting other guests, until your spirits are more equal to encountering a mixed society.

"Before I knew of your affliction, I had prepared a little gift for you for this day. Its sombre hue, alas! but too well accords with your present feelings, and therefore I venture to send it. Should you return to-day, and be equal to the exertion, we shall be most happy to see you at dinner at eight o'clock. My nephew will be the only guest.

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When you write to Mr. Dickens, remember us most kindly to him. I have made many persons buy The Chimes' who were afraid it was not amusing, and made them ashamed of expecting nothing better, nothing greater, from such a writer. They can laugh until their sides ache over Mrs. Gamp, but they dread weeping over dear good Trotty, that personification of goodness; sweet Meg, the beau ideal of female excellence; poor Lilian, and the touching but stern reality of Bill Fern, which beguiled me of so many tears. We should pity such minds, yet they make us too angry for pity. I have read The Chimes' a third time, and found it as impossible to repress my tears when perusing the last scene between Meg and Lilian as at the first. God bless you. M. BLESSINGTON."

"Gore House, Saturday, January 11th, 1845. "If you knew the anxiety we all feel about your health, and the fervent prayers we offer up for its speedy restoration, you would be convinced that, though you have friends of longer date, you have none more affectionately and sincerely attached to you than those at Gore House. I claim the privilege of an old woman to be allowed to see you as soon as a visitor in a sickroom can be admitted.

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"Sterne says that a friend has the same right as a physician,' and I hope you will remember this. Count D'Orsay every day regrets that he can not go and nurse you, and we both often wish you were here, that we might try our power of alleviating your illness, if not of curing you. God bless you, and restore you speedily to health. M. BLESSINGTON."

"Gore House, February 13th, 1845.

We are greatly distressed by the news of my poor nephew's death in India, the brother of your friends. The poor souls are in great affliction. He had caught the Chinese fever while on service in China, and his constitution sunk under it. Poor fellow! how sad to die so far from all who loved him! In addition to all our troubles, Captain P, of the Guards, has been attacked by small-pox, and gives us great anxiety. I spend the greater part

of every day by his bedside, to which I am now hastening; but in all my domestic trials, I can not forget we have a friend whose health deeply interests us all, whom I can not, unfortunately, go to see, and therefore I solicit a few lines to tell us how you are. M. BLESSINGTON."

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"March 2d, 1848.

Thanks for the little book. It is what an Irishman would call a great little book. What a mighty spirit still dwells in the heart of our friend Landor! It is comforting to see that his genius is not tamed by time. I long for your book to be out. We may, indeed, call ourselves the posterity of our own times. What stirring days we live in! I, who witnessed one revolution in France, can well picture to myself this last. I have just read the last No. of Dombey. It gives a fearful picture of a guilty conscience that can find no The catastrophe of that bad man is so powerfully written, that I could wish the number closed with it, for there is no going into the marriage of Florence, with all its simple and touching details, with the spirit with which they should be read, after the strong excitement of the previous pages. Have you read the advice to the people in 'The Press,' written by Emile de Girardin? It is full of vigor and good sense. It will give me great pleasure to see you, and soon. You must be oppressed by labor. M. BLESSINGTON."

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"Gore House, April 12th, 1848. "Count D'Orsay repeated to me this morning the kind things you said of him when proposing his health. He, I assure you, was touched when he repeated them, and his feelings were infectious, for mine responded. To be highly appreciated by those we most highly value is, indeed, a source of heartfelt gratification. From the first year of our acquaintance with you, we had learned to admire your genius, to respect your principles, and to love your goodness of heart and the honest warmth of your nature. These sentiments have never varied. Every year, by unfolding your noble qualities to us, has served to prove how true were our first impressions of you, and our sole regret has been that your occupations deprive us of enjoying half as much of your society as all who have once enjoyed it must desire. Count D'Orsay declares that yesterday was one of the happiest days of his life. He feels proud at having assisted in the triumph of a friend whose heart is as genial as his genius is great. Who can resist being delighted at the success of one who wins for himself thousands of friends (for all his readers become so), without ever creating an enemy, even among those most envious of another's fame, and simply by the revelations of a mind and heart that excite only the best feelings of our nature? I can not resist telling you what is passing in my breast. You will understand this little outbreak of genuine feeling in the midst of the toil of a literary life. M. BLESSINGTON."

"Gore House, September 14th, 1848 "My Memoir of Mme. de Grassigny, which I send you, is only one of the series of Remarkable Women of the Eighteenth Century, and will not be the opening memoir of the book. I wrote it first, because I happen to have a very fine original portrait of the lady. The book will open with an introduction explanatory of the influence exercised by women at that time, which I will, with your permission, submit to your judgment. I shall spare no trouble in research for the lives I intend to write. I am now considerably advanced in that of the Marquise du Chatelet, which will not, of course, follow close on that of Mme. de Grassigny, of whom little is known. Indeed, I believe I have noticed every thing that can be stated, for I have consulted every French authority relative to her. I shall perform my task conscientiously, and render my book a useful one of reference. I can hear of no work of a similar nature in English or in French. M. BLESSINGTON."

"Gore House, October 18th, 1848. The Keepsake' was closed two days

"Alas! the poem comes too late. ago, and has been ever since in the hands of the binder. I never read so touching, so vivid a sketch. It melted me to tears, and can be read by no one without deep sympathy. I tried the effect last evening by reading it aloud to my own circle, and I assure you there was not a dry eye among the three persons present to whom I read it. Count D'Orsay said it was only his dear friend Barry who could have written it. I never felt so tempted in my life to steal (if stealing it could be called) as to retain this admirable poem for 'The Keepsake' for 1850, but as you requested its return, I send it, but not without a pang. Will you kindly entreat our kind friend to let me have it again? for it would be the greatest acquisition for my book. Pray offer my best thanks and regards to Mr. Proctor. M. BLESSINGTON."

"Gore House, April 9th, 1849.

"As I purpose leaving England in a few days, it will pain me very much to depart without personally wishing you farewell; and though I am in all the fever of packing up, I will make time to receive a visit from you, if you can call any day this week between eleven o'clock in the forenoon, or after nine in the evening. Count D'Orsay was called to Paris so suddenly that he had not time to take leave of any of his friends, but he charged me to say a thousand kind things to you. M. BLESSINGTON."

CHAPTER VIII.

THE MARQUESS WELLESLEY.

RICHARD COLLEY WESLEY, first Marquess Wellesley (eldest son of Yarrell, second Baron Wesley, and, subsequently to the birth of said Richard, Earl of Mornington), was born in Dublin, the 20th of June, 1760, and died in London, in 1842, in his eighty-third year. To his mother's excellent understanding and great mental accomplishments is chiefly to be attributed the careful cultivation of the Marquess Wellesley's elegant tastes for literature and classical learning. His first display of oratorical talent was in an eloquent academical address pronounced at Eton in 1778, and, two years later, he gained the University prize for the best composition in Latin verse. At a subsequent period of his career, the provost of Eton College, Dr. Goodall, before a committee of the House of Commons on academic education, spoke of the Marquess Wellesley as "infinitely superior to Porson in Greek composition." The marquess, he said, as a genuine Greek scholar, exhibits the exquisite style and manner of Xenophon. He sat in the Irish House of Peers from the date * In "Pue's Occurrences," a weekly paper published in Dublin, No. 50, from June 17th to June 21st, 1760, I find the following notice among the births: June 20th. In Grafton Street, the lady of the Right Honorable the Lord Mornington was safely delivered of a son and heir, to the great joy of that family." This is the first time, as far as I know, that the above notice has been referred to in relation to the place of birth of the marquess. A great deal of confusion of dates, names, and of ideas, that have led Colonel Gurwood, Mr. Peter Cunningham, and other writers into error, have arisen, as I imagine, from there being a traditional account of a son of Lord Mornington, born in Grafton Street, in the house lately occupied by the Royal Irish Academy, and, from some cause or other, that son being erroneously supposed to be Arthur Wesley, the third son of Lord Mornington. The notice I discovered in "Pue's Correspondence" disposes of that error; but there remains another to get rid of. The house of Lord Mornington, in Grafton Street, was not the one which became the property of the Royal Irish Academy. The Academy's premises were built on the site of that house; in fact, the house in which the Marquess of Wellesley was born has long ceased to exist. A writer of great research and accuracy, in his second article on "The Streets of Dublin," treats largely of this locality.

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