Prince and Princess di Belvedere, at Vomero, overlooking the beautiful bay, they not a little astonished its princely owners, at the requirements of English luxury, and the extent of English wealth, by almost entirely refurnishing it, and engaging a large suite of Italian servants in addition to their English ones. In this, one of the most splendid residences of Italy, Lady Blessington again became, for nearly three years, the centre of all that was brilliant among her own travelling compatriots, and of much that was distinguished among the Italian nobility and literati. In February, 1826, they left Naples, and the next year was passed between Rome, Florence, Genoa, and Pisa. The remainder of their residence in Italy was completed by another few months at Rome, and about a year more between the other principal cities of Italy that the travellers had not previously visited. | rich uncut pile, of a pale blue. The hangings of the dressing-room were of blue silk, covered with lace, and richly trimmed with frills of the same; so also were the toilettetable, the chaise-longue, the dressing-stools, &c. There was a salle de bain attached, draped throughout with white muslin trimmed with lace, and containing a sofa and bergère covered with the same. The bath of white marble was inserted in the floor, and on the cealing was painted a Flora scattering flowers with one hand, and suspending in the other an alabaster lamp, in the shape of a lotus. The whole of the vast hotel occupied by the Blessingtons during the first year of this their second lengthened residence in Paris, was fitted up with a luxury and at a cost no less lavish than those bestowed on the rooms I have just described. But it is proper to state here that Lady Blessington herself, though possessing exquisite taste in such matters, by no means coveted or en band bestowed upon her; and in the case of the particular rooms just described, he so managed as not to let her see them till they were completed, and ready for her reception. Indeed, Lady Blessington had, in all pecuniary matters, much more of worldly prudence than her lord. The enormous cost of entirely furnishing a hotel like that in which they now resided, may be judged of by what was said to be the original cost of the ornamental decorations of the walls alone, including mirrors, namely, a million of francs. In the June of next year (1828) we again find Lady Blessington at Paris, after an ab-couraged the lavish expense which her hussence of more than six years; and here it was her destiny to witness the events of the last days of the old Bourbon dynasty, and this in the almost daily presence of and intercourse with those personal friends and near family connections who were the most devoted and chivalrous of its supporters, the Duc and Duchesse de Guiche, the Duc de Grammont (father of the Duc de Guiche,) the venerable Madame Crauford, the Duc de Cazes, Prince Polignac, &c. The splendor and luxury with which Lady Blessington was at this, as at all other periods of her marriage, surrounded by the somewhat too gorgeous taste of her doting husband, may be judged of by a brief description of her chambre à coucher and dressing-room, in the superb hotel (formerly that of Marshal Ney) which they occupied in the Rue de Bourbon, its principal rooms looking on the Quay d'Orsay and the Tuilleries gardens. The bed, which stood as usual in a recess, rested upon the backs of two exquisitely carved silver swans, every feather being carved in high relief. The recess was lined throughout with white-fluted silk, bordered with blue embossed lace, the frieze of the recess being hung with curtains of pale-blue silk lined with white satin. The remainder of the furniture, namely, a richly carved sofa, occupying one entire side of the room, an écritoire, a bergere, a book-stand, a Psyche-glass, and two coffres for jewels, lace, &c., were all of similar fancy and workmanship, and all silvered, to match the bed. The carpet was With this year the more than queen-like splendors and luxuries of Lady Blessington's life ceased. In 1829 her husband died, leaving her a jointure of £2,500 a year, and a large amount of personal property, in the shape of furniture, plate, pictures, objects of vertu, &c. After witnessing all the excitements of the "Three Days" of July, 1830, and partaking personally in some of the dangers connected with them, Lady Blessington, at the close of the autumn of that year returned to England, there to reside uninterruptedly till within a few weeks of her death. The following sketches were made in The Ring in Hyde Park, about the period of Lady Blessington's London life now referred to: "Observe that green chariot just making the turn of the unbroken line of the equipages. Though it is now advancing towards us with at least a dozen carriages between, it is to be distinguished from the throng by the elevation of its driver and footman above the ordinary level of the line. As it comes PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS OF THE | sex. [Oct. Locke there has been nobody to even dis- nearer we can observe the particular points ing, more splendid in person, more distingué which give it that perfectly distingué ap- in dress, more consummate in equestrian pearance which it bears above all others in skill, more radiant in intellectual expression, the throng. They consist of the white and altogether more worthy and fitting to wheels lightly picked out with green and represent one of those knights of the olden crimson; the high-stepping action, blood- time who wared for truth and beauty belike-shape, and brilliant manège of its dark neath the banner of Coeur de Lion. It is bay horses; the perfect style of its driver; Count d'O-y, son-in-law of the late Lord the height (six feet two) of its slim, spider- Blessington, and brother to the beautiful limbed, powdered footman, perked up at Duchess de Guiche. Those who have the least three feet above the roof of the car- pleasure of being personally intimate with riage, and occupying his eminence with that this accomplished foreigner will confirm our peculiar air of accidental superiority, half testimony, that no man has ever been more petit-maitre, half-ploughboy, which we take popular in the upper circles, or has better to be the ideal of footman-perfection; and, deserved to be so. His inexhaustible good finally, the exceedingly light, airy, and (if spirits and good nature, his lively wit, his we may so speak) intellectual character of generous disposition, and his varied acquirethe whole set-out. The arms and support- ments, make him the favorite companion of ers blazoned on the centre panels, and the his own sex; whilst his unrivalled personal small coronet beneath the window, indicate pretensions render him, to say the least, the nobility of station; and if ever the nobil-the observed of all observers' of the other ity of nature was blazoned on the complement extern' of humanity, it is on the lovely face within-lovely as ever, though it has been loveliest among the lovely for a longer time than we dare call to our own recollection, much less to that of the fair being before us. If the Countess of Blessington (for it is she whom we are asking the reader to admire-howbeit at second-hand, and through the doubly refracting medium of plate-glass and a blonde veil) is not now so radiant with the bloom of mere youth, as when she first put to shame Sir Thomas Lawrence's chef-d'œuvre in the form of her own portrait, what she has lost in the graces of mere complexion she has more gained in those of intellectual expression. than Nor can the observer have a better opportunity than the present of admiring that expression; unless, indeed, he is fortunate enough to be admitted to that intellectual converse in which its owner shines beyond any other females of the day, and with an earnestness, a simplicity, and an abandon, as rare in such cases as they are delightful. The lady her companion is the Countess de St. Marsault, her sister, whose finely-cut features and perfectly oval face bear a striking general resemblance to those of Lady B. without being at all like them.* "But see! what is this vision of the age of chivalry, that comes careering towards us on horseback, in the form of a stately cavalier, than whom nothing has been witnessed in modern times more noble in air and bear *Lady Blessington's third sister is the Viscountess Canterbury. in passing, that Lady Blessington's taste in It is perhaps worth while to remark here, dress and equipage was not only essentially of which it may be stated that, though the correct, but in advance of her time; in proof most conspicuous result of that taste stood duced, they at last became the universal alone for years after they were first introfashions of the day. Lady Blessington was the first to introduce the beautifully simple fashion of wearing the hair in bands, but was for at least seven years; and it was the not imitated in it until she had persevered style of picking out of her equipages-both same with the white wheels, and peculiar features being universally adopted some ten or a dozen years after Lady Blessington had introduced and persevered in them. that I was personally introduced to Lady It was shortly after her return to England Blessington by a mutual friend; and my acquaintance with her continued from that time till her departure from England a few weeks before her death. At the period of my first introduction to to the New Monthly Magazine, (then under Lady Blessington she had just contributed the direction of her friend Sir Edward with Lord Byron," and they had obtained Bulwer Lytton, Bart.,) the "Conversations her a reputation for literary talent, of which her previous efforts-two slight works entitled "The Magic Lanthorn," and "A Tour in the Netherlands," had given little or no promise. But these Conversations with Byron, characteristic as they were both of him and herself, were flat and spiritless-or rather, narrowless-compared with Lady Blessington's own viva voce conversations of him, one half-hour of which contained more pith and substance-more that was worth remembering and recording-than the whole octavo volume in which the printed conversations were afterwards collected. In fact, talking, not writing, was Lady Blessington's forte; and the " Conversations" in question, though the slightest and least studied of all her numerous productions, was incomparably the best, because the most consonant in subject and material, with her intellectual temperament which was fluent and impulsive, rather than meditative or sentimental. After reading any one of her books, excepting the "Conversations," you could not help wondering at the reputation Lady Blessington enjoyed, as the companion, on terms of perfect intellectual equality, of the most accomplished and brilliant writers, statesmen, and other celebrities of the day. But the first half-hour of her talk solved the mystery at once. Her genius lay (so to speak) in her tongue. The pen paralyzed it -changing what otherwise would have been originality into a mere echo of recollection-what would have awakened and excited the hearer by its freshness and brilliance, into what wearied and put to sleep the reader by its platitude and commonplace. As a novel writer Lady Blessington was but a better sort of Lady Stepney or Lady But as a talker she was a better sort of De Stael-as acute, as copious, as off-hand, as original, and almost as sparkling; but without a touch of her arrogance, exigence, or pedantry; and with a faculty for listening, that is the happiest and most indispensable of all the talents which go to constitute a good talker; for any talk that is not the actual and immediate result of listening, is at once a bore and an impertinence. is no less demonstrative than the French, and infinitely more impressible. Of French demonstrations of sudden interest and goodwill, you doubt the sincerity, even while you accept and acknowledge them. They are the shining small change of society, which you accept for their pleasing aspect, but do not take the trouble of carrying them away with you, because you know that before you can get them home they will have melted into thin air. But there was no doubting the cordiality and sincerity of Lady Blessington, while their outward demonstrations lasted; the coin was genuine, however small its current value. In giving a few extracts from my occasional correspondence with Lady Blessington, I cannot do better than commence them by one of the notes that I received from her at a very early stage of our acquaintance; because it will serve (in my own estimation, at least) to exonerate me from the charge of any unwarrantable intrusion on private life, in these public notices of one whose social celebrity at least had acquired a European reputation. "A great mistake has crept into the notice of the death of Captain Lock.* He is stated to have been the grandson of the Duke of Leinster. This was not the case. The mother of Captain Lock was Miss Jennings, daughter of the celebrated Dog Jennings-so called from having brought to of Alcibiades. The brother of Captain Lock's this country the famous marble known as the Dog father, the late Charles Lock, Esq., married Miss Ogilvie, daughter of the Duchess Dowager of Leinster. You have no idea how much importance people attach to such trifles as these, which after all are of no consequence. I happen to have so very numerous an acquaintance that I am au fait of genealogies—a stupid, but sometimes useful knowledge. "I shall pe glad to see you when you have leisure, and remain, "Dear Sir, very sincerely yours, "M. BLESSINGTON." "Seamore Place, Monday evening. "DEAR SIR, * * * By mistake I directed my note of Monday morning to Camden Hill instead of Craven Hill. Have you got it? The forthcoming dissection of my 'Conversations,' announced, is ; and I think said to be from the pen of Mrwho has nothing to lose, and who, if common it not unlikely, for he is a very reckless person, fame speaks true, is a man Another of the attractions which contributed to give Lady Blessington that unique position in London society which she held for so many years, and even more exclusively and conspicuously after her husband's death than before it, was that strong personal interest which she felt, and did not scruple to evince, on every topic on which she was called upon to busy herself-whether it was the fashion of a cap, or the fate of nations. In this her habit of mind was French rather Norbury Park, who was drowned in the Lake of The singularly beautiful William Lock, of than English-or rather it was Irish-which | Como, in sight of his newly-wedded bride. PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS, &c. "Who dares do more than may become a man." or a gentleman at least. Having been at Genoa "It was one of the worst traits in Byron, to receive persons in private, and then deny the acquaintance to those whom he considered might disapprove of it. This was in consequence of that want of self-respect which was his bane, but which was the natural consequence of the attacks he had experienced, acting on a very irritable and nervous constitution. "I have letters from Naples up to the 2d. Lord Bentinck died there on that day, and is succeeded in his title and fortune by his brother, Mr. Hill, who has been our Minister at Naples since 1825, up to the appointment of Lord Ponsonby. Very sincerely yours, "M. BLESSINGTON." 66 Few readers will expect to find a work like Jerrold's Magazine lying on the gilded tables of Gore House. But the following note will show that Lady Blessington's literary sympathies were not of the exclusive" order. "MY DEAR MR. PATMORE, 66 "I have been reading with great interest and Very sincerely yours, The following little bit of domestic history is not without interest. It refers to a matter, (the relinquishment of her house in St. James's Square by the Wyndham Club,) which reduced Lady Blessington's income by five hundred a year. It may be here proper to remark that nothing could be more erroneous than the impressions which generally prevailed, as to the supposed extravagance of Lady Blessington, in her equipages, domestic arrangements, &c. There were few more careful or methodical housekeepers, and probably no one ever made a given income go further than she did-not to men [Oct. tion the constant literary industry she employed in increasing it. Gore House, Saturday, April 15, 1837. "MY DEAR MR. PATMORE, resigned by me to the executors of Lord Blessing"The house in St. James's Square has been ton, Messrs. Norman and Worthington, North Frederick Street, Dublin. They may be written to. Another party is in treaty for the house-a secure it, no time should be lost. Sir W. Boyd; so that if your friend wishes to about four years of the lease to expire. The rent paid for the house is 8401. a year unfurnished and There are exclusive of taxes. The Wyndham Club paid 1350l. for it furnished. The furniture is now either with or without the furniture, for the "Believe me, dear Mr. Patmore, "M. BLESSINGTON." In recalling to mind the remarkable pertess Guiccioli, with whom Lady Blessingsons I have met at the house of Lady Bleston became intimate after the death of Bysington, the most celebrated is the Counron, and mantained a continued correspondence with her. Madame Guiccioli was still handsome at the time I met her at very Seamore Place-I think in 1832-3; but she by no means gave me the impression of a person with whom Byron would be likely was specially introduced to her) was quite as to fall in love; and her conversation (for I little of a character to strike or interest a man so intolerant of the commonplaces of society as Byron. Not that the Countess Guiccioli was a commonplace person; but there was in her manners a total want of that vivacity and demonstrativeness which, though they did not touch Byron's heart, pleased his fancy, and pampered his vanity. Neither was there about her any of that bewitching sweetness and grace, and that winning softness, tions of women of her complexion and temperwhich usually form the characteristic attracament. To see and converse with the Countess Guiccioli was, in fact, to be satisfied that all Byron's share in the passion, which has become so famous as to render no exmerely a passive permitting himself to be cuse necessary for this allusion to it, was loved: a condition of mind which, after all, is perhaps the happiest and most salutary effect of woman's love, upon men like Byron. And it seems to have been specially so in Byron's case: for the period in which the Gamba family lived under his roof was the only one in the whole of his recorded career 1849.] THE SHADOW OF THE PAST. to which his friends and admirers can look back with feelings even approaching to satisfaction and respect. I remember calling on Lady Blessington one day when she had just received a long letter from Madame Guiccioli, a considerble portion of which she read to me, as being singularly characteristic of Italian notions of the proprieties of social life. The letter was written apropos to some strictures which had appeared in an English journal, on the impropriety or immorality of the liaison between Madame Guiccioli and Byron, and on the fact of the father and brother of the lady having resided in the same house with the lovers. The peculiarity of Madame Guiccioli's letter was the earnest, and at the same time perfectly naïve and artless way, in which she contended that the main point of the charge against her in the English journal was precisely that on which she rested her entire exculpation from either sin or blame. And she went on to declare, in the most solemn manner, that she had never passed a night under Byron's roof that was not sanctioned by the presence of her father and brother. She concluded by earnestly begging Lady Blessington to defend her character from the attacks in question, on the special ground of the fact just cited! Among the other remarkable persons whom I met at Lady Blessington's about | this period were the Duc and Duchesse de Grammont, the Duc and Duchesse de Guiche, and the Baron D'Haussez,-the two former, the chief persons of the household of Charles X. and his family, and the latter one of his ministers. This was almost immediately after the Revolution of July 1830, during the whole period of which the Duc de Guiche had remained in in personal attendance on the King. The Duchesse de Guiche was extremely beautiful, and in manner the model of a highborn and high-bred Frenchwoman. Baron D'Haussez, the minister of marine of Charles X., gave one the idea of anything but a minister of state. He was a plain, good-natured, easy-going person, with little vivacity, much appearance of bonhommie, and altogether more English in his manner and temperament than French. Another of the more recent habitués of Gore House was Prince Louis Napoleon, who, after his elevation to power treated Lady Blessington with marked distinction, and whose favor together with her family connection and long intimacy with several of the heads of the oldest and noblest families of France, would, had she lived, have given to her a position in the social circles of Paris even more brilliant than that which she had so long held in London. THE SHADOW OF THE PAST. On! joy to the spring-tide sun, To sing new songs of praise; Oh, joy to the Spring! but it cannot bring I think on the Past with a thought I hear a kind word said By a tongue that is mute and cold But the thought of friendship changed Till reason, with peace, seems fled. |
