ELIZABETH,

DUCHESS OF NORTHUMBERLAND,

[WAS the only daughter of Frances 2, duchess, and Algernon, duke of Somerset, at whose decease in 1750 her husband, sir Hugh Smithson, succeeded to the dignities of baron Warkworth and earl of Northumberland, and in 1766 was created earl Percy and duke of Northumberland. 3 The extensive charities of this lady to the poor, her encouragement of literature and the polite arts, and her generous patronage of every kind of merit, rendered her death a public loss. This loss took place on the 5th of Dec. 1776.4 Her grace does not appear to have inherited so rich a mental dowry from her mother as she did a personal property from her father; being only noticed here, as a matter of courtesy, for the following bouts rimes, which were contributed to the Bath Easton vase, and are printed in vol. i. of Poetical Amusements at a Villa near Bath.

2 See article of, p. 239.

3 Debrett's Peerage, vol. i. p. 52.

4 The following character of her was written in 1762:

"The crescent shines - NORTHUMBERLAND is near;
Taste, grandeur, order, in her form appear!

Still affable, though of a warrior's race;

Peace in her breast, and plenty in her face."

New Found. Hosp. for Wit, vol. i. p. 196.

In the library of the Royal Institution, the following unpublished little production occurs, in a volume formerly belonging to Mr. Dutens, who accompanied the duchess in her tour, with lord Algernon Percy.

"A short Tour made in the year One thousand seven hundred and seventy-one." Lond. printed in 1775. 8vo. pp. 89.

This Journal of a Tour commences April 10. 1771, at Dover, and contains a brief narration of travelling procedures through the Low Countries, until her grace's return on the 20th of June. This is its matter of fact tenour: "We left Canterbury at six, breakfasted at Sittingbourn, and had the pleasure of finding my lord in perfect health at Northumberlandhouse at a quarter after one."]

ANNA CHAMBERS,

COUNTESS TEMPLE,

WAS forty years old before she discovered in herself a turn for genteel versification, which she executed with facility, and decked with the amiable graces of her own benevolent mind. A few copies of her " Select Poems," were printed at Strawberry Hill, in 1764.

[This lady was the daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Chambers, esq., married Richard, first earl Temple, in 1737, and died April 8. 1777.2

The following lively lines by lady Temple were sent with a piece of painted flowered silk to lady Charles Spencer, when she complained of being low in pocket 3:

"Since the times are so bad, and are still growing worse,
You may call this your own, without sinking your purse.
The nymphs and the fauns say, the pattern is new;
And that Flora's gay pencil design'd it, is true:
It was finish'd and destin'd for Beauty's fair queen,
So to whom it belongs is most easily seen.

2 Debrett's Peerage, vol. i. p. 56.

3 Gent. Mag. vol. xxxiv. p. 244.