MARY COWPER,

LADY WALSINGHAM,

[DAUGHTER of William Cowper, esq. of the Park 2, near Hertford, married in 1743 sir William De Grey, chief-justice of the court of common-pleas, and created baron Walsingham, of Walsingham in Norfolk, 1780. Her ladyship died on the 2d of September 1800, eight months before her lord. "

Lady Walsingham was niece to the father of Cowper, "the poet of Christianity," and has entwined a garland of regret around the tomb of her aunt, by the hand of affinity and affection.

"EPITAPH ON MRS. ANN COWPER 4,

66 WHO DIED IN 1737, AGED THIRTY-FOUR, AND WAS BURIED IN THE CHANCEL OF ST. PETER'S Church, at BERKHAMSTEAD, HERTS.

"Here lies, in early years bereft of life,

The best of mothers and the kindest wife;

The son of the judge, and uncle to the author of The Task. 3 Debrett's Peerage, p. 286.

4 "To have lost a parent of a character so virtuous and endearing," says Hayley, " at an early period of his childhood, was the prime misfortune of Cowper, and what contributed perhaps in the highest degree to the dark colouring of his subsequent life. The influence of a good mother on the first years of

Who neither knew, nor practis'd any art,

Secure in all she wish'd, her husband's heart!
Her love to him, still prevalent in death,

Pray'd Heaven to bless him with her latest breath.
"Still was she studious never to offend,

And glad of an occasion to commend ;
With ease would pardon injuries receiv'd,
Nor e'er was cheerful when another griev'd:
Despising state, with her own lot content,
Enjoy'd the comforts of a life well spent ;
Resign'd, when Heaven demanded back her breath,
Her mind heroic 'midst the pangs of death.
Whoe'er thou art that dost this tomb draw near,

O! stay awhile, and shed a friendly tear;
These lines, though weak, are as herself sincere.”]

her children, whether nature has given them peculiar strength or peculiar delicacy of frame, is equally inestimable. It is the prerogative and the felicity of such a mother to temper the arrogance of the strong, and to dissipate the timidity of the tender." Life of Cowper, vol. i. p. 6.

HENRY THOMAS FOX,

EARL OF ILCHESTER,

[GRANDSON of sir Stephen Fox, knight, was born in 1747, succeeded his father, the first earl of Ilchester and baron Strangways, in 1776, and died September 5, 1802; leaving a pleasing metrical memorial of his social feeling, part of which is here extracted from the Asylum for Fugitive Pieces, vol. iii.

"ON THE APPROACHING DISSOLUTION OF A VERY PLEASANT PARTY AT REDLYNCH 2,

"The time draws nigh when dearest friends must part, Howe'er repugnant to the social heart;

Leave the dear circle of a friendly fire,

Where ease and freedom join'd gay thoughts inspire;

There no restraint the mind controls, no dread

That words once utter'd would be best unsaid;

But each inclines the way his humour leads,
And cracks the joke that sportive fancy breeds :
Without reserve shall sing, shall chat, shall laugh,

And drink plain water, or Madeira quaff.
Each pass the morn the way he best may list,

In riding, walking, or at sober whist :

And should not books their wonted pleasure yield,
Inclin'd to active sports, may take the field.

2 His lordship's seat in Somersetshire.

Adieu, then, all the pleasant walks we've ta'en
To Shipton, Godminster, and Dropping Lane:
No more the woods their sylvan dames shall boast,
But mourn in hollow sounds their beauties lost!
No fair protectress, by her nod to spare
The painted pheasant or the timid hare

Shall there be found; alike they now must run
The direful chance of the remorseless gun.
Adieu then, Commerce! and adieu Picquet!
Adieu the frolics of our lively set:

No more the winged lark, to please the fair,
With rapid strokes shall cut the liquid air,
No longer shall from hand to hand rebound,
Nor echo double the repeated sound.

No

merry evenings will there now be seen, No supper bychen 3 close the midnight scene.

Yet why we part I can no reason give,

Friends thus united could for ever live:

Nor should you find your host would wish your stay

Were shorten'd even by a single day :

But since fate bids that we so soon must part,

Take the effusions of a grateful heart!"]

3 A Welsh term for a second supper late in the night.

[THE

MARY ANNE LAYARD,

DUCHESS OF ANCASTER,

HE youngest daughter of major Peter Layard, and aunt to that able divine the late dean of Bristol 2, became in 1769 the second wife of the worthy lord Brownlow Bertie, who succeeded to the dukedom of Ancaster in 1779, on the death of his nephew. Miss Layard, who was first introduced in the Bertie family as governess to lady Willoughby, bore her high exaltation with becoming meekness, and conduced herself with a propriety which gained her general esteem. As a wife, a mother, a relation, and a friend, her conduct was uniformly exemplary; and by that wider circle of dependants, who felt the influence of her benignant bounty, her loss was deeply lamented. She died at the age of seventy, on January 12. 1804.

The following jocose rhymes were tagged by her grace, in reply to a mock love-letter addressed to her in the same strain, when lady Brownlow Bertie.

"SIR,

"I perus'd your oration,

With much deliberation,

2 A selection from whose sermons was posthumously published by his son B. V. Layard in 1804; though not quite such an one as those, who had been accustomed to hear them delivered from the pulpit, would probably have chosen.