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lishd March11800 by W"Richardson York House N:31 Strand

had a sweet and bewitching countenance."

Nature had not been

so favourable to the Earl of Essex: his features were harsh, and his manner ungracious. Prepossessed with a violent passion for the Viscount Rochester, she conceived an invincible dislike to her husband, and was said to have given him drugs; the operation of which was quite the reverse of that of philtres. In short, she sued for, and obtained, a divorce. King James deeply interested him-self in the trial, and adopted upon this occasion the ridiculous distinction of the earl's being "impotens versus hanc;" upon which it was observed, that "his case was exactly parallel to that of a man whose stomach could digest every thing but Bagshot mutton." Ob. 1632, Æt. 39.

MARY DARCY, countess Rivers; from the original at Hengrave. R. Cooper sc. 4to. In Gage's History and Antiquities of Hengrave, in Suffolk."

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This lady, who was the second daughter, and at length sole heiress of Sir Thomas Kytson, of Hengrave, in Suffolk, married, in 1583, Thomas, lord Darcy, of Chich, viscount Colchester, and earl Rivers: of the marriage, which did not prove happy, there was issue, one son and four daughters. Groundless suspicions, and peevish jealousy, in the earl, led to differences, which no interference of friends could reconcile; and in 1594 the parties separated by mutual consent, never again to come together, though both lived for nearly half a century after this unfortunate event. Whatever

e the earl's faults, the proud spirit of the countess did not escape the keen reproaches of Sir Thomas Cornwallis, who, in a letter to Lady Kytson, on the 6th of September, just after the separation, laments Lady Darcy's obstinacy, in remaining in the neighbourhood of St. Osyth, contrary to the wishes of her parents: he calls her, "your stubborn and ungreeting daughter." Her portrait, painted in 1617, affords a strong presumption of the correctness of the character given her. With an air of haughty independence, the countess, her right arm a-kimbo, holds in her left hand a paper, perhaps the deed of separation, on which are written the words, "Yf not I care not." The attitude, the manner, and the language ex

* These she had of Dr. Forman, an astrologer. Lilly says, that he wrote in a book, "This I made the devil write with his own hands, in Lambeth Fields, 1596," &c. See Lilly's Life.

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pressed, coupled with the blazoning of the lady's armorial-bearings above her head, without the impalement of Darcy, all point to the separation of her lord and herself; and indicate, to the fullest extent, the pride of her own feelings, as well as perfect indifference, whether the earl and herself were ever again to be united. There ie also a miniature of Lady Rivers, painted when she was at a very advanced age, having on a brass plate which encloses it, an inscription borrowed from the book of Job, shewing that age had not softened her resentment for real or imputed injuries: "Insurrexerunt in me testes iniqui, et mentitu est iniquitas sibi."

The earl died in London on the 21st of February, 1639, leaving the countess, at length, mistress of her paternal estate. During her ownership, Hengrave was plundered by the parliamentarians, of all the arms and ammunition found there. The remains of Lady Rivers, who died in 1644, were deposited in a vault in Trinity churchyard, Colchester. Morant notices that a pyramid placed over her grave had been demolished.

FRANCES, countess of Essex; from an original picture in the collection at Strawberry-hill. H. R. Cooke sc. 4to.

The personal and mental attractions of this distinguished lady, who was the only daughter and heiress of that eminent statesman, Sir Francis Walsingham, were the means of her engaging in succession the love of three of the most illustrious persons of her age; viz. Sir Philip Sydney; Robert Devereux, earl of Essex; and Richard Burgh, earl of Clanrikard. Sir Philip, who was born in the year 1554, was mortally wounded at the battle of Zutphen, in 1586; and dying within a month, left his sorrowing relict with an only daughter, named Elizabeth, who was afterward married to Roger, earl of Rutland.

Speaking of the second match of this lady, Camden says, that the Earl of Essex, the great favourite of Elizabeth, married her "without acquainting the queen therewith, who was therefore offended at it; as if by this affinity he had disparaged the dignity of the house of Essex." The grand cause of the queen's anger, however, was undoubtedly her jealousy, as she wished to have no competitor in the affections of the earl, and even when she had sent him to the scaffold, cherished his memory with so much tenderness that her

sorrow accelerated her own death. The earl was beheaded in February, 1601; and shortly afterward, Elizabeth, apparently commiserating the distress of the countess and her orphan family, granted to her the fee of the extensive district called Southfrith, in the lowy of Tunbridge, in Kent. By the earl she had one son, Robert, afterward the famous parliamentary general, and two daughters, Frances and Dorothy; who were restored in blood and honour by James I.

The Earl of Clanrickard, the countess's third husband, is described as "a very handsome gallant young nobleman; and so very like the Earl of Essex, that the queen is said to have made some advances to him, though then far advanced in years, which he de clined." This nobleman, having in right of his wife become possessor of Southfrith, erected there the (now venerable) mansion called Somerhill, where he died in November, 1636; leaving one son, Ulick, who was created marquis of Clanrickard by Charles I. at Oxford, in 1645; and a daughter named Honora, who married John Pawlet, marquis of Winchester.

MARY HERBERT, countess of Pembroke ; from un original miniature in the collection at Strawberryhill. J. Tuck sc. 8vo.

Mary Talbot, wife of William Herbert, earl of Pembroke, was the eldest of the three daughters of Gilbert, earl of Shrewsbury, by Mary his countess, daughter of Sir William Cavendish of Chatsworth, Her marriage, which appears to have excited considerable interest in the court of James I. having been the subject of long negotiation,* was solemnized with great pomp at Sheffield, in November, 1604. Upon the death of the earl her father, without male issue, in 1616, this lady and her sisters, Elizabeth, wife of Henry, earl of Kent, and Aletheia, married to Thomas, earl of Arundel, inherited the greatest part of the ample possessions of the family of Talbot which, however, by the decease of the Countesses of Pembroke and Kent without issue, ultimately devolved to the heirs of the Countess of Arundel, now represented by his Grace the Duke of Norfolk.

* See Lodge's "Illustrations of British History," vol. iii. p. 184. 220. 224, &c.

LADY ANNE CLIFFORD, Æt.13,1603. R. White sc. h. sh. very scarce.

LADY ANNE CLIFFORD; in an oval. W. Richardson.

ANNE CLIFFORD, countess of Pembroke, Æt. 81; 4to. Mazel; in Pennant's "Scotland."

ANNE, Countess of Dorset and Pembroke; in "Noble Authors," by Park; after the original at Knowle. Another, by Harding.

ANNE CLIFFORD, countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery. E. Scriven sc. From the original of Mytens, in the possession of his Grace the Duke of Dorset, in Mr. Lodge's "Portraits of Illustrious Persons."

Mr.

There is a whole length picture of her at Appleby Castle, in Cumberland; in which is a small portrait of Daniel, her tutor. Walpole has another painting of her.

Lady Anne Clifford was daughter and heiress of George Clifford, earl of Cumberland, the famous adventurer, whose spirit she inherited. She was first married to Richard Sackville, earl of Dorset, a man of merit, whose memory was ever dear to her, and whose life she has written. Her second husband was Philip, earl of Pembroke, a man in every respect unworthy of her, from whom she was soon parted. She was long regarded as a queen in the North; and her foundations and benefactions seem to argue a revenue little less than royal. She founded two hospitals, and repaired, or built, seven churches, and six castles; that of Pendragon* still retains a magnificence suitable to the dignity of its ancient inhabitant. Her spirited letter to Sir Joseph Williamson, in the "Royal and Noble Authors,"t contains but three lines; but they are master

• In Westmoreland.

+ It is also printed in "The World," vol. i. No. 14.

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