Mrs. Delany, Part II [pp. 394-408]

1884.] Mrs. Belany. 407
about education. We parted about a quarter young English listener who now sat in judgto twelve." ment on her.
The visit only lasted a fortnight, and the To be with such ladies of the Anrien i?e'amount of reminiscences which both the ginle must, in itself, have been a liberal eduDuchess and Mrs. Delany contrived to pour cation for Miss Hamilton; but they also
into Mary Hamilton's attentive ear during supplemented their conversation with books
the time spoke volumes for their powers of of various kinds, from Patrick's Pilgrim to
physical and, mental exertion, considering Prior's Poems, not forgetting Evelina, the
that the one was seventy and the other book of the day, as Sir Charles Grandison
eighty-four. The Duchess preserved her had been when Mrs. Delany and Dr, Delany
anecdotes in writing, and we find frequent stayed at Buistrode thirty years before. The
entries, such as "The Duchess read many very night before Miss Hamilton left, "the
interesting anecdotes out of her MS. book"; Duchess carried ye volume of Pope, which
"ye Duchess was so obliging to read me out contains his Criticism on Women; read while
of some miscellaneous MS." Mrs. Delany we were at table the one on Atossa; she rehad more trust in her own memory, which lated anecdotes; we parted at half past eleven.
led to various inaccuracies: when Miss Ham- I did not take leave of ye Duchess, for we
ilton records that "Mrs. Delany told me an agreed not to do so." Mrs. Delany's sorrow
anecdote of her serving a Mrs. Elstrong; at Mary's departure took the opposite turn
and ye folly of a iady, Mrs. Clavering, about of bidding her four separate tender good-byes
a coach," the careful reader will at once see the next morning. She earnestly commendthat reference is made to Mrs. Elstob and ed the Duchess to Mary's care and affection
Mrs. Clayton, who figured in Vols. II. and in the event of her own death; but, as it
III. However, when an old lady gets to turned out, the Duchess was spared that sorthe sixth fat volume of her life, it is some- row by being taken first, She lived two
thing to be thankful for if she puts even the years longer, however, of which the chief
right capital letters in recalling friends of event to her was the securing from Sir Wilsuch ancient date. By the by, among her liam Hamilton, Mary's uncle, the celebrated
Irish stories, "she gave me," says Miss Barberini Vase, now in the British Museum
Hamilton, "the character of a friend of hers, under the name of the Portland Vase. The
Mrs. Donnellan." One wishes that Miss next year, 1784, she went to Margate, where
Hamilton had given us some insight into she found "a frise,ir, not for the purpose of
Mrs. Delany's feelings about this faithful curling my hair, but of sti$ng birds, who is
though trying friend. One would think she quite a curioso. I have a charming horned
must have felt softened towards her as she owl sitting by me that I purchased of him."
recalled the days of their youth, when she Her letters at this time are full of anxiety
and Donnellan and the rest of the palace about Mrs. Delany's health, but that continparty, each with their chosen mythological ued good four years longer, while she herself
name, used to go out before breakfast to died on the 17th of July in the following
make that grotto at Killala. But when she year, 1785, at Bulstrode, Mrs. Delany being
left Delville, Donnellan dropped so com- with her to the last. Her best epitaph is in
pietely out of her circle that there is no word the dedication to the "Flora," where Mrs.
in any of the letters to tell whether she lived Delany speaks of "the honor and delight
or died after that time, and it was probably I have enjoyed in her most generous, steady,
with a calm and unbiased hand that Mrs. and delicate friendship for above forty
Delany dissected for Mary Hamilton's bene years."
fit the jealous and exacting temper of her Old Lady Gower had died at Bill Hill on
who, before ill fortune so~'red her, had been the i9th of the previous February, 50 that
all in all to her dear Penny, in the Irish now Mrs. Delany stood alone in a new gendays when they were no older than the eration. The King and Queen feeling this,