THE COUNTESS OF JERSEY. From a Drawing by E. T. Parris. DURING Byron's "London life," as Moore calls it, when his society was sought, to give brilliancy to the most fashionable circles, there were few parties that he visited with more pleasure, or where the attentions he received were more gratefully remembered, than those of the distinguished lady whose portrait is here introduced. Allusions are often made in the "Life of Lord Byron" to her parties, and the persons whom he met in her society. When his Lordship was about to leave his native land, because scandal and misrepresentation had assailed him, and made it as fashionable to shrink from his society as it had before been to seek it, Lady Jersey, at one of whose assemblies he made his last public appearance in England, received him with her wonted courtesy; and the kindness of his noble hostess upon that occasion was never forgotten by him. Afterwards, on his way to Rome, he mentions that he again met Lord and Lady Jersey, who were returning to Paris" all well, children grown and healthy; she very pretty, but sunburnt." Byron often praised the beauty of women abroad, by comparing them to Lady Jersey. When his late Majesty was Prince Regent, he formed a collection of miniature portraits of the ladies of his court the most celebrated for their beauty. The Countess of Jersey's was necessarily among them. Some pique, however, against the lady led to its being sent away from Carlton House. The affair at the time made much noise in the fashionable world; and Lord Byron, upon that occasion, wrote the following "Condolatory Address to Sarah, Countess of Jersey:" "When the vain triumph of the imperial lord, What most admired each scrutinising eye What spread from face to face that wondering air? That absence proved his worth,—that absence fixed And more decreed his glory to endure, Than all a gold Colossus could secure. If thus, fair Jersey, our desiring gaze |