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COURT AND FASHIONABLE

MAGAZINE,

For AUGUST, 1808.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES

OF

ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES.

The Thirty-Fifth Number.

THE MOST NOBLE THE MARCHIONESS OF TAVISTOCK.

ANNA MARIA STANHOPE, Marchioness of Tavistock, was born September 3, 1783; she is the eldest daughter of the Earl of Harrington.

She is a lady of great beauty and many amiable accomplishments; she has received every embellishment which refined life has in its power to bestow, and an education, in the extreme cautious and skilfully conducted, has bestowed upon her those more solid acquisitions of taste and judgment which augment the dignity, without impairing the amiable softness of her sex.

From her youth, and the delicate privacy of her education, she is as yet not known to the public; but amongst those who are ranked within the number of her private friends, and have the honour of sharing her confidence, she is greatly

esteemed and beloved.

Her Mother, the Countess of Harrington, who has educated, principally under her

own maternal control and inspection, a very numerous family, has paid a more particular attention to her elder daughter; and her care has been well rewarded by the progress of her elegant mind, and the final completion of her hopes (so far as they respected a suitable establishment in life) by her late mariage with the Marquis of

Tavistock.

This young Nobleman is the eldest son of the present Duke of Bedford; and has scarcely yet attained his twenty-third year. The Marquis of Tavistock has just left the University of Cambridge; but his present connection with his amiable Lady was the result of a very early attachment.

In these slight details it is unnecessary to say more; and our sincere wish is, that, in all marriages of the same rank and dignity, the hearts of the persons connected might be as much consulted as they have been in the present match,

THE DUCHESS DE CHOISEUL.

THE following singular anecdote of the Duchess de Choiseul, is extracted from M. Duteu's Memoirs :

conceive the affliction of her husband; he ran precipitately from his apartment, crying out that he would see his wife for the last time; The Duchess de Choiseul being dangerously and rushing into her chamber, he threw himill, I had an opportunity of seeing the attention self upon her, redoubling his cries,--"My paid to sick friends in France. When the dear wife! my dear wife!" Madame de ChoiDuchess was first taken ill, all the company seul has told me herself that these piercing remained at the castle, although all were not cries recalled her to life. She was in a proadmitted to see her; when she began to get found lethargy, or rather catalepsy; she was better every one returned to Paris, whither perfectly insensible. His voice was more efthe Duchess was to follow them in eight ficacions than all the means which had been days. There were left behind only the Duke employed for some hours before to try if any de Choiseul, the Marshal de Saintville, his signs of life remained; and the better to exdaughters and relatives, the Abbe Barthelemy, press her feelings on this occasion, I shall give and myself. The Duchess had a relapse. The them in her own terms:-"The voice of that Duke sent a courier to Paris, with a letter for man, whom you know I adore, was alone able the Duchess de Grammont, his sister, request- to bring me to life." She presently came to ing that she would send Dr. Barthez to her. || herself, and found she had strength enough to This letter found the Duchess de Grammont throw her arms round his neck, crying out— in town, at supper with the friends of the "Ah! my dear husband!" Her friends ran to Duke de Choiseul. She communicated the her bed-side, the physicians were recalled, she contents to the company: immediately one grew better from day to day, and in a little and all, without going home, ordered their time her health was re-established. servants to follow them, and going post from the house where they supped, arrived soon at Chanteloup, where the castle was, in four-sister of the Duchess of D. About the year and-twenty hours, full from the top to the bottom. Many of them were fifteen days without seeing the Duchess; but they considered it their duty to be on the spot, to inquire about her health from day to day. It was then that I had occasion to know how much M. de Choiseul was attached to his wife. He never quitted her chamber but for a moment, to make his appearance in the drawing-room to inform his friends how she did; and although she was surrounded by women, she had not a better nurse than himself.

At length Madame de Choiseul was in a condition to be removed to Paris, whither she was accompanied by her husband, her sister, and her physician; but, a short time after her arrival, she was taken ill again, and was in a situation the most surprising and critical. She relapsed to such a degree that her physicians, after a careful attention to the symptoms, finding neither pulse nor breath, gave her over for dead. On the point of being buried alive, she heard every word that was said by those about her, without being able to shew the smallest sign of life. In the mean while they had forced M. de Choiseul from the room, and the physiciaus went to him to say that she was no more, It is not possible to

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I remember a young lady in England, who was once in the same situation; Lady B

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1790, she was taken ill, and fell into a paroxysm like that I have just described; her physicians, Sir Lucas Pepys and Dr. Warren, believed her to be dead. They made the usual experiments in such cases, but seeing that they were ineffectual, they decided that she was no more. Upon which Sir Lucas Pepys, who was a very moral man, could not resist observing to himself" Behold the vanity of all worldly greatness; that young person, in the flower of her age, of an elevated rank, handsome, beloved by every body, is Here he was rudely interrupted by his colleague, who said to him,-" Truly, it is a fine time to preach now! why, she is dead! let us go and visit the living." Lady B———was precisely in the state in which I have described Madame de Choiseul. See heard every thing that was said by those about her; and the contrasted language of the two physicians struck her as so ludicrous, that, in spite of the danger she was in, she felt an impulse to burst into a laugh, though she was not able. Some hours afterwards a change came on, which saved her, and she is yet alive. I have this story from one of her own friends, te whom she herself related it.

THE ARTIST.

No. VIII.

Including the Lives of living and deceased Painters, collected from authentic sources, accompanied with OUTLINE ENGRAVINGS of their most celebrated Works, and expla aatory Criticism upon the merits of their compositions; containing likewise original Lectures upon the different branches of the Fine Arts.

LIFE OF ANTHONY RAPHAEL MENGS.

THIS celebrated artist was descended from plegri, better known by the appellation of Cors a family originally settled in Lusatia, in Ger- reggio, his father being a passionate admirer many. His Grandfather was established at of those two great masters. Hamburgh, and removed from that city to Copenhagen, where the father of the subject of these pages was born. Being the twentieth child his parents were at a loss what name to give him, and therefore resolved to leave the decision to chance. His father opened the Bible, and Ishmael being the first name that presented itself, he adopted it for his son. The boy having for godfather a painter, though of mean abilities, this circumstance caused bim to be destined for the same profession. From this inferior school Ishmael was soon removed to that of M. Cofre, a Frenchman, and the best painter at the Danish court. By his instructions, and by copying some performances of Vandyke, which he procured from a friend, he acquired the art of colouring, for his perfection in which he was distinguished during his life.

His master had a niece of whom Ishmael became enamoured; but as she was unable to endure the smell of oil, her complaisant lover in obedience to her wishes, devoted himself entirely to miniature painting, and with such application and success that, in a short time, he arrived at great perfection in the art, and was then united to the beautiful but capricious object of his affection. Soon after this event be quitted Denmark, on account of a contagious disease, and visited various courts of Germany, and meanwhile acquired the difficult art of painting in enamel, which afterwards obtained him considerable celebrity.

From this alliance the artist of whose life we here propose to give the most remarkable particulars was born, at Aussig, in Bohemia, on the 12th of March, 1728. He received in baptism the names of Anthony Raphael, in honour of Rafaello da Urbino, and Antonio AlNo. XXXV. Vol. V.

Thus destined from his cradle for a painter, he never had any thing given him for his amusement but what was connected with the art, as pencils, paper, and the like; and before he bad completed his sixth year his father began to teach him to draw. To this study. he was closely kept for two years, after which he began to paint in oil. His father, observing the precocious talents displayed by the boy, sought by all possible means to impress deeply upon his mind the first principles of the art, and made him apply again with the greatest assiduity to the study of drawing; at the same time he taught him chemistry, miniaturepainting, the science of perspective, and the most necessary parts of anatomy. Not a day passed on which the boy was not obliged to copy two whole figures of Raphael or Ca

racci,

After these previous and essential exercises, the young scholar began to make drawings of antiques, of the same size as the originals, which his father had brought from Rome, and to copy at night by artificial light models in miniature of the same statues, in order to make himself more thoroughly acquainted with the strength and effects of light and shade.

Such were the studies in which he was engaged till his twelfth year. About this time his father resolved to take him to Rome. Ile perceived that his son began to reflect on the subject of his studies, and that it was time to form in him a just taste, which was not to be obtained out of Italy. Struck with the sight of the profusion of masterpieces which then adorned that capital of the arts, the boy was eager to study them all at once; but his father had the prudence to restrain his ardours

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