conversation of one person, whom I have lately had the happiness to discover, and who is too ill to have much share in it. I had for some time frequented the Geropsterre without meeting any one among the various nations assembled there, that could much interest or amuse me; but one morning I was struck by the new appearance of a very elegant figure; and in a dress so perfectly neat, that to the honour of our country be it spoken, we took her for an English woman. As she was not able to walk without help, and could not find her servant, Mrs. M. led her to the spring where I was, and then. being obliged to rejoin her own company, consigned her over to me. After I had conducted her to a seat, something more than mere compassion induced me to sit down by her, and I very soon discovered something in her very superior to what I had met with or expected to find in this place. We have since conversed with her every day, and every day become more convinced of the extraordinary merit of her character. With the politest manners, and most engaging gentle. ness, she has a depth of thought, an extent of reading, an elegance of taste, and a sprightliness of wit, that I should never have expected to have found in a Baronne Allemande. With all this she discovers a nobleness of principle, and the deepest sense of religion. It is by degrees that one discovers the superiority of her understanding, which, instead of producing into full view, she seems to take all imaginable pains to conceal. She speaks French perfectly well, without the least degree of German pronunciation, and expresses herself very readily in Italian. She is extremely desirous of learning English, which she had attempted, by her own account, without success, but upon my procuring an English book for her, I found she could often read nearly a whole page without missing the sense of a single word. There is something so very English in her ideas and sentiments, that I feel fully persuaded she will soon be mistress of our language. She has too much, alas! of the English temperament, for I never saw a more dreadful excess of nervous disorders. Mrs. M. and I congra. tulate ourselves on the acquition of such a prize, of which nobody in the place but ourselves seems to know the value.'

This lady, whose name was Madame de Blum, is always mentioned in the same affectionate manner by Mrs. Carter, who must have improved her intimacy with her to a great degree, since she obtained her portrait. We hear nothing of her history, but that she was an Hanoverian by birth, married to an officer in the service of the duke of Brunswick.'

We have called Mrs. C. our saber country-woman, and such she certainly was: but Mr. Pennington says, very truly, that some of her compositions supply indications of cheerfulness and even of merriment ; and her epistolary style is frequently marked by expressions that are characteristic both of strength and humour: for example:

"I have seen Princess Ferdinand and her suite at the room, and at the walks, and a most extraordinary sight they are. They are laced within an inch of their lives, their stays excessively stiff, and their sto

machers

machers of an amazing length, nearly approaching to their chins. But what struck me the most is, that their features are all at a dead stand. I really never did see any thing in the human countenance before, that so much realized the fable of the Gorgon. The Princess has a very fine complexion, and is really as pretty as it is possible for her to be with such a stony look; with all this she is excessively lively, and danced three times a day when she was at Aix. Her French pronunciation écorche les oreilles, and is absolutely the worst I ever heard. Madam Keith, the grande Maîtresse, is the most like one of the folks of this world among the set. She is a Prussian, but her face has learnt Scotch."

Again;

"Prince and Princess Ferdinand of Prussia, among many other great personages, are here. There is something extremely easy and sociable in the etiquette of the German courts their attendants sit down to table with them, and share their amusements. Their manners are unaffected and agreeable; but their dress so ridiculously stiff, that the first time I saw them all together, they put me in mind of King Pharaoh's court in a puppet-show."

Perhaps, however, the difference was not so great between the English and German fashions of that time, as between the English style of ornament in those days and that which prevails at present.

Mrs. Carter was too good an Englishwoman to mix with the French society at Spa, and too good a protestant to abstain from deriding the mummeries of the Catholic religion. On the former subject she is quite explicit, and quotes the declaration of a lady who had resided in France, that she never met with any one person while she was there, who had either principle or sentiment: to her great surprise, she once thought she had discovered a character possessed of both, but'-the thing was of course utterly impossible; and fortunately for this charitable hypothesis the fact confirmed the theory, for upon further inquiry, the lady' (i. e. the lady who had principle and sentiment) proved to be a Canadian.?' On the subject of religion, our traveller occasionally put some questions of rather a dangerous nature to several of the nuns and chanoinesses, with whom she had an opportunity of conversing; and the following anecdote may be taken as a sample of the amusement which their answers must have afforded to a hardened heretic :

"There is a competent degree of ignorance to be met with on subjects, which, according to their persuasions, ought to be very interesting to them. I was examining the cross of a chanoinesse yester. day, and asked her what the little figure that was in the midst of it signified; she answered it was her patron, Saint Quirin, who had suffered martydrom for his religion. What were the particular circumstances of his history? I cannot tell. What, do you not know the

story

story of your own patron? O yes, we have an office for him. Well: under what Emperor did he suffer? I believe it was no Emperor; it was Pope Alexander the Eighth. I am not chronologer good enough to know when this pretty chanoinesse's Pope Alexander the Eighth lived; but I suspect her patron to be of higher antiquity than any Pope Alexander I ever heard of; and to be neither more nor less than the saint who built Rome, and killed his brother."

In spite of some repetitions which naturally occur in letters written on the same subjects to different persons, the whole account of this journey will be read with satisfaction.

That delicacy, which formed a striking feature in Mrs. Carter's character, amounted to extreme timidity on particular occasions. Her own description of her deportment, when she first became acquainted with Lord Lyttelton, is natural and humorous:

"MRS. CARTER TO MISS TALBOT.

Deal, May 3, 1756. "Will you pity me for a trial I lately went through, from which I received a great deal of honour at the expence of looking, as you have very often seen me do, most grievously foolish? It was no less than a visit from Sir George Lyttelton. To my great conso lation, however, it was very near dark when he came, and I had taken special care not to have candles introduced till I might reasonably hope some few, at least, of the idiot features might vanish from my countenance. By this contrivance, and the assistance of a work bag, from which he must conclude me extremely notable at a time when it was impossible for one to see a stitch, I behaved myself with tolerable fortitude; and if he had staid a quarter of an hour longer, it is very probable I might have so far improved as even to speak articulately. I forget whether I mentioned to you some time ago my taking the liberty of writing to Sir George Lyttelton †, to solicit his favour for a person in singular circumstances of distress. He answered me with a politeness and humanity with which I am sure you would have been charmed; and it is to this correspondence that I owe the favour of his visit."

We shall also insert her report of a stage-coach conversa¬

tion:

"As Nancy might possibly give you a formidable account of my three fellow-travellers, I think it necessary to inform you, as soon as possible, my dear Miss Talbot, that they did not eat me up, for which I was the more obliged to them, as they seemed disposed to eat every thing else that came in their way. By their discourse I believe they are pilots to the packet boats. One of them in great simplicity gave a very comic account of one of his passengers. He said he had once carried over one Warbritton, a very old orator, you

* He was not created a Peer till 1757.'

At that time he was Chancellor of the Exchequer."

may

may read about him in the almanacks. He was a Member of Parlia ment then, but he has been made a Bishop since. As we were upon our passage, he said he would sing me a song, and the song that he sung was Rogues all. He is a very old orator, you must have read about him in the almanacks.' Poor Bishop Warburton, to have all his fame reduced to what one may read about him in the almanacks! "After he had finished all he had to say about the old orator, he fixed his eyes in my face, and asked if I was not one of the Carters; to which I answered, Yes. About half an hour afterwards he looked at me again, and broke forth with some vehemence, Why surely you cannot be the lady that is reported to be so well read in the mathematics, that she has puzzled all the naval officers, and a gentleman came on purpose to have a confer-rence with her about it." No indeed, Sir, I am not.' Was it any of your sisters then? Not that I know.' After many interrogations, he seemed very dissatisfied and unquiet with my answers, and I believe the poor man is to this hour in a perplexity, whether I am the lady that puzzled all the naval officers, and had a confer-rence with the gentleman, or not."

Notwithstanding these extracts, and a few more of the same character that might be made, if we were to pronounce on the documents laid before us in the present volume, we should not say that the general turn of her mind was playful or lively. Her religious habits would no doubt inspire her with cheerfulness and composure: but all her principal works are pervaded with a grave style of thinking that approaches to solemnity, and reminds us often of Dr. Johnson's most serious productions, in which his artificial manner of expression was sacrificed to the strong feeling of the moment. Her reflections on making her will (p. 448) are extremely impressive. Her letters to a friend, who had the mifortune to doubt the truth of revelation, on the duty of examining the proofs of it, are remarkable for good sense, strong reasoning, and unaffected language: but we could have wished that the editor had recollected Mrs. Carter's disinclination to publish religious controversy, lest doubts should be excited on some particular points, and had suppressed the "Objections" to various parts of the Old and New Testament, which were started probably by the same friend, and are combated by specific replies. Some of these answers are far from satisfactory, particularly that in p. 575 to the observations made on the devils entering swine. The Notes on the Bible' are short, but contain some information, and attest the persevering constancy of her religious studies. The Miscellanies in Prose' consist of her celebrated papers in the Rambler, and some other detached pieces, which do not possess any extraordinary merit.

In 1782, that is to say in her sixty-fifth year, Mrs. Carter visited Paris: but the notes taken on this excursion are few and

12

imperfect,

imperfect; and it would be hardly worth while to advert to this journey, if it were not the last incident that interrupted the quiet uniformity of her life. From that time she divided her year between her own home at Deal, and lodgings that she regularly occupied every winter in Clarges-street, London, with the exception of some occasional visits to friends residing in various parts of the country. The majority of the companions with whom she lived were literary characters of her own sex. In the possession of a comfortable income, and in the enjoy ment of all the pleasures of friendship and society, her days glided away in as much happiness as is consistent with that extended age, which must witness the frequent loss of our earliest and dearest connections. After having received various warnings of approaching dissolution, which did not affect her faculties, she expired without a groan or a struggle, on the 19th of December 1806,' in the 89th year of her age. During her illness she had expressed her earnest desire that she might be interred, in the most private manner, in the parish in which she should die; and she was therefore deposited in Grosvenor Chapel, an appendage to the Church of St. George, Hanover Square, in which parish she breathed her last. No one will deny the justice of the simple epitaph inscribed on her tomb, which records that she was a lady as much distinguished by piety and virtue, as for deep learning, and extensive knowledge.'

Having thus taken our respectful leave of this good and erudite female, we shall not perhaps be accused of violating the integrity of our biographical sketch, if we attend for a short time to the character of the celebrated Lord Bath, as it is drawn by Mrs. Carter. He has been a prominent object of public notice, and in contrast to his accomplishments he has generally been accused of great parsimony. Mrs. C. was very much in his company, and certainly appears every where an admirer of him: but some deference may be paid to her judg ment, and no accusation can be urged against her veracity. On the subject of this nobleman's death, she laments to a correspondent the privation which she and Mrs. Montagu will suffer by that event, and thus proceeds:

None of his friends. I believe, will remember him longer, and very few with equal affection. Indeed there was something in his conversation and manners more engaging than can be described. With all those talents, which had so long rendered him the object of popular admiration, he had not the least tincture of that vanity and importance, which is too often the consequence of popular applause. He never took the lead in conversation, nor ever assumed that superiority to which he had a claim. As he was blessed with

an