writing merely the initial and final letters of words, an affectation which often cost me considerable trouble in guessing at her meaning. Thus, in referring to her repeated disappointments on

this subject, he writes,

also

She

'My 1-t like my f―t at -s have failed!' Notwithstanding this, I have no hesitation in saying, that if a woman could be properly termed the Mæcenas of her age, Elizabeth, Duchess of Devonshire, well deserved the appellation." She also published, at Rome, an edition of her friend and predecessor's poem, The Passage of the St. Gothard, and the fifth satire of the First Book of Horace, with illustrations, several of which were designed and executed by herself. Her Grace's death, in March 1824, interrupted the completion of a Dante, which she had intended to illustrate with one hundred plates. was the friend of Cardinal Gonsalvi, of Canova, Cammucini, and Thorwaldsen, and was generally surrounded by eminent artists and men of letters; her influence in Rome was great, partly owing to her classical and literary taste, but still more to a munificence which scarcely knew a limit, and it was this influence perhaps, which led the widow of the younger Pretender (and afterwards of Alfieri) thus to address the Duchess from her palazzo at Florence, 'Ma belle amie, on dit ici, que vous régnez à Rome, permettez moi d'aller vous visiter dans vos états,' &c., &c. In the spirit of old Rome a medal of her was struck at her death, commemorative of her arduous exertions in

the protection and advancement of Italian literature, and her unwearied efforts to preserve or restore to the world any remains of the classical antiquities which she so deeply venerated. Her Grace was a daughter of the fourth Earl of Bristol."

CHAPTER XIV.

Brummell a Whig, but no Politician-General Fitzpatrick-His Contributions to the Beau's Album-His Lines on a Proposed Grant of Money for the Prosecution of the War-Mrs. Miller of Bath-Easton -Horace Walpole's Description of her-Castles in the Air-The late Lord Palmerston-His Epitaph on his Wife-Lord Upper OssoryLady Tyrconnel-Lines addressed to her by that Nobleman-Lady Upper Ossory.

AT the Duke of Devonshire's, Brummell had many and agreeable opportunities of improving his acquaintance with the wits, and celebrated men, of the party of which his Grace was the leader, and his Duchess such an enthusiastic supporter. But Brummell, though a staunch Whig, took little active interest in their political proceedings, and in all probability, his reason for preferring their society was, that their leisure hours were more convivially spent than those of the ministerial one, and the "Pilot who weathered the storm."

Foremost amongst these wits was General Fitzpatrick, and I shall in this chapter introduce two of his contributions to the Beau's album, as well as those of several more of Brummell's friends, whose verses have likewise escaped the printing press. Richard