Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/78

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

74 DENNY. and he soon followed to the grave the subject of his pane gyric, dying at h i s office, (which a n accurate biographer informs u s had been built by himself,) near Whitehall, on the 19th o f March, 1688, and was interred i n Westminster Abbey, near Chaucer, Spencer, and Cowley, sharing the honours o f their sepulchre, i f not o f their immortality. His works have been several times printed together i n one volume, under the title o f “Poems and Translations, with the Sophy, a tragedy.” Most o f the occasional serious poems o f Denham pos sess the merit o f some ingenious thoughts and emphatical expressions, but cannot b e mentioned a s first-rate com positions. LADY ARABELLA DENNY, Second daughter o f Thomas, Earl o f Kerry, was born i n the year , and married Arthur Denny, Esq. member for the county o f Kerry, i n 1727. This excellent woman will long live i n the records o f humanity, a s the protectoress o f helpless infancy, and penitent frailty—disdaining the too common pursuits o f fashionable life, i n the rounds o f dissipated pleasures, which her fortune and rank placed within her reach—and equally disinclined t o inactivity, she nobly determined t o b e useful. An opportunity soon offered; and the kind ness, patience, and perseverance, which surmounted ob stacles that would have appalled a more ordinary mind, cannot be recollected without admiration. By a n act o f Geo. II. the governors o f the workhouse o f the city o f Dublin were obliged t o take, without excep tion o r limitation, a l l exposed and deserted children under the age o f six years. I n time the funds became unequal t o i t s support; not only i n consequence o f the numerous admissions, but from gross mismanagement and neglect. This, about the year 1768, attracted the notice o f Lady Denny, and immediately interested her i n i t s behalf. She promptly stepped forward and proposed, a s