gathered around her. But let Bentham speak for himself:—
"July, 1781.
"Where shall I begin?—Let me see—the first place by common right, to the ladies. The ideas I brought with me respecting the female part of this family, are turned quite topsy-turvy, and unfortunately they are not yet cleared up. I had expected to find in Lady Shelburne, a Lady Louisa Fitzpatrick, sister of an Earl of Ossory, whom I remember at school: instead of her I find a lady who has for her sister a Miss Caroline Vernon: is not this the maid of honour, the sister to Lady G.? the lady who was fond of Lord C., and of whom he was fond? and whom he quitted for an heiress and a pair of horns?[1] Be they who they may, the one is loveliest of matrons, the other of virgins: they have both of them more than I could wish of reserve; but it is a reserve of modesty rather than of pride.[2] The quadrupeds, whom you know I love next, consist of a child a year old, a tiger, a spaniel, formerly attached to Lady Shelburne—at present to my Lord—besides four plebeian cats, who are taken no notice of, horses, &c., and a wild boar. The four first I have commenced a friendship with, especially the first of all, to whom I am body coachman extraordinary, en titre d'office. Henry (for that is his name), for such an animal, has the most thinking countenance I ever saw; being very clean, I can keep him without disgust, and even with pleasure, especially after having been rewarded, as I have just now, for my attention to him, by a pair of the sweetest smiles imaginable from his mamma and aunt.[3] As
- ↑ Lady Evelyn Leveson, Countess of Upper Ossory, mother of Lady Shelburne and Lord Ossory, the correspondent of Walpole, had contracted a second marriage with Mr. Richard Vernon, and became the mother of Miss Henrietta Vernon who had married the Earl of Warwick, Miss Caroline Vernon who married 'Bobus' Smith in August 1797, and Miss Elizabeth Vernon. They are celebrated in Walpole's poem, "The Three Vernons." Walpole's Works, iv. 388, ed. 1798.
- ↑ Alluding to the two younger Miss Vernons and Miss Fox, Bentham wrote on another occasion: "When these three Dianas get together the ice becomes even colder; they are like snow, salt-petre, and sal-ammoniac." Works, x. 267.
- ↑ Lord Henry Petty, afterwards third Marquis of Lansdowne.
