LADY PALMERSTON
a Satiric Sketch"[1] in which he pays testimony to the beauty and charm of Lady Cowper in the following lines:
"But lo! what lovely vision glides
So graceful through the charmed throng?
Oh, ne'er did Daughter of the tides
The yielding waters float along
With shape as light and form as fair
As those which spell the gazer there.
Enchanting C*w**r, while I muse
On thee—my soul forgets awhile
Its blighted thoughts and darken'd hues,
And softens satire to a smile."
Both at Panshanger, the Cowper country seat, and in London, Lady Cowper gathered round her a varied and interesting coterie; among her guests were the Princess Lieven, the Duchesse de Dino, Talleyrand, Pozzo, Alvanley, Luttrell, Lord and Lady Holland, Panizzi, and Lord Palmerston, who from 1809 to 1828 was Secretary-at-War, but without a seat in the Cabinet. It was not until 1830 that he became Foreign Secretary and a Cabinet Minister. Lady Cowper was, in fact, his Egeria. He was attracted by her grace and charm, her intelligence and quick perception. The letters he wrote to her at this time were chiefly on political matters,
- ↑ The poem appears in Weeds and Wildflowers, by E. G. L. B., a volume privately printed at Paris in 1826
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