OR, Bell's COURT AND FASHIONABLE MAGAZINE, FOR JANUARY, 1909. EMBELLISHMENTS. 1. An Elegant PORTRAIT of LADY LANGHAM. 2. THREE WHOLE-LENGTH FIGURES in the FASHIONS of the SEASON, COLOURED. 5. Two elegant and new PATTERNS for NEEDLE-WORK. LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE. ..... Man and Wife; or, More Secrets than One ib. Supplementary Advertisements for the 28 Month. ib. 33 London: Printed by and for J. BELL, Proprietor of the WEEKLY MESSENGER, Southampton-Street, Strand, February 1, 1809, TO OUR READERS. IT is our intention to omit the Outline Plates (which were not well understood, and did not give u general satisfaction to the bulk of our Readers) in our succeeding Numbers; and in place of this emission, we shall COLOUR all the Figures of Fashion, and give an additional quantity of Letter Press, as our Readers will perceive in the present Number. Bell's COURT AND FASHIONABLE MAGAZINE, For JANUARY, 1809. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES OF ILLUSTRIOUS LADIES. The Forty-first Number. LADY LANGHAM. LADY LANGHAM, whose portrait, || from the celebrated pencil of Hopner, embellishes the present Number of La Belle Assemblée, is the only daughter of the Hon. Charles Vane, by Elizabeth, daughter of Richard Wood, Esq. of Hollin, in the County of York. Her Ladyship is married to Sir William Langham Bart. of Cotesbroke, Northamptonshire. The materials of biography are very scantily distributed through the walks of private life. The uniform tenor of domestic duties, and the necessary seclusion of the mother of a family, leave little room for that kind of activity which attracts public notice. It is the maxim of a great poet, that the sphere of female duty should not exceed the family circle-To man it is given to act in public, to woman is committed the more difficult task of private utility, and the example of retired virtue. The slight sketches which, according to the plan of our miscellany, we are in the habit of appending to the Portraits of those females which embellish our Work, are not to be dignified by the name of biography. The reader who receives, or expects them in such a shape, is not warranted in his expectations from any promise of the Editor.-They are meant merely as planatory to the Plate upon those subjects of family connection which it is necessary to relate.-They aspire to no higher honour, and no farther utility; but when the subject admits of amplification we shall follow it. ex THE CELEBRATED CORINNA. THERE has been no biography of any authentic stamp of this celebrated woman; and our readers will perhaps feel a pleasure from the brief narrative which we now lay before them, collected with difficulty, and from no common source. Their circumstances becoming daily more perplexed and involved, she remonstrated with her lover on the inequality of their fortunes and prospects, and the imprudence of the connection which he solicited. The attachment of Mr. Gwynnet, who was already in a great degree independent of his family, was increas mistress; nor was it long before he gained the consent of his father to an union in which his happiness was so deeply involved. With this sanction he came to London, to claim the reward of his affection and fidelity. Mrs. Thomas being at this time in an infirm state of health, her amiable daughter refused, in her own better prospects, to abandon her Corinna (whose real name was Mrs. Thomas), the pride of the gay world, and no less cele-ed by the delicacy and disinterestedness of his brated for her charms than for her genius, was born in 1675. She seems to have inherited from her father, who was far advanced in life, and whose health had been long infirm, an unhappy constitution, rendered yet more delicate and feeble by the injudicious tenderness with which she was nurtured. From her infancy she was afflicted with fevers and defluxions; but, with these physical disadvan-mother to the care of strangers. She replied tages, she possessed a gay and lively temper, and gave early promise of a vigorous intellect. Before she had completed her second year, the death of her father, of whose circum-sider six months as tedious, in expectation of stances his family, from bis expensive manner of living, had formed an erroneous calculation, involved them in embarrassment and distress. to the solicitations of her lover, that as she had not thought sixteen years too long a period to wait for him, she hoped he would not con receiving, at the end of that time, the recompence of his generous constancy. "Six months at present, my Corinna," he replied, with a sigh," "are more than the sixteen years that are passed; you now defer our union, and God will put it off for ever." His words were prophetic. The next day he returned into the country and made his will, by which he bequeathed to Corinua six hundred pounds; he sickened shortly after, and expired April 16th, 1711. To express the feelings of his mistress on this event language is inadequate :-" Sorrow," said she, "has been my portion ever since." The Duke of Montague made flattering professions of service; and when Mrs. Thomas solicited him, as Captain of the band of pensioners, to bestow a post on a Mr. Gwynnet, a young gentleman who had long addressed her daughter, actually assented to her request, on condition that the bride-elect should apply to him in person. The guileless mother overwhelmed her generous benefactor with grateful acknowledgements, and instantly hastened to inform her daughter of their flattering prospects, when, to her extreme surprise, she received from Corinna, who had been accustomed to yield to her commands an implicit obedience, a peremptory refusal to avail herself of the bounty of the noble Duke. Compelled at length to explain the motives for a conduct so unreasonable and extraordinary, the young lady confessed that his Grace had attempted to allure her from the paths of chastity. To this she added, that in the condition he had annexed to his services to her lover, she had but too just cause to fear a renewal of his dishonour-paid into her hands. Reduced by this event to able purposes. The feelings of a mother upon the necessity of reitring from her creditors to such an occasion required no description. obscurity and want, she was betrayed by a pre The mind of Corinna had been highly culti-tended friend, and thrown into prison. vated by a perusal of the best authors, while, as her taste refined, her sentiments became delicate and clevated, and her character strong. ly tinctured with those virtues which "The sons of interest deem romance.” The deed of conveyance, by which the father of Mr. Gwynnet had empowered his son to dispose of his effects, with the will which he had in consequence made, were suppressed by his brother. She had, in the course of this suit, been obliged to sign an instrument to empower the lawyers to receive the money, and pay themselves the costs. The consequences may be foreseen: thirteen pounds sixteen shillings was the residue which these conscientious gentlemen, who sell justice very dear, After her liberation from confinement, Mrs. Thomas resided in a small and humble lodging in Fleet-street, where she died, February, 1730, in the fifty-sixth year of her age. She was interred in the church of St. Bride's. |