HENRIETTA LOUISA JEFFREYS, COUNTESS OF POMFRET,

[DAUGHTER and sole heiress of John, second lord. Jeffreys, and Charlotte, daughter of Philip, earl of Pembroke. In 1720 she was united in marriage to Thomas, lord Lempster, who soon after was created earl of Pomfret. The countess and her friend lady, Hertford were both ladies of the bedchamber to queen Caroline, at whose death in 1737 they retired from courtly life; the latter to domestic enjoyment in England, and the former on a continental tour with lord Pomfret, through France, Italy, and part of Germany 2, for about three years, during which time her correspondence continued with lady Hertford, and has very recently been given to the public 3. Lord Pomfret died in 1753, and a part of the Arundelian marbles having been purchased by his father, they were presented by the countess in 17554 to the university of

• Collins's Peerage, vol. v. p. 55.

In 3 vols. 12mo. published by Phillips. See art. of lady Hertford, duchess of Somerset, p. 217.

Virtue, an irregular ode, written for the Encænia, 1755, in honour of the countess of Pomfret, and on her giving the family collection of ancient marbles to the university of Oxford, has been printed in Poems by Gentlemen of Devon and Cornwall. It records, that over Britain's fairest plain

"POMFRET waves her tutelary wand,

And full on learning's consecrated bowers
Th' invigorating rays of kindly favour pours."

Oxford, where they are now reposited. Her ladyship died in December 1761, leaving a numerous family. A neat cenotaph has been erected to her memory in St. Mary's church, Oxon 5.

Lord Orford intimates in his Anecdotes of Painting, that the mother of the last earl of Pomfret, who was at Rome with her lord, wrote

"A Life of Vandyck,"

with some description of his works; and this is echoed by the editor of lady Pomfret's Letters, but no specimen is given. From such intimations, however, her ladyship may demand an entry on the list of noble authoresses; and this hiatus in her literary remains must be supplied from her epistolary reliques, which are lively, courteous, and polite, and afford proofs, as the editor observes, of a heart susceptible of amiable virtues and unaffected devotion 7.

The following is part of a metrical letter written from Florence, Dec. 1740, and is creditable at least to her maternal feelings and mental reflections.

"Forc'd from my friends in former days, had been As the last trumpet to the dead in sin:

Hence the wreaths of Virtue are invok'd

"To bloom immortal o'er the genuine great;
E'en as at this illustrious hour

Her justest chaplets on a POмFRET shine,

Grac'd with the smiles of learning and of pow'r,

And thron'd in Virtue's beams, on Me-it's brightest shrine."

5 Pref. Mem. to her Letters, p. xxvi.

6 Vol. ii. p. 171.

Ut sup. p. xxvii.

246

HENRIETTA LOUISA JEFFREYS,

But I, alas! have prov'd the vain deceit,

And know, for one that's true, a million cheat.
To talk, to laugh, to dine, to see a play,
Or at the most, to wait for you a day,
Is all they mean-whatever 't is they say.
Yet in that place where constancy's a sport,
That dull, designing whirligig—a court!
By chance conducted, or by fate constrain'd,
Experience has at last the wisdom gain'd
To sift the corn and throw the chaff away,
Which were too like when they together lay:
And since from absence I this good receive,
Can I with reason even absence grieve?

My children I confess the tenderest part;
Still in my mind, and ever at my heart:
Yet for their good, (at least I meant it so,
And nothing else had ever made me go,)
I place the lesser three till my return,

(Too young to want me, and too young to mourn,)
Under her care who taught my early youth;

Long known her merit, and well prov'd her truth:
The other two, more ready to receive

Th' improvements that an education give,

I to a wise and tender parent leave.

With youth's vain pleasures, youth's vain cares I quit: And simply fortune never pain'd me yet;

For to that Being, merciful and just,

Who call'd me into life, my fate I trust.

}

"Arm'd with these thoughts, I take my destin'd way,

Return contented, or contented stay;

Rise with the sun, and breathe the morning air,
Or to the bay-tree shade at noon repair;

Walk and reflect within the conscious grove
Where fair Bianca" fed unlawful love,

What different cares its different owners prove;
Review in every light each various scene,
Where I have actor or spectator been,
And live in fancy all my life again;

Content, my follies past, and prospects gone,
To find integrity is still my own!"]

}

• Bianca Capello was kept by the great duke Francis the first at this house, till, his wife dying, he married her.

GEORGE BUBB DODINGTON,

LORD MELCOMBE,

[THE son of an apothecary in Dorsetshire, was born in 1691, and appears to have been educated at Oxford. About the age of twenty-four he was elected member for Winchelsea, and soon after appointed envoy extraordinary at the court of Spain, where he continued till 1717. In 1720 he changed his surname from Bubb to inherit the great estate of his uncle George Dodington. In the following year he was appointed lord lieutenant of the county of Somerset; in 1724 was constituted a lord of the treasury 3, and obtained

• Welsted thus addressed him in his version of Horace's first Ode

"Descended from old British sires!

Great DODINGTON to kings allied;

My patron thou! my laurel's pride," &c.

* While in this office Thomson dedicated the first edition of Summer to him in 1727; as Dr. Johnson reports, at the instigation of lord Binning. This dedication never was reprinted; and perhaps because, among other flatteries, it contained the following: "Your example, sir, has recommended poetry with the greatest grace to the admiration of those who are engag'd in the highest and most active scenes of life: and this, tho' confessedly the least considerable of those exalted qualities that dignify your character, must be particularly pleasing to one, whose only hope of being introduced to your regard is thro' the recommendation of an art in which you are a master." The poetical substitute afterwards introduced