HENRY THOMAS FOX, EARL OF ILCHESTER, [GRANDSON of sir Stephen Fox, knight, was born in 1747, succeeded his father, the first earl of Ilchester and baron Strangways, in 1776, and died September 5, 1802; leaving a pleasing metrical memorial of his social feeling, part of which is here extracted from the Asylum for Fugitive Pieces, vol. iii. " ON THE APPROACHING DISSOLUTION OF A VERY PLEASANT PARTY AT REDLYNCH', "FEB. 21, 1784. "The time draws nigh when dearest friends must part, Howe'er repugnant to the social heart; Leave the dear circle of a friendly fire, Where ease and freedom join'd gay thoughts inspire; There no restraint the mind controls, no dread That words once utter'd would be best unsaid; But each inclines the way his humour leads, And drink plain water, or Madeira quaff. Each pass the morn the way he best may list, In riding, walking, or at sober whist : And should not books their wonted pleasure yield, • His lordship's seat in Somersetshire, 388 HENRY THOMAS, EARL OF Ilchester. Adieu, then, all the pleasant walks we 've ta'en The painted pheasant or the timid hare Shall there be found; alike they now must run No more the winged lark, to please the fair, No merry evenings will there now be seen,' Friends thus united could for ever live : Nor should you find your host would wish your stay Were shorten'd even by a single day: But since fate bids that we so soon must part, Take the effusions of a grateful heart!"] * A Welsh term for a second supper late in the night. MARY ANNE LAYARD, DUCHESS OF ANCASTER, [THE HE youngest daughter of major Peter Layard, and aunt to the late dean of Bristol, became in 1769 the second wife of the worthy lord Brownlow Bertie, who succeeded to the dukedom of Ancaster in 1779, on the death of his nephew. Miss Layard, who was first introduced in the Bertie family as governess to the present lady Willoughby, bore her high exaltation with becoming meekness, and conducted herself with a propriety which gained her general esteem. As a wife, a mother, a relation, and a friend, her conduct was uniformly exemplary; and by that wider circle of dependants, who felt the influence of her benignant bounty, her loss must be deeply lamented. She died at the age of seventy, on January 12, 1804. The following jocose rhymes were tagged by her grace, in reply to a mock love-letter addressed to her in the same strain, when lady Brownlow Bertie. "SIR, "I perus'd your oration, With much deliberation, And some consternation At the seeming infatuation Which seiz'd your imagination, When you made such a declaration, 390 MARY ANNE, DUCHESS OF ANCASTer. And express'd such veneration And some little contemplation, I, without hesitation, To be an ample gratification."] JOHN HOWE, LORD CHEDWORTH, [SON of the hon. and rev. Thomas Howe, was born in 1754, and succeeded his uncle Frederic-Henry, as fourth lord Chedworth, in 1781. He received his education at Harrow school and Queen's college, Oxford, where having continued the usual time, he returned to his mother's house at Ipswich, and made that his general place of residence, till his decease in Oct. 1804, when the title of Chedworth became extinct. From his boyhood lord Chedworth is stated2 to have been shy and reserved, and never desirous of associating with persons of rank or fashion. In private life he was most gratified by literary conversation, and the intercourse of a few friends. In political life he was a whig of the Rockingham school, and voted with the opposition during the greater part of the time he sat in the house of lords; but never connected himself with any party. For the stage and the turf he evinced an early and a lasting attachment. At the age of sixteen he personated the characters of Feignwell and Midas at school, and ever after continued critically attentive to the drama. Hence arose his acquaintance with some of the performers at the Norwich theatre, to whom he left con • Gentleman's Magazine, vol. lxxiv. p. 1242, |