Page:A Biographical Dictionary of the Celebrated Women of Every Age and Country (1804).djvu/418

404 or the distrest, she acted with royal munificence. She possessed a fine understanding and a lively wit, which was restrained by unaffected good-nature, fearful to give pain, and penetrating enough to know when pain was given, even when done without intention.

She had early in life received an accidental hurt upon her breast, which occasioned an inward tumour, that, in time, grew painful and increased, till there was a necessity for amputation. Lady Elizabeth heard and submitted to the sentence with equanimity; but though a short respite was thus procured, it eventually hastened her death.

"Her patience and resignation, under a long and tedious sickness; her mourning for the sins of men; her unwearied endeavours for their eternal welfare; her generous and charitable appointments; her tender expressions to her relations, friends, and servants, and her grateful acknowledgments to her physicians, require whole pages to set them in a proper light."

Though solicited by many. Lady Elizabeth preferred a single life. She destroyed the greatest part of her papers before her death, and was buried in the family vault at Ledstone. Historical Character of, &c.

such an astonishing progress in painting, that she excited her master's jealousy.

HELENA,