Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 8.djvu/483

 vm. DEC. 7, 1901.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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ever, increase in number, and such form convenient centres. The time may speedily arrive when every moderately sized town will have a reference library, and each of these should have the Dictionary and its supplements. Such views are perhaps regarded as Utopian ; but we have lived to see so many schemes derided and pooh-poohed, then contem- plated and weighed, and ultimately adopted, that we cease to be numbered with those of little faith. Meanwhile we commend the new volume to the attention of our readers.

Mary Rich, Countess of Warwick (1625-1678): her Family and Friends. By Charlotte Fell Smith. (Longmans & Co.)

AMONG the many women, chaste, virtuous, and noble, who help to redeem from the charge of entire corruption the period of the Restoration has to be counted Mary Boyle, daughter of the first Earl of Cork, and by marriage Mary Rich, subsequently Countess of Warwick. Not for a moment is she to be compared, as regards influence or ability, with Margaret Cavendish, the great Duchess of Newcastle (Mad Meg of Newcastle, as she was sometimes called), nor, in regard of personal charm, with Dorothy Osborne, Lady Temple, one of the most fascinating women in literature or fiction. Quite worthy is she, however, to occupy a niche in seventeenth-century history near

That sweet saint who sate by Russell's side.

Saintliness is, indeed, her highest qualification for remembrance, though she had, as records show, a considerable leaven of firmness not easily distinguishable from obstinacy, nor, in those days, easily dissociable from undutifulness. While engaged upon the life of this exemplary lady exemplary, at least, in many respects for the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' Miss Charlotte Fell Smith became interested in her subject, and conceived the idea of devoting to her a more sus- tained labour, the results of which are seen in the present volume. Materials for the task accom- plished are abundant. With certain lacuna*, the diary which Mary Rich undertook, and maintained with commendable perseverance, is in the British Museum, where are also her 'Meditations.' Ex- tracts from these have been issued for the Religious Tract Society, and ' Some Specialities in the Life of M. Warwick ' was edited by Crofton Croker for the Percy Society. From the Lismore Papers and from other sources additional information was obtained. A sermon preached by Anthony Walker, D.D., at her funeral at Felsted, in Essex, 30 April, 1678, was issued in 8vo in the same year, " with so large additions, as may be stiled the Life of that noble Lady, to which are annexed some of her Ladyship's Meditations."

On examining the MSS. Miss Smith found, as she owns, " no rate literary gems, no important historical document." " Yet," she continues, " a gracious, womanly, domestic life was revealed, a life which seemed too true and beautiful to be left unheeded. At the same time there came to light a wealth of information concerning the clergy, residents, and social life of the county of Essex at the period." Not wholly domestic, in spite of Miss Smith's disclaimer, though principally so, are the glimpses we obtain. In chap. vii. we have an interesting account of the Royalist invasion of Lees and the efforts and shall we say diplomacy ? of our heroine to conceal weapons, learn of

the accident to Sir Charles Lucas, and assist at his murder and that of his associate Sir George Lisle. We own to be less devoted to the pious countess than is Miss Smith, and like her better in her early days, when her father spoke of her as his " unruly daughter" for her persistent refusal of the husband he had chosen for her, or when, with no less reso- lution, though after a nice balancing of chances, she married secretly her self-chosen lover, younger son though he was. There is much in the diary that is of more than temporary interest, and we are glad of the glimpses that are furnished us of the brave young Boyles, Dungarvan, Broghill, and the rest. Lady Warwick's ' Meditations are edifying rather than poetical. She "meditates" upon anything that comes under her observation. Some of her reflections might well have been taken from the books of emblems then in fashion. Shake- speare may well have animated some. " A goodly apple, rotten at the heart," seems directly suggested when we find a heading such as " Upon seeing a very fair and beautiful apple, but when I had cut it, finding it rotten at the heart." A great addition to the attractions of a handsome and readable book, which makes direct appeal to a large public, is found in the illustrations. These include portraits of the heroine after Vandyck arid R. White, of the first Earl and first Countess of Cork, the first Countess of Orrery, the second Earl of Warwick, Roger Boyle, Lord Broghill, with many others, and views of Lismore Castle and Lees" Delicious Leez," as Lady Warwick calls the Essex residence, now in ruins, which she so long occupied.

THE first article in the Fortnightly consists of 'Guerilla and Counter - Guerilla,' by Sir Charles Dilke, with which we must not deal, strong as is the temptation so to do. Most of the contents of the numoer come in the same category. The first non-controversial paper consists of that of Mr. H. Buxton For man on ' Richardson, Fielding, and the Andrews Family.' An animated account is given of the youth of Richardson, who was, "from a ooy's point of view, not a little of a milksop, with all the weak ways of that uncomfortable type the superior person," and, it is added, "just as the form of his future masterpieces were [sic] determined by his bent towards letter- writing, so the narrowly sen- tentious, not to say sanctimonious, tone of his writings was derived from the early course of his employments and studies." The question is raised whether Richardson was, in fact, so scrupulous a moralist as he seems, and whether the sexual mis- demeanours he holds up in 'Pamela' had not so much attraction for him as to be a determining influence on his choice of a theme. This, at least, Fielding seems to have thought, and by this opinion was inspired the satirical purpose with which 'Joseph Andrews' was begun, though it was to a certain extent abandoned as the work progressed. The influence upon Richardson of Fielding ? s treat- ment is held to have been wholly beneficial. Writing on ' The Irish Literary Theatre and its Affinities, Mr. Stephen Gwynn is less wholly eulogistic than we expected to find him. As an institution the movement finds, naturally, his support. He is not, however, insensible to the extravagance of some of its supporters, which prevents the movement from receiving much serious attention in England. Mr. Richard Davey writes entertainingly and well when advancing 'A Few More French Facts,' and his article repays study. He is oblivious enough, how-