Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/43

 INTRODUCTION xxxix ���In that case the "Ephelia" of the little poem on Friendship is doubtless also Lady Worsley. That she should be " Utre- sia," in one poem and "Ephelia" in another is no more sur- prising than that Mr. Finch should figure as both " Daph- nis " and " Flavio." Lady Worsley's daughter is celebrated in some gay little verses in honor of the marriage of Edward and Elizabeth Herbert, which must have taken place about 1709, when the bride and groom were respectively fourteen and seventeen. Cupid, having lost Elizabeth Herbert, is comforted by the thought that he may still find a suitable mate in the young Worsley, who was then fifteen, and who was married the next year to Lord Cartaret. �One of the prominent figures at Longleat at this time was Elizabeth Singer, afterward Mrs. Howe, whose pen-name was Philomela. In 1694, when a young lady of twenty, she was on intimate terms with the family, and Mr. Henry Thynne taught her Latin and Italian. A collection of her poems was published in 1696 and was much admired. The friendship between Elizabeth Singer and Lady Hertford was warm and was life-long. One would expect from the circum- stances that Ardelia and Philomela would have found much in common, but their extant letters and poems do not reveal any especial friendship. Ardelia refers once in The Miser and the Poet to the poems of Philomela, and a letter from Mrs. Rowe to Lady Hertford, in 1720, the year of Lady Winchilsea's death, written to condole with Lady Hertford �for the death of "My Lady ," may refer to Lady �Winchilsea. The letter closes: " 'Tis impertinent to reason, and against the dictates of nature, or else you might satisfy yourself with the extraordinary character she left behind her and her rest from the misfortunes of life." But this letter is indecisive, and there are no further indications of any ac- quaintance between the two poetesses. �There was also resident at Longleat the saintly Bishop ��� �