language polite and animated. It might truly be said of this lady, that "her mind was virtue, by the graces drest." The sympathy, tenderness, and delicacy, which accompanied her liberalities doubled their value: she was the friend and patroness, through life, of Mrs. Mary Astell; to whom, her circumstances being narrow, she frequently presented considerable sums. Her benefactions were not confined to the neighbourhood in which she lived; to many families, in various parts of the kingdom, she gave large annual allowances. She also maintained a charity-school, gave exhibitions to scholars in the universities, and contributed to the support of several seminaries of education. To this may be added her munificence to her' relations and friends, her remission of sums due to her, in cases of distress or straitened circumstances, and the noble hospitality of her establishment. To one relation she allowed five hundred pounds annually, to another she presented a gift of three thousand pounds, and to a third three hundred guineas. She acted also with great liberality towards a young lady, whose fortune had been injured in the South-sea scheme: yet the whole of her estates fell short of three thousand pounds a year. It was by economy and strict self-denial that this noble lady was enabled thus to extend her bounties. Her favourite maxim was, first to attend to justice; secondly, to charity; and thirdly, to generosity.
She died in 1770, aged thirty-nine. Previous to her decease, she destroyed the greater part of her writings; so that her talents must be estimated from her works of benevolence, not from the productions of her pen, although she had a very superior mind. She would never marry, preferring, in a single and independent life, to be mistress of her own actions, and the dispenser of her own income.
HASTINGS, LADY FLORA,
Was the eldest daughter of Francis, Marquis of Hastings, who made himself notorious as Lord Rawdon for the severity with which he treated the Americans who fell into his power during the revolutionary war. Lady Flora was born in 1806; and from her childhood manifested a fondness for study and literary pursuits. Beautiful and accomplished, distinguished also for genius and piety, she was selected by that eminent pattern of the virtues in courtly life, the Duchess of Kent, to be one of her ladies of the bed-chamber. While in this station Lady Flora was attacked with a disease which caused an enlargement of her liver, and gave rise to suspicions injurious to her reputation. These cruel surmises, although proved utterly unfounded, no doubt aggravated her illness, and hastened her death, which took place at Buckingham Palace, July 5th., 1839. Her fame was now unspotted, and her premature death was deeply mourned by the court and nation. She had collected her poems, which were published after her decease, by her sister. These effusions evince the purity of her sentiments; and the gentle melancholy they breathe make a deeper impression on the heart of the reader, because it seems to shadow forth her own sad fate
HAUFFE, FREDERICA,
Commonly called the Seeress of Prevorst, was born in 1801, at Prevorst, a little village among the mountains of Wirtemberg, not far from Löwenstein. Her father was game-keeper or district forester,
