Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume I.djvu/87

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be admired. He consoled himself for the loss of an affectionate wife by writing a long poem to her memory, full of grief and plaintive sorrow; but sought a different kind of solace at the expiration of two years, by a second marriage with Elizabeth daughter of Sir Robert Rich; and had not the like cause or opportunity to lament her decease. Perhaps, mindful how seldom true character can be found graven on the tomb, he was interred at Hagley, by the side of his Lady, with this plain inscription on his monument:

"This unadorned stone was placed here by the particular desire and express directions of the Right Honourable GEORGE Lord LYTTELTON, who died August 22d, 1773, aged 64."

Lucy first Countess of Lyttelton, daughter of Hugh Fortescue, of Filleigh in Devonshire, the subject of Lord Lyttelton's elaborate elegy. Of such public declarations of mental anguish it may be remarked, that their foundation is vanity, and their super-structure is affectation. The seriousness which embraces the heart, it has been well observed, is not the offspring of volition but of instinct. It is not a purpose, but a frame. The sorrow that is sorrow indeed, asks for no prompting; it comes without a call; it courts not admiration; it presses not on the general eye, but hastens under covert, and wails