Page:Biographia Hibernica volume 2.djvu/78

74 DENNY. and he soon followed to the grave the subject of his pane gyric, dying at h i s office, (which a n accurate biographer informs u s had been built by himself,) near Whitehall, on the 19th o f March, 1688, and was interred i n Westminster Abbey, near Chaucer, Spencer, and Cowley, sharing the honours o f their sepulchre, i f not o f their immortality. His works have been several times printed together i n one volume, under the title o f “Poems and Translations, with the Sophy, a tragedy.” Most o f the occasional serious poems o f Denham pos sess the merit o f some ingenious thoughts and emphatical expressions, but cannot b e mentioned a s first-rate com positions. LADY ARABELLA DENNY, Second daughter o f Thomas, Earl o f Kerry, was born i n the year , and married Arthur Denny, Esq. member for the county o f Kerry, i n 1727. This excellent woman will long live i n the records o f humanity, a s the protectoress o f helpless infancy, and penitent frailty—disdaining the too common pursuits o f fashionable life, i n the rounds o f dissipated pleasures, which her fortune and rank placed within her reach—and equally disinclined t o inactivity, she nobly determined t o b e useful. An opportunity soon offered; and the kind ness, patience, and perseverance, which surmounted ob stacles that would have appalled a more ordinary mind, cannot be recollected without admiration. By a n act o f Geo. II. the governors o f the workhouse o f the city o f Dublin were obliged t o take, without excep tion o r limitation, a l l exposed and deserted children under the age o f six years. I n time the funds became unequal t o i t s support; not only i n consequence o f the numerous admissions, but from gross mismanagement and neglect. This, about the year 1768, attracted the notice o f Lady Denny, and immediately interested her i n i t s behalf. She promptly stepped forward and proposed, a s