No. XXXVI.

THE RIGHT HON. THE COUNTESS OF ALBEMARLE.

THIS much lamented lady was the fourth daughter of the late Edward Lord Southwell, Baron de Clifford, Westmoreland, and Vesci, by Sophia, third daughter of Samuel Campbell, of Mount Campbell, in the county of Leitrim, Esq. The Hon. Elizabeth Southwell was born June 11th, 1776, and educated in a manner suitable to her rank and pretensions, under the immediate care of an accomplished and most exemplary mother, who, indeed, afterwards acquired so high and exalted a character in England, as to have a Princess, at once the hope and ornament of the nation, committed to her charge.

At a very early age, (on April the 9th, 1792,) this young lady became the wife of the Right Hon, William-Charles Keppel, seventh Earl of Albemarle, by whom she had no fewer than fifteen children. Of these, eleven, including Lord Bury, her eldest son, still survive, to deplore the loss of a fond and affectionate parent!

In consequence of the Dowager Lady de Clifford's official connection with, and, still more, her friendship and uninterrupted attachment to the late Princess Charlotte of Wales, her daughter, the Countess of Albemarle, had frequent opportunities of visiting at Warwick-House. This intercourse soon produced a reciprocal regard; and Her Royal Highness, among many marks of her affection, a few years since presented Her Ladyship with a bust of Mr. Fox, cut by the chisel of Nollekens, which is preserved, with religious veneration, at Elvedon in Suffolk. It was accompanied with a letter, replete with affection, regard, and esteem. Indeed, the demise of this estimable Countess, is supposed to have arisen purely

from sympathy, at the sudden, mournful, and unexpected fate of the amiable Princess, just alluded to. The account this event was disclosed to her, with every possible preparation, that delicacy could suggest, or tenderness anticipate, more especially as Her Ladyship was then in the family way. Happening to be at that period at Holkham-Hall, in Norfolk, the seat of Mr. Coke, with whom the Earl of Albemarle her husband has always lived in terms of the most unrestricted intimacy, preparations were made for their return to Suffolk, although the accouchement was not expected until the lapse of a few weeks: but on the 13th of November, exactly seven days after the demise of her illustrious friend; and but three or four after the communication of the fatal intelligence, Her Ladyship was seized with the pains of premature labour! On this, recurrence was instantly had to the best medical advice that could be procured; but in seventeen hours after experiencing the first throes, this estimable woman was a corpse.

The latter portion of this time was truly affecting: for, being fully conscious of her fate, the Countess called for the Earl to approach her bed, and pressing his hand in her own, so long as life afforded the least muscular energy, with her latest breath she invoked all the blessings of heaven on the head of her dear husband and children, and then immediately expired!

Thus died like a heroine, in the 42d year of her age, Elizabeth Countess of Albemarle, who, as a daughter, a wife, a mother, and a friend, is fully entitled to unmixed praise. It is to be hoped, that so bright an exemplar of all that is good, amiable, and estimable, will not pass away without producing a due effect on the age and country in which she lived and died.

No. XXXVII.

MR. THOMAS CORAM,

THE PRINT COLLECTOR.

To the philanthropy of a former Thomas Coram, born in the early part of the eighteenth century (1718), we are indebted for the establishment of the Foundling Hospital, within the precincts of which he was buried; and a new street in its vicinity, which now bears his name, and was built upon his estate, attests the well-merited gratitude of the present age.

The gentleman of whom we now treat, was both his namesake and near relation; but his mind took a very different direction, for he became a lover of Vertù, and consequently a collector of every thing in his own peculiar line, so far as his scanty means extended. He not only admired, but possessed a good taste for the choicest productions of the graphic art. As he was a bachelor, and exceedingly temperate, frugal, and abstemious, while all his habits, at the same time, were simple and unexpensive, he contrived to indulge in his favourite passion. Accordingly, with an exception of the late Mr. Chauncey, who actually hired chambers for his portfolios, when his house could no longer contain them, Mr. Coram was allowed to possess a very rare, valuable, and almost unrivalled collection in his apartments, in Oxendon-street; but a conflagration in that quarter, during the course of one night, robbed him of the acquisitions of many years, and nearly reduced their late owner to despair. He afterwards removed, first to Lyon's Inn, and finally to Fountain-court, in the Strand, where he died in the autumn of 1817, at a good old age.

Although greatly fascinated with, and addicted to this branch of the fine arts, Mr. Coram never wielded the graver

himself, or employed his pencil, except in respect to one species of drawing; that of caricature portraits of remarkable looking men, whether poets, orators, or common beggars; and these he was allowed to have executed with surprising ease, facility, and effect. His humour also, like his crayon. was of a sarcastic kind; but untempered and unblemished with either jealousy or envy. He took care, however, notwithstanding his expensive indulgence in prints, to reserve a sufficiency of wealth for himself; not choosing, like his more celebrated relative, to be dependent during his old age, on the bounty of others. However, being like him unincumbered with a family, he determined in the same manner to indulge his own taste in the disposition of his fortune; and that we believe to a gentleman (Mr. James Caulfield) who possesses a kindred taste, and had always exhibited great kindness and attention to him, particularly in his last fatal illness.

He was buried near his father, at Battersea, in the county of Surry, and was attended to his grave by the above gentleman, accompanied by three other particular friends, viz. Messrs. Walker, Greaves, and Dyer.

No. XXXVIII.

SIR WILLIAM WOLSELEY, BART.

SIR William was the head of an old Staffordshire family; and we have been told by a member of it, that the name was originally written Wolfslay, a fact fully justified and confirmed by the arms exhibited by himself on this occasion.

We easily trace their descent to a Baron of the Exchequer in the reign of Edward IV.; but the pedigree goes back to Robert, a lord of a manor of the same name, in 1281.

The honour of the Baronetcy was conferred on his descendant, Robert, November 28, 1682, who, perhaps, was a lawyer, for he exercised the office of "Clerk of the King's Patents." Sir Charles, his son and successor, represented the county of Stafford during the reign of Charles I., and having married a daughter of the Viscount Say, was, doubtless, on the side of the parliament during the civil wars. His son, William, was created a Lord by Oliver Cromwell, and made Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Brussels, by William III., with whom he appears to have been in great favour.

Sir William, the third Baronet, was unfortunately drowned on his return from Lichfield in his chariot and four, A. D. 1728, while passing a little brook, in consequence of a sudden breach in a neighbouring mill-dam.

Sir William Wolseley, the sixth and late Baronet, was born August 24, 1740, and succeeded his father Sir William, in 1779. On July 2d, 1795; he married Miss Chambers, of Wimbledon, in the county of Surrey, who died in 1811. By this lady he had two children, the youngest of whom, the Reverend Robert Wolseley, ceased to exist in 1815.

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