La Belle Assemblée, OR COURT AND FASHIONABLE MAGAZINE; CONTAINING INTERESTING AND ORIGINAL LITERATURE AND RECORDS OF THE BEAU-MONDE. EMBELLISHED WITH FINELY EXECUTED PORTRAITS FROM EMINENT MASTERS, FORMING A Picture Gallery of the Female Nobility of Great Britain. VOL. II. FROM JULY TO DECEMBER, 1825, CONTAINING HER ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUCHESS OF KENT, FROM A PAINTING BY Dawe. LADY GRANTHAM, FROM A MINIATURE BY MISS KENDRICK. COUNTESS OF CHARLEVILLE, FROM A PAINTING BY HAMILTON. LADY EMILY FEILDING, FROM A PAINTING BY THOMAS KIRKBY, ESQ. LADY EMILY PUSEY, FROM A PAINTING BY THOMAS KIRKBY, ESQ. Luose. AND TWELVE COLOURED ENGRAVINGS OF THE FASHIONS. LONDON: PUBLISHED BY GEO. B. WHITTAKER, AVE-MARIA LANE; MDCCCXXV. CIR TO OUR SUBSCRIBERS. THE formation of A PICTURE GALLERY OF THE FEMALE NOBILITY OF GREAT BRITAIN, from Original Portraits by the first artists of the time, accompanied by correct Illustrative Memoirs, Historical and Genealogical, we regard as the happiest idea that ever occurred to us in the conduct of LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE. It has attracted the patronizing notice of the World of Fashion, and of the public at large, beyond our warmest expectations. LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE is now the only periodical publication of note that presents its Subscribers with Portraits; and when the character of those Portraits is considered the distinguished personages whom they represent-the exquisite style of their execution-the wonder at the celebrity which they have conferred upon the work must cease. Nor are the Portraits, intrinsically beautiful and interesting as they are, the sole attractions of LA BELLE Assemblée. The novel, and altogether unobjectionable principle upon which the Memoirs in illustration of those Portraits are constructed, gives them a distinctness of feature peculiarly their own. Free from the debasement of flattery, they are calculated to afford universal satisfaction; without invading the sacred privacies of domestic life, they gratify every laudable feeling of curiosity; and, drawn as their materials are, in many instances, from sources inaccessible to other writers, they present the finest pictures of the rise, progress, and advancement of our patrician families, at once the pride and glory of the nation. In the present volume of LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE, thus illustrated, are Portraits of Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, Lady Alicia Peel, Lady Grantham, the Countess of Charleville, Lady Emily Feilding, and Lady Emily Pusey; and for the information of such of our new Subscribers as may not yet have purchased the preceding volume, we deem it proper to add, that it contains the Portraits and Memoirs of Lady Elizabeth Belgrave, the Countess of Denbigh, Lady Ducie, Viscountess Ebrington, Lady Eleanor Lowther, and (in pursuance of our plan of occasionally inserting the Portraits of eminent literary ladies) Miss Jane Porter. Some of the numbers in this volume are in their Second Edition; and others, in this as well as in the former, are nearly out of print: it is therefore advisable, to those who are desirous of completing their sets, to forward, at the earliest convenience, orders to their booksellers for that purpose. Some improvements, we trust, have recently been noticed in our plates of Fashionable Costume-a feature in which, as well as in its Portraits, LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE, we are proud to say, stands unrivalled. The picturesque beauty of their style, however, will yet be heightened. With the most grateful acknowledgment of that continued increase of favour, to merit which our incessant efforts are applied, it only remains for us briefly to add, that, in this Second Volume of our labours in the New Series of LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE, upwards of eighty original compositions, in prose and verse, will be found-of new books, and publications on the fine arts, about one-hundred-andthirty are noticed, with occasional extracts—and, in the review of new music, characters of more than eighty compositions are given. It should be mentioned also, that, in our Sketch of the Progress and State of Literature, for the last Six Months, towards the close of the volume, are critical notices, with copious extracts, of M. Thierry's History of the Conquest of England by the NormansMiss Benger's Memoirs of Elizabeth Stuart, Queen of Bohemia-Nichols's Progress, Processions, and Magnificent Entertainments of King James the FirstFinlayson's Mission to Siam-the Baron de la Motte Fouqué's Magic Ring, and several other works. EMBELLISHMENTS IN VOL. II. No. VII. No. VIII No. IX. No. X. No. XI. No. XII. Portrait of Her Royal Highness, Victoria Maria Louisa, Duchess of Kent, from A whole-length Portrait Figure, in a Carriage Dress, appropriately coloured. Portrait of the Right Hon. Henrietta Frances, Lady Grantham, from an original A whole-length Portrait Figure, in a Carriage Dress, appropriately coloured. Portrait of the Right Hon. Lady Alicia Jane Peel, from an original Miniature by A whole-length Portrait Figure, in à Summer Recess Dress, appropriately coloured. Portrait of the Right Hon. Catherine Maria, Countess of Charleville, from an A whole-length Portrait Figure, in an Evening Dress, appropriately coloured. Portrait of the Right Hon. Lady Emily Feilding, from an original Painting by A whole-length Portrait Figure, in an Evening Dress, appropriately coloured. Portrait of the Right Hon. Lady Emily Pusey, from an original Painting, by A whole-length Portrait Figure, in Home Costume, appropriately coloured. |
