and yet the latter had no common share of those attractions which captivate weak, thoughtless, or unskilful minds.


ABOUT the time that Henry and William quitted college and had arrived at their twentieth year, the dean made the purchase of a small estate in a village near to the country residence of Lord and Lady Bendham; and in the total want of society, the dean's family were frequently honoured with invitations from the great house.
Lord Bendham, besides a good estate, possessed the office of a lord of the bed-chamber to his majesty. Historians do not ascribe much importance to the situation, or to the talents of nobles in this department, nor shall this little history. A lord of the bed-chamber is a personage well known in courts, and in all capitals where courts reside; with this advantage to the inquirer, that in becoming acquainted with one of those noble characters, you become acquainted with all the remainder; not only with those of the same kingdom, but those of foreign

nations; for, in whatever land, in whatever climate, a lord of the bed-chamber must necessarily be the self-same creature: one, wholly made up of observance, of obedience, of dependance, and of imitation—a borrowed character—a character formed by reflection.
The wife of this illustrious peer, as well as himself, took her hue, like the chameleon, from surrounding objects; her manners were not governed by her mind, but were solely directed by external circumstances. At court, humble, resigned, patient, attentive—At balls, masquerades, gaming-tables, and routs, gay, sprightly, and flippant—At her country seat, reserved, austere, arrogant, and gloomy.
Though in town her timid eye, in presence of certain persons, would scarce uplift its trembling lid, so much she felt her own insignificance; yet, in the country, till Lady Clementina arrived, there was not one being of consequence enough to share in her acquaintance; and she paid back to her inferiors there, all the humiliating slights, and all the mortifications

which in London she received from those to whom she was inferior.
Whether in town or country, it is but justice to acknowledge, that in her own person she was strictly chaste; but in the country she extended that chastity even to the person of others; and the young woman who lost her virtue in the village of Anfield, had better have lost her life. Some few were now and then found hanging or drowned, while no other cause could be assigned for their despair, than an imputation on their character,