again, Mrs. Howard writes to Lady Hervey herself, a few years afterwards,-"You see I cannot forgive you all the wit in your last letter. Is it because I suspect your sincerity ?-or do I envy what I cannot possess? No matter which; you may still always triumph: the world, though you allow it to be but sometimes in the right, will do you a justice that I deny you. You will always be admired; and even I, that condemn you, find I must love you with all my heart."* Long before she had attained to a fixed rank in society by becoming the wife of Lord Hervey, the lively conversation and extreme beauty of the young Maid of Honour, appear to have excited universal attention. Pope was among the foremost of her admirers, and in one of the most pleasing of his letters, describes his satisfaction at being permitted a walk of three hours with her by moonlight, in the gardens at Hampton Court. "I went by water," he says, " to Hampton Court, unattended by all but my own virtues, which were not of so modest a nature as to keep themselves, or me, concealed; for I met the Prince,† with all his ladies on horseback, coming from hunting. Miss Bellenden and Miss Lepel took me into their protection; (contrary to the laws against harbouring Papists,) and gave me a dinner, with something I liked better, an opportunity of conversation with Mrs. Howard. We all agreed that the life of a maid of honour was of all * Suffolk Correspondence, vol. i. pp. 69, and 323. VOL. II. 2 C things the most miserable, and wished that every woman who envied it, had a specimen of it. To eat Westphalia ham in a morning; ride over hedges and ditches on borrowed hacks; come home in the heat of the day with a fever, and (what is worse a hundred times) with a red mark on the forehead from an uneasy hat; all this may qualify them to make excellent wives for fox-hunters, and bear abundance of ruddy-complexioned children. As soon as they can wipe off the sweat of the day, they must simper an hour, and catch cold in the Princess's apartment: from thence (as Shakespeare has it,) to dinner, with what appetite they may, and after that, till midnight, work, walk, or think, which they please. I can easily believe no lone house in Wales, with a mountain and a rookery, is more contemplative than this Court; and as a proof of it, I need only tell you Miss Lepel walked with me three or four hours by moonlight, and we met no creature of any quality but the King, who gave audience to the vice-chamberlain, all alone, under the gar den wall." Pope in the following poetical trifle, addressed to another of the maids of honour, Miss Howe, again familiarly introduces the name of Miss Lepel : "ANSWER TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTION OF MISS HOWE.* "What is prudery ? "Tis a beldam, Seen with wit and beauty seldom, *Sophia Howe, maid of honour to Queen Caroline, when Princess of Wales. This unfortunate young lady, whose frailty caused considerable sensation at the Court of George the First, was a daughter of General Emanuel Scroop Howe, by Ruperta, an illegitimate daughter of Prince Rupert. Her love of admiration, her wild frivolity, and indifference to consequences, are sufficiently displayed in the only two of her letters that have been handed down to us, which are to be found in the Suffolk Correspondence. In one of these letters, addressed to Mrs. Howard, she says,- "Of one thing, I am more sensible than ever I was, of my happiness in being maid of honour; I wont sayGod preserve me so,' neither, that would not be so well." Gay, in his "Welcome to Pope from Greece," seems to refer to the unsettled character of the giddy girl, when he says,— -"Perhaps Miss Howe came there by chance, Nor knows with whom, nor why she comes along." Miss Howe, in one of her letters above referred to, mentions incidentally her being so affected by some ludicrous coincidence, while attending divine service in Farnham Church, as to * Another maid of honour, whose prudery caused much amusement to the Court. She held the office for a considerable period; and, as Lord Chesterfield speaks of the probability of her having the gout, and as Lady Hervey, in one of her letters, styles her "old Meadows," she probably never entered the married state. Dodington, in one of his trifles, couples her name with that of Lady Hervey : "As chaste as Hervey or Miss Meadows." She was sister to Sir Sidney Meadows. Gay, in his fine copy of verses entitled "Welcome from Greece to Mr. Pope upon finishing his Translation of the Iliad," describes the poet as welcomed by his beautiful friend; "Now Hervey, fair of face, I mark full well, With thee, youth's youngest daughter, sweet Lepel. burst into an uncontrollable fit of laughter. It was on this occasion, that the Duchess of St. Albans, chiding her for her irreverence, and telling her "she could not do a worse thing," "I beg your grace's pardon," she replied, "but I can do a great many worse things." The betrayer of Miss Howe was Anthony Lowther, brother of Henry, Viscount Lonsdale. In Sir Charles Hanbury Williams' poem, describing the "Mourning" of Isabella, Duchess of Manchester, General Churchill thus introduces the story to a circle of listening gossips : "The General found a lucky minute now To speak.-"Ah, ma'am, you did not know Miss Howe!" At this, Charles Stanhope gaped extremely wide, She could not bear the absence of her love: Miss Howe is known to have been the heroine of Lord Hervey's poetical epistle from Monimia to Philocles, where she pours forth a long complaint against her lover's cruelty, in lines which have little pathos and less poetry. She died, apparently of a broken heart, in 1726, having survived the loss of her reputation only a very few years. But perhaps the most remarkable tribute paid to her charms was by Voltaire, who did her the singular honour of celebrating her beauty in English verse: his lines, which will be found in Dodsley's collection, are as follow: In noticing the various compliments paid to Lady Hervey by her contemporaries, the eulogiums heaped on her taste and accomplishments by so celebrated an arbiter of taste and fashion as Lord Chesterfield, must not be passed over in silence. He writes to his son 22nd of October, 1750,-"Lady Hervey, to my great joy, because to your great advantage, passes all this winter at Paris. She has been bred all her life at Courts, of which she has acquired all the easy good breeding and politeness, without the frivolousness. She has all the reading that a woman should have, and more than any woman need have; for she understands Latin perfectly well, though she wisely conceals it. No woman ever had, more than she has,-le ton de la parfaitement bonne compagnie, les manières engageantes, et le je ne sçais quoi qui plait. Desire her to reprove and correct any, |