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entailed her whole fortune on such children as Providence might send her, failing which it went back to her own family. Indeed she betrayed a wisdom too rarely met with before marriage in making provisions for any disturbances that might threaten her future state, by securing to her spouse his annuity, even in case they separated. All this, drawn up in her own hand, she sent to Lord Mansfield, whom she appointed as her trustee, who gave it as his learned opinion that she had not left one cranny of the law unstopped, and that the settlements were as binding as any lawyer could make them.'

'Considering how plain she is,' says Horace Walpole, she has not, I think, sweetened the draught too much for her lover.'

After the ceremony, she retired with the footman to his family in Ireland as plain Mrs. Henrietta Sturgeon.

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CHAPTER IX.

Amusements of the Town-Some Masquerades-Strange Costumes-Mr. Cornelly's Entertainments-Suppers and Breakfasts-Madame de Boufflers at Strawberry Hill-Her Visit to Dr. Johnson-Favourite Operasingers-Lord March and the Rena―The Archbishop of Canterbury Scandalizes Lady Huntington-Rage for Gambling and its Consequences-The Bucks and the Maccaronies-Samuel Foot, the Celebrated Buffoon-Fashionable Rogues-Some Strange Notices.

HOUGH the Court remained virtuously dull,

THOUGH

the royal example, excellent in itself, was by no means followed by the town; where assemblies raged, masquerades obtained, and gambling was the order of the day. The fashionable world spent its days and nights by attending routs, balls, and operas; by gambling, intriguing, sinning, and dressing; satisfied with itself, if all these things were accomplished with good taste. Amongst the most brilliant members of this gay and pleasure loving society,

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were the young Duke and Duchess of Richmond, whose entertainments were usually magnificent, and always popular. One of these, a masquerade, given in the earlier part of this reign, in honour of the king's birthday, was especially noted for its splendour.

It was held in the wide gardens attached to Richmond House, which sloped down to the Thames, and were lit with coloured lamps; here, on a sultry June night, princes, peers, and courtiers, maidens fair, and stately dames, to the number of six hundred, arrayed in every imaginable costume, held revelry till early dawn. Here came the beautiful Duchess of Hamilton and Argyle, stately and graceful, arrayed as Night, in trailing robes, strewn with innumerable stars; and here also was her father, in the habit of a running footman, with the portrait of his other daughter, poor Lady Coventry, hung at his button-hole, like a Croix de St. Louis; then there was Lucy Southwell, that curtseys like a bear,' attended by that brilliant rake, Lord March, who was perpetually in love with the ladies of the opera, and George Townshend, who passed his time very agreeably to

himself and his friends by mimicing the Duke of Cumberland. Augustus Hervey, another member of a family famous for its eccentricity, was present, and, being perfectly disguised, treated everybody whom he recognized to a piece of his mind concerning their respective private histories, not forgetting to level the choicest shafts of his sarcasms at the fair Miss Chudleigh, to whom he was then privately married.

Her Grace of Richmond, the hostess, shone in all the glory of her dazzling beauty, which was enhanced by the costume of a Persian sultana; whilst the Duchess of Grafton, scarcely less handsome, was arrayed as Cleopatra. His Grace of Cumberland was present, keeping close to charming Mrs. Fitzroy, who, clad in a Turkish costume, looked sufficiently bewitching to cause the Margrave of Anspach to wish himself a Turk. Lady Pembroke looked divinely fair in the robes of a pilgrim, and Lady George Lennox and Lady Bolingbroke went as Grecian girls. Then there were knights of every clime and century, not wanting in gallantry, and emperors whose sole ambition was to reign

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over hearts, and Punches who were at liberty to scream out secrets at the pitch of their wicked voices, and devils who led those who hearkened to them into temptation, and bards who were songless.

The lower apartments of Richmond House were brilliantly lit, and spread with many supper tables; and presently there were fireworks let off from an encampment of barges stationed in the middle of the Thames, and decked with streamers, and by their light a vast crowd of heads was discovered at the windows and on the roofs of the neighbouring houses, looking at the gay scene.

Another great masquerade was given at ‘Almack's Assembly Rooms,' where the balls were presided over by a committee of ladies of quality; and where was established a club for lords and ladies,' which had at first met at a tavern, but subsequently, to satisfy the scruples of Lady Pembroke, one of the foundresses, in a room at 'Almack's.' In this club the ladies nominated and elected gentlemen, and vice versâ; so that no lady could exclude a lady, or no gentleman black-ball a gentleman, no