ART. XV. Anecdotes of the Delborough Family; a Novel. By Mrs. Gunning. 12mo. 5 Vols. 15s. fewed. Lane. 1792.

IF

F it be of great advantage to the painter, in the exercise of his art, to have an opportunity of ftudying the works of the moft eminent artists in a gallery of valuable pictures, it is equally advantageous to the writer, who undertakes the delineation of manners, to have been intimately converfant with that great theatre of human characters, the world. In this refpect, the writer of the novel now before us appears to have been particularly fortunate; and, from this circumftance, her work poffeffes a kind of merit, which entitles it to some degree of diftinction. As a mere tale, it is not fuperior, either in invention or arrangement, to many other novels. If it be worthy of the praife of eafe, fprightliness, and an agreeable diverfity of language, it is frequently liable to cenfure for inaccuracy and redundancy-but, as an exhibition of portraits freely fketched from real life, it will be perufed with pleasure. Inftead of giving an outline of the plot, which is contrived with little art, and would afford little amufement, we shall therefore extract two or three paffages; which will at once entertain the reader, and fhew how attentively the authorefs has obferved, and how capable fhe is of defcribing, fashionable manners.

The character of Lady Dorothy Petting, aunt to the principal hero of the ftory, is thus defcribed:

A worthy husband and a beautiful infant, the only child the ever bore, neither of whom at this time exifted, had, when living, fhared only a portion of her heart, the moft confiderable part was occupied by dogs, monkeys, birds, and fquirrels, of thefe fhe was extravagantly fond.

Here were all dogs, monkeys, birds, and fquirrels of fashion, their educations were after the most fashionable model, they had different mafters to inftruct them how to counteract and totally deftroy the handywork of nature, how to twift and turn in all the va rious distortions of art; her dogs muft ftand erect, her monkeys exhibit in a minuet, her birds fing by note, and her fquirrels having no capacity for thofe polite accomplishments, were taught the more fimple qualification of obedience, which for fo infenfible an animal was no fmall undertaking, but to their own credit and the glory of their master be it fpoken, they gained fo much by his inftructions, that they would fit on their lady's toilet, neftle in her muff, or creep into her pocket with as much docility as a good foldier obeys the commands of his adjutant.-in short, through this whole polite and happy family, nothing was neglected but their morals; could any thing be more like people of fashion!

Befides this extraordinary fondness for the animal creation, Lady Dorothy had other pallions equally ridiculous, though their gratification was fometimes attended with leis harmless confequences.

Next to seeing her dear little family in perfect health and spirits, her darling joy proceeded from having it faid in all companies, that Lady Dorothy Petting had brought about a marriage between fuch an heiress and fuch a Lord, or fuch a Lady and the rich heir of a Sir William, a Sir John, or a Sir Michael. This paffion for match-making gave her infinite confequence with the young of both fexes, they flocked in crowds to her house, from the motives for which her houfe was open to receive them.

very fame 'Mistaken good nature and a foolish vanity were her Lady ship's incentives to fo ftrange a conduct, fhe really was not ill tempered, and thought it mightily praife-worthy to affilt Providence in bringing together those whom her difcernment made her fee, or imagine that the faw, deftined for each other; often, very often, fhe totally miftook its purpose, fo that it feldom happened but her officious fervices were repaid with execrations of the husband, and reproaches of the wife, perhaps the only point they ever agreed on, was a moft violent hatred for the perfon by whofe means they had been united, and in this fingle inftance their hearts were always in perfect unifon.'

Among other female characters, who make a confiderable figure in the ftory, are Lady Selina Dangle, who is so overwhelmed with fashionable bufinefs, as to be wholly incapable of finding a fingle day to devote to the amusement of an infirm parent; and her fifter Lady Margaret Devero, married to a private gentleman, whofe overgrown wealth had made. his want of nobility pardonable by the Angrave family,' but which, in the judgment of Lady Selina, was degraded beyond redemption by this plebeian alliance. Between thefe ladies, paffes the following characteristic dialogue:

It was half after two o'clock when Lady Selina, with the light ftep of a Sylph, afcended the ftair-cafe that led to her fifter's dreffing-room, humming as fhe tripped along,

"Whither, my love, ah! whither art thou gone?”

She found Lady Margaret lounging on a fofa, wrapped up in her dreffing gown, with the breakfast things before her, fipping her tea, and fpelling over a newspaper.

Lord, fifter! cried fhe, running to the glafs, and adjusting her hair, are you unwell, or what ails you? Why, I breakfafted two hours ago. How are your babes? Where was you last night? Is your good man in fwaddling cloaths yet?

You talk fo faft, and ask fo many queftions, Selina, replied Lady Margaret, laying down the newspaper, that I hardly know how to answer, or where to begin. Pray, child, do I look as if I was ill? No, indeed, there is nothing the matter with me. I was last night playing faro at Lady Simpleton's, and did not come home till five. I fuppofe the children are well, if not I should certainly have heard it. You know I never fee them but at dreffing time. I hardly know what account to give you of poor Mr. Devero. Juft before I went out yesterday the doctors faid he had the gout in his

ftomach:

ftomach however, I have fent this morning, and they tell me it is got down into his feet again, so I hope he will get better.

As Lady Selina did not ask questions with any view of informa tion, the filled up the time, in which it was her fifter's turn to speak, with looking over a pile of vifiting cards, and as many more of invitations, with which the table was covered, till Lady Margaret came to a period, when she did not omit to feize on the occafion, by telling her she had almost stopped a coach in the Park yefterday, fo very like Mr. Devero's, that the expected her Ladyship was in it; but that, luckily, before the pulled the ftring, to dispatch her footman with a meffage, the looked again, and difcovered it had a Marquis's coronet, which, to be fure, added fhe, is the only thing wanted, my dear fifter, to make your's the finest carriage that ever was seen.

And that will not be long wanting, Lady Selina, retorted Lady Margaret, colouring like crimson. Mr. Devero is determined to get himself created; you will see his name in the next list of peers, I affure you.

• Dear me! Well, I am vaftly glad to hear it. Baron, what will he call himself? for you know he can be but a Baron at firft. How happy I fhall be when he gets above that diminutive rank. I wish with all my heart they would make him into a Duke at once.

Oh! child, I know you with us prodigious well; I fhall therefore intruft you with a fecret that will complete your joy: Mr. Devero, from one ftep to another, is promited as high up as a Marquifate, and a ducal coronet of courfe will, in due time, terminate our demands on court favors. Lady Margaret bridled her head at the conclufion of this fpeech, and Lady Selina looked as if she did not believe it.'

Many other female characters in high life are drawn with equal fpirit.

The following domeftic fcene is humorously sketched :

Where have you been, Mr. Devero, you are always out of the way when I have the leaft inclination to fee you? go and look at my picture, Sir Joshua has juft fent it home, and if you do not allow it to be charming, you forfeit all pretenfions to tafte; it would have been odious, if I had confented to your propofition, and had the children drawn in the fame piece!

Such was the question, information, and obfervation, with which Lady Margaret Devero received her husband on his return home from his morning excurfion on horfeback; he was a man of few words, and fewer ideas, but he had an honeft heart, with just enough understanding to find out, that if a private gentleman has the good fortune to unite himself to a lady of quality, and would afterwards wish to preferve the spirit of a man, it should be bottled up like a choice cordial, and the cork never drawn in his own family.

Mr. Devero meekly faluted his wife, and meekly followed her to the drawing-room, at the head of which flood the most beautiful whole length of a moderately handsome woman, that the gal

lantry

lantry of a painter, or the pencil of flattery ever executed; it was, in fact, as much a reprefentation of a Venus, a Minerva, a Pigmy, or the modern Giant of the Burning Mountains, as of Lady Margaret.

Well, Mr. Devero, did you ever fee any thing fo enchanting? fuch a likeness too! fo exquifitely ftriking! pray look at the languishing foftness of my eyes, and the fweet dimple on each fide my mouth, one would actually think I was going to fpeak, but you never fay any thing; pray, fir, are you filent from difapprobation, or from aftonishment?

Certainly the latter; befides, I am trying to trace the refem

blance.

Trying, and are you fo very ftupid as not to have found it? It is not my fault, Madam; if Sir Joshua had been more juft, I should have found the explanation lefs difficult.

You really think then, paffing her arm through his, with a fmile of intire approbation, that he has not done me juftice? on fome occafions, I do not know any body that can diftinguish better than yourself, and I confefs you have corrected my first hafty opinion, for I now think it might have admitted of fome alteration, and if Sir Joshua had made my arms a little fuller, my eyes rather more open, my fkin whiter, with a fomething of additional colour in my cheeks, and the vermillion of my lips a little heightened, it would have been fill more mafterly, and the likeness better preferved.

This critique being decifively eftablished, without a further reference to the judgment of her husband, they returned to her Ladyship's dreffing-room, fhe convinced that there might have been a more advantageous likenefs, and he, that there was no likeness at all.

We must not omit to take notice of the very inelegant manner in which this work is printed with refpect to orthography. Among many other erro:s of this kind, we find the following; irrififtible; viberated; fetting for fitting; reveres for reveries; hifitating; Emely for Emily; Proteous for Proteus; &c. &c.

Notwithstanding thefe and other literary defeats, the work, as a lively delineation of characters and manners, does credit to the writer. In an advertisement, Mrs. Gunning affures the public that there is no circumftance, incident, nor fituation, in thefe volumes, that has the most diftant allufion to her own family, her connections, her friends, or her enemies.

ART. XVI. Effay on the Life and Character of John Lord Somers, Baron of Evesham: Alfo Sketches of an Effay on the Life and Character of Philip Earl of Hardwicke. Propofed to be inferted in a Compendious History of Worcestershire. By Richard Cookfey, Efq. of the Inner Temple. 4to. 10s. 6d. Boards. Bew, &c. THE HE information, which Mr. Cookfey has been able to obtain from provincial refearches, concerning Lord Somers, relates principally to the early period of his life, and to the

fituation

fituation of his family and connections in the county of Worcefter. Mr. C. afcribes, but, we think, without any fatiffactory evidence, the "Tale of a Tub" to the pen of Lord Somers, in conjunction with the Earl of Shrewsbury. His account, which is fufficiently improbable on the face of it, is, that, • Swift found among Sir William Temple's papers, the only copy Mr. Somers ever made of this boyish amufement; which, in hours of unreferved and focial conviviality, (of which no man was more fond,) he had communicated to his friends, Lord Shaftesbury and Sir William, but to whom he had forgotten he ever intrufted it. This Swift copied; and, by fervile adulation and profeitions of zeal and attachment, prevailed on them, after striking out fome reflections on kingly government, to which the young authors were not, at the time of writing it, much attached, to fuffer him to publish it as his own, which he did, with a dedication to Lord Somers, and is the chef-d'ouvre of his profe writings-preferring the reputation of a witty writer to that of a ferious and confcientious member of the church, to his admiffion into the higher orders of which, this publication was urged as a perpetual bar.'

As the Lord Chancellor Hardwicke married a niece of Lord Somers, this circumftance connects the name and family of Yorke with Mr. Cookfey's defign of writing a Hiftory of Worcestershire. Whether the defcendants of that great magistrate will feel any lively emotions of gratitude to Mr. Cookfey for this honour, is a fubject on which we have fome doubts. He has thought fit to give to the world two letters or memoirs relative to the life of the Earl of Hardwicke, the first of which is written by the late Jeremiah Bentham, Efq. Mr. Cookfey's reafon for publishing thefe is indeed fomewhat fingular, and is accompanied with a very fingular confeffion, as coming from the pen of a lawyer and an hiftorian; for he says, the author of the first (Mr. Bentham,) he fufpects of fome trivial inaccuracies; and the writer of the other, who infists on being unknown, of many more,' which, he adds, he fhall be happy to correct and fet right, from fuch information as he may be favoured with before the publication of his propofed hiftory.' The production of the anonymous writer is full of the harfheft constructions and moft malignant charges against the Earl of Hardwicke; and we wish that, before Mr. Cookfey had lent his aid to their publication, he had obferved the fame liberal caution which he has adopted refpecting another anonymous performance:

I might add (he fays) fome ftrictures, published by a very refpectable author, who ftiled himself, The Father of Candour, in a very ingenious and learned tract, entitled, A Letter concerning Libels, Warrants, and Seifures of Papers; which contain charges, tending to depreciate the acknowledged merits and high reputation of the Earl