of the gentleman, and a reviewer in The Morning Post gives the following estimate of their value:-"A more perfect moral anatomization of the female heart has seldom been exhibited in any work of fiction. The serious passages are agreeably relieved by some amusing sketches of the aristocracy of bygone times." The Idler in Italy and The Idler in France, published from 1839-41, were well received and universally praised by the critics. In the latter Lady Blessington introduces to her readers the leading representatives of art, literature, politics, and ton, whom she has received as friends or met in society. The anecdotes with which the work abounds are told with a charming frankness and piquancy. She afterwards wrote Desultory Thoughts and Reflections, a collection of terse and welldigested aphorisms of great moral value; The Belle of the Season, Tour through the Netherlands to Paris, Strathren, Memoirs of a Femme de Chambre, The Lottery of Life, and other

tales.

All these works added to Lady Blessington's reputation as an agreeable, graceful, and acute writer. Notwithstanding the time devoted to society and her numerous literary productions, she edited The Keepsake and The Book of Beauty for several years, and also contributed articles and sketches to the periodicals of the day. Count d'Orsay the sculptor, who had married her step-daughter, the only child of the Earl of Blessington, was separated from his wife, and took up his abode with Lady Blessington. His presence no doubt increased the expenses of her establishment, already too great, and in 1849 she removed with the count to Paris, where she trusted her jointure of £2000 a year would enable her to live more easily, and hoping again to gather around her the society in which she delighted. On the 3d of June she dined with her old friend the Duchess of Grammont, and on her return home was seized with apoplexy, of which she died on the following morning, June 4th, 1849. Her remains were laid in a mausoleum designed by the Count d'Orsay near the village of Chamboury.

eyebrows) is of even a girlish delicacy and freshness. Her features are regular, and her mouth, the most expressive of them, has a ripe fulness and freedom of play peculiar to the Irish physiognomy, and expressive of the most unsuspicious good humour." The character of this once popular lady is thus drawn in the epitaph written for her tomb by Mr. Proctor ("Barry Cornwall"): "In her lifetime she was loved and admired for her many graceful writings, her gentle manners, her kind and generous heart. Men, famous for art and science in distant lands sought her friendship: and the historians and scholars, the poets, and wits, and painters of her own country, found an unfailing welcome in her ever-hospitable home. She gave cheerfully to all who were in need, help, and sympathy, and useful counsel; and she died lamented by many friends. Those who loved her best in life, and now lament her most, have reared this tributary marble over the place of her rest." The Literary Life and Correspondence of the Countess of Blessington, compiled and edited by Dr. R. R. Madden, appeared in 1855.]

THE PRINCESS TALLEYRAND AS A

CRITIC.

(FROM "THE IDLER IN FRANCE.")

Met the Princesse de Talleyrand last night at Madame C's. I felt curious to see this lady, of whom I had heard such various reports; and, as usual, found her very different to the descriptions I had received.

She comes en princesse, attended by two dames de compagnie, and a gentleman who acted as chambellan. Though her embonpoint has not only destroyed her shape but has also deteriorated her face, the small features of which seem imbued in a mask much too fleshy for their proportions, it is easy to see that in her youth she must have been handsome. Her complexion is fair; her hair, judging from the eye-brows and eye-lashes, must have been very light; her eyes are blue; her nose, retroussé; her mouth small, with full lips; and the expression of her countenance is agreeable, though not intellectual.

the aim, gives an ungraceful stiffness to her appearance. Her dress was rich but suited to her age, which I should pronounce to be about sixty. Her manner has the formality