who have a superstition in literature, as well as in religion, and are likely to be considered so for many years longer, until the re-appearance of such men as Winklemann, Lessing, and Visconti, whose spirit of true philosophy in the Arts, like the rod of Moses, is destined to devour the pretensions and jugglery of their predecessors. La Signora D- - was one of the acknowledged stars of this system of antiquarians. Blue stockings are hardly known in Italy, for ladies are learned, and preserve their sex; they read, write, and often think, as well for themselves as for others. But their influence is, perhaps, more felt than admitted; female senates, though they have changed their attributes since the time of Heliogabalus, and are no longer to be regarded as a sort of "Parlement d'Amour," have not altogether lost their sway over the graver sex. The Revolution created or permitted the explosion of some oratorical talent, and the Academy of Tyberina is indebted not only for their Sala, but for other contributions of a more intellectual kind, to the Marchesa, to whom it belongs. I cannot decidedly determine whether this be traditional; the race of the Vittoria Colonnas is not quite extinct, but they have preferred the North to the South, and in the persons of the Albrizzi, &c. have long since emigrated to Lombardy and Venice. Personal charms are as much as possible separated from all this: the owl is a natural accompaniment to age and gravity, the spear and caduceus are seldom seen (at least in Italy) in the hands of Venus. La D—— could not have come, if at any period of her life, under the latter category. She had been for many years attainted with suspicions of increasing ugliness; the last five years had grievously added to the imputation. She was, moreover, of that strict scientific or sibylline contour, which approaches the sign of interrogation which so scandalized Pope, and the interrogative inquisitiveness and penetration about all her person might well have justified the fears of the ignorant. She was bent, pointed, and pinched; and the habitual black rendered her still more diminutive; but in her face there was a certain bonhommie lying among the acerbities of her literary physiognomy, and in her eye a sparkle of the past, a twilight remembrance of earlier life, which showed the spirit was not decaying with the body, but had risen above it, and was quietly enough seated upon its ruins. She was just the link between the protector and the protegé, or rather she was alternately each, and whilst she gave "conversazioni" to those to whom she was as a sun, she was satellite in her turn to other suns above her. She was a singular antiquary amongst women, and a singular woman amongst antiquarians. Her glory was her Latium;" it was her history, with the learned, but her political history was * Female Jacobinical societies, one of the improvements of the Revolution in France, were introduced by the reforming bayonets of Massena into Rome. A lady of bigh rank in the city was pointed out to me, who, a model of domestic duty in all its relations, was so seized by the epidemic of the day as to appear amongst the first in the opening of one of these arenas of debate, and, contrary to expectation, burst into a violent panegyric on "the blessings of polygamy," and a prophecy of the effects it was calculated to produce in the approaching regeneration of Europe; but, added my informer, "after an eloquent harangue, in which her beauty and animation convinced the gentlemen, she returned home to her family to refute by her conduct, the absurdity of the evils of her oration." The Marchesa M, to whose house the Tyberina bare now migrated from their rooms near the Pantheon. She is a female academician of the first water, known by "a voice" which for its delicacy may rival with the gentle organ of the Countess A-. I had the felicity to see her once enter the Sala, where she was received with honours, which she could only claim on the ground of intellectual beauty. Her exterior is no evidence of midnight vigils, or fasting, after the manner of the ancients, but may well be entitled to the designation of the "crassa Minerva." The immediate cause of her present popularity is the asylum which she gave to the Academicians, on their secession, to the vicinity of the Campidoglio. The history of this occurrence is curious, and may deserve some notice on a future occasion. not less known or remembered: during the occupation of the French, and though altogether without the motives of the higher classes, she was distinguished for her adherence, inflexible and daring, to their cause. She refused every kind of communication with the generals of the republic or the empire; and Miollis (an exaggeration, perhaps, of her own coterie) is said to have solicited, and solicited in vain. This assumption of aristocratic attitudes is amusing enough in a female philosopher, a little above the bourgeoisie of a depopulated town; but here there is so much of the decorous and the Mayaλopens of the old legitimates in every thing, that we are not to be surprised at finding it, even in an antiquarian of the mezzo ceto. After the ceremonial of my presentation-but I fear I shall trespass too much on the space allotted me in these pages, and I must reserve the conclusion of the scene until the next number. IRISH PORTRAITS.-NO. 111. Miss Celestina Mac Swadlum. "MARRIED by special licence, on the first inst. at Kilmaclush, by the Dean, Brabazon Dashwood Brady, Esq. eldest son and heir of Hercules Brady, Esq. of Knock-down Lodge, in the county of Tipperary, grandson of the late Sir Rhadamanthus Dashwood, Chief Justice of the Court of Common Pleas, and cousin to the present Lord Eaglemount, to Flaminda Dorothea Murphy, youngest daughter of Theophilus Murphy, Esq. of Bloom-park, in the county of Mayo, and niece to the present Sir Orlando Casey. After the ceremony the happy couple, &c. &c." The above announcement, which figured some time back in the matrimonial corner of the Freeman's Journal, is a perfect sample of Irish domestic oratory. The public are indebted for it to the genius of Miss Celestina M'Swadlum, bridemaid in ordinary to the parish of Kilmaclush, in the county of Mayo, and who in that capacity has cultivated with peculiar zeal the art of emblazoning the most interesting of family events. The merits of this composition do not appear "upon the surface," as the modern phrase is: for the benefit, therefore, of the uninitiated, I shall proceed with the dogged dulness of any commentator to analyse and expound them. I foresee that I may be voluminous; but the fair daughters of Erin, for whose edification this graphic effort is especially intended, will bear with me. "Married." That's a fact, briefly and simply told by "a proper word in its proper place." "By special licence." A fact also, but skilfully put forward with an eye to effect. Whether Flaminda Dorothea Murphy were married by special licence or by bans, the contract was equally binding on the parties; but Miss M'Swadlum well knew, that great indeed was the difference in point of eclat with which the tidings of the memorable event would burst upon every tea-party in the county of Mayo, according to the one or the other form of the ceremony. It was important to inform them and the empire at large, first, that the happy couple were Protestants; secondly, that the cost of a licence was no object to them; and thirdly, that Miss Flaminda's maiden sensibility had been spared the cruel exposure, to say nothing of the delay, of three public announcements of the state of her affections. "By the Dean of Kilmaclush." A rhetorical flourish. The ceremony was not performed by the Dean of Kilmaclush. That pious and able churchman had set out the day before for the spiritual camp at Carlow, to co-operate in the noble project of healing the bleeding wounds of Ireland, by the soothing balm of theological controversy. "Eldest son of Hercules Brady, Esq. of Knock-down lodge, in the county of Tipperary, and (Miss Celestina might have added) of the Marshalsea of the Four Courts, in the city of Dublin-for there it was that the elder Mr. Brady constantly resided for several months preceding the marriage of his son, and there it was that he signed the settlements; and had it not been for the timely relief afforded by a part of Miss Murphy's fortune (which by the way was only 7501., and therefore not 40007. in the funds, besides expectations from an aunt at Bath, as her bridemaid represented it) there he must have continued to the present hour, or else have submitted to see Knock-down Lodge knocked down to the highest bidder. "Grandson to Sir Rhadamanthus." This learned and remarkable, of whom it may truly be said that * "Cousin of Lord Eaglemount."-True-not, however, a first, or second, or third, or fourth, or fifth cousin--but an Irish cousin. "Youngest daughter"-only daughter, and therefore both youngest and eldest-but the former as suggesting ideas of juvenility was skilfully preferred. "Bloom Park."---There is little truth in the common assertion, that "man has done so little for Ireland." He has, on the contrary, given to the bleakest spots, in the bleakest districts, such picturesque and fascinating names, that every county would appear in description 'to be a paradise of villas. How cheering to the fancy--how associated with ideas of ornament and shelter, and rural elegance and ease; her Beechgroves, and Fir-groves, and Grove-mounts, and Rose-mounts, and Woodparks, and Bloom-parks! Bloom-park, the seat of Theophilus Murphy, Esq. is to be seen about two miles to the right of the mail-coach road leading from Bally-smashem to Killbotherum, in the county of Mayo. The site of this commodious mansion, (one of the most picturesque in that part of Ireland) is on the acclivity of a primeval mountain, supposed to be among the most ancient in the three kingdoms, which ascends in proud and barren sublimity to the rear of the house, and several hundred feet above the level of the sea. In front, almost as far as the eye can reach, is an expanse of noble bog-diversified here and there by clusters of turf-stacks, and presenting on its western border, far in the distance, yet distinctly visible from the windows of the breakfast-parlour, the still perfect skeletons of two houses that were burnt down during the rebellion of ninety-eight. The mansion itself has been constructed upon the chastest principles of Irish architecture-walls with gable-ends, high slanting roof, hall-door in the centre, and a window for every room. Its western aspect and elevated position give it the full benefit of the bracing gales, that during the winter months sweep across the Atlantic, and moan pathetically through every crevice of the building, like the sounds of a distant death-cry. The trees of the Park, from which the mansion takes its name, have not yet grown up: but there are some acres of thriving young plantations of fir and larch, which, in about twenty years more (if not previously cut down for pikehandles, or to pay off incumbrances) will justify the present designation of the place. The immediate vicinity of Bloom-park is not with out some local recollections of an interesting kind. At the Cross (cross roads) about a quarter of a mile from the house, a person named James Carney, commonly called Shamus Rou, was hanged in chains, forty years ago, for the murder of a tythe-proctor. A heap of stones, by the roadside, marks the spot where the victim received the mortal blow. Near to this is a field, where more recently a magistrate of the county broke his neck at a fox-chase. The historical ruins, on the verge of the bog, have been already mentioned. In the bog itself there have been discovered, within the last half century, a Carthaginian sabre, wanting only the handle, and three quarters of the blade; some fragments of a gold bracelet, of the fashion usually worn by court-ladies in the time of King Malachi, and the horns of a moosk deer, and the body of a man in high preservation, supposed to be the remains of an ancient Irish Rapparee-such is Bloompark. "The present Sir Orlando Casey,"-meaning thereby, at the least, an Irish baronet; but there never was a late, and never will be a future Sir Orlando. Orlando Casey was an active, pushing, and prosperous button-manufacturer of the city of Dublin. In the course of time he threw himself into the Corporation, seized the proper moments to be loyal, proposed resolutions, coughed down amendments, figured upon juries in ninety-eight, was made a sheriff, carried up an address to the Castle, and came down "the present Sir Orlando Casey." Considering the long-bowism of the above, no one would suspect that Miss M'Swadlum was over-piously inclined; yet, strange to say, she has contrived to reconcile a departure from accuracy in her reports of sublunary transactions with the most edifying anxiety for the souls of her benighted countrymen. From her spiritual alertness she is styled by the profane wits of the county, Saint Celestina; but she smiles in exalted scorn at such impious waggery. One of her favourite plans for carrying her holy objects, has much originality. The moment the potatoe crop is expected to fail in a particular district, Miss M.Swadlum, ever remembering that food for the soul is the great want of Ireland, lays in a supply of the most nutritious tracts, and keeping a steady eye upon the progress of the visitation from the first perceptible collapse of the public jaw, down to the final stages of abdominal grumbling, seizes the happy moment of confirmed inanimation, and pours in the mental aliment upon the attenuated population. This method of conversion has not succeeded according to its merits ; for Popery, more indomitable than the wild elephant, refuses to be subjugated even by an empty stomach; but Miss M'Swadlum "She feels," to use her own expressive does not repine at the failure. language, "a noble consciousness of having done her duty." And yet her powers of proselytism are unquestionable. Since her ministry commenced (about five years ago) she has brought over two lame beggarmen of Kilmaclush to eat meat on a Friday; and latterly a most interesting little half-starved orphan girl, only six years old, has been so moved by her arguments and her gingerbread, that she has consented to become a good child, and renounce the errors of Popery, upon the sole condition of being comfortably provided for in a Protestant charityschool. Her Miss M'S. has been for the last ten years in her thirtieth year. person is rather above the middle size; but this she corrects by a pious stoop. As to her face, from her rapturous holiness it must be admitted that she has "Heaven in her eye;" but there is nothing celestial about the other features. They are, on the contrary, rather marked by a certain terrestrial acidity, which strangers to her spiritual worth might at first sight confound with the symptoms of an intolerant spirit. Her dress is elaborately ascetic, both in form and colour: she has determined not to risk her eternal prospects for the sake of worldly flounces and trimmings, and looks upon flame-coloured silk as a type of neverending combustion. Her ordinary conversation is tea-and-tractish; that is to say, she talks of new plans of conversion, and of the failings of her neighbours. She thinks that Sir Harcourt Lees is the most lucid of divines, in his lucid intervals; she thinks the Church is in danger; she thinks with Doctor Magee that the religion of the Catholics is abominable-and further agrees with him in thinking that they have no religion. She thinks that Doctor Doyle, with his Popish propaganda doctrines, wants to set fire to all Ireland, and particularly to the parish of Kilmaclush; and to avert such a crisis, she thinks that Mrs. Hannah More ought to be made an Irish bishop, and that Lady Morgan ought to be crucified. Miss M'Swadlum is a permanent vice-president of the KilmacrushLondon-Favel-Hibernian-Female-Branch - Auxiliary- Tract-distribution Society; but she denies that she either proposed or seconded their celebrated fourth supplemental resolution-" that, to prevent misrepresentation, all the important objects of the society were in future to be carried into effect by a committee, to consist of twelve gentlemen and as many ladies, with liberty to increase their numbers." THE FOREST SANCTUARY, A POEM.* "THE Forest Sanctuary" is a very charming poem, bearing those characteristics which distinguish all the hitherto published poetry of Mrs. Hemans, and with which our readers must be familiar. Among our later female writers, Mrs. H. is eminently conspicuous for purity of subject, grace, fertility of fancy, and a mode of expression at once feminine and happy. She commonly uses imagery of great force and beauty, tinged with that melancholy hue of thought, which, however irreconcileable it may appear with our general impressions of pleasurable sensation, is undeniably one of its most obvious excitements. In her shorter detached pieces, Mrs. Hemans has exhibited great felicity and beauty; a sustained elegance of diction and imagery, which in longer poems could hardly be expected, and the want of which in an equal proportion might, by hasty readers, be considered a falling-off. Too few observe the aim of a writer, or look at the way in which he wishes his efforts to be regarded. Each one examines a work with his own prepossessions and notions of what is correct, and few agree respecting it. criticise as if there were a fixed standard for the productions of genius, and its labours were to be tried by the graduated rule of an academy or society of literature; an idea still more preposterous. While a third class, if they see a writer has produced some exquisite morceau of a few stanzas, expect that the next thing he undertakes, however much it may differ in character, subject, or length, shall be sustained at an equal pitch of excellence, throughout its whole compass. For the last reason particularly, the present poem will not please many readers, so much as some of Mrs. Hemans' former and shorter "The Forest Sanctuary, a Poem. By Mrs. Hemans." 8vo. pp. 505. Some |