Meanwhile, as we have said, whatever individual differences there might

be between them all, Miss Crawley's dear nephews and nieces were

unanimous in loving her and sending her tokens of affection. Thus Mrs.

Bute sent guinea-fowls, and some remarkably fine cauliflowers, and a

pretty purse or pincushion worked by her darling girls, who begged to

keep a LITTLE place in the recollection of their dear aunt, while Mr.

Pitt sent peaches and grapes and venison from the Hall. The

Southampton coach used to carry these tokens of affection to Miss

Crawley at Brighton: it used sometimes to convey Mr. Pitt thither too:

for his differences with Sir Pitt caused Mr. Crawley to absent himself

a good deal from home now: and besides, he had an attraction at

Brighton in the person of the Lady Jane Sheepshanks, whose engagement

to Mr. Crawley has been formerly mentioned in this history. Her

Ladyship and her sisters lived at Brighton with their mamma, the

Countess Southdown, that strong-minded woman so favourably known in

the serious world.

A few words ought to be said regarding her Ladyship and her noble

family, who are bound by ties of present and future relationship to the

house of Crawley. Respecting the chief of the Southdown family, Clement

William, fourth Earl of Southdown, little need be told, except that his

Lordship came into Parliament (as Lord Wolsey) under the auspices of

Mr. Wilberforce, and for a time was a credit to his political sponsor,

and decidedly a serious young man. But words cannot describe the

feelings of his admirable mother, when she learned, very shortly after

her noble husband's demise, that her son was a member of several

worldly clubs, had lost largely at play at Wattier's and the Cocoa

Tree; that he had raised money on post-obits, and encumbered the

family estate; that he drove four-in-hand, and patronised the ring; and

that he actually had an opera-box, where he entertained the most

dangerous bachelor company. His name was only mentioned with groans in

the dowager's circle.

The Lady Emily was her brother's senior by many years; and took

considerable rank in the serious world as author of some of the

delightful tracts before mentioned, and of many hymns and spiritual

pieces. A mature spinster, and having but faint ideas of marriage, her

love for the blacks occupied almost all her feelings. It is to her, I

believe, we owe that beautiful poem.

Lead us to some sunny isle,

Yonder in the western deep;

Where the skies for ever smile,

And the blacks for ever weep, &c.

She had correspondences with clerical gentlemen in most of our East and

West India possessions; and was secretly attached to the Reverend Silas

Hornblower, who was tattooed in the South Sea Islands.

As for the Lady Jane, on whom, as it has been said, Mr. Pitt Crawley's

affection had been placed, she was gentle, blushing, silent, and timid.

In spite of his falling away, she wept for her brother, and was quite

ashamed of loving him still. Even yet she used to send him little

hurried smuggled notes, and pop them into the post in private. The one

dreadful secret which weighed upon her life was, that she and the old

housekeeper had been to pay Southdown a furtive visit at his chambers

in the Albany; and found him--O the naughty dear abandoned

wretch!--smoking a cigar with a bottle of Curacao before him. She

admired her sister, she adored her mother, she thought Mr. Crawley the

most delightful and accomplished of men, after Southdown, that fallen

angel: and her mamma and sister, who were ladies of the most superior

sort, managed everything for her, and regarded her with that amiable

pity, of which your really superior woman always has such a share to

give away. Her mamma ordered her dresses, her books, her bonnets, and

her ideas for her. She was made to take pony-riding, or piano-exercise,

or any other sort of bodily medicament, according as my Lady Southdown

saw meet; and her ladyship would have kept her daughter in pinafores up

to her present age of six-and-twenty, but that they were thrown off

when Lady Jane was presented to Queen Charlotte.




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