à pure, sensible love, grounded upon the admiration of principles as well as of person, and an assurance that in such an union more happiness was likely to be expected than from one of a more pompous nature.

Though neither his Lordship nor Miss Farren were scrupulous to conceal their particular intimacy, they were cautious in the management of it, to give the world no room for censorious remark: and it is observable, that in all their interviews Mrs. Farren was present, who has always resided with her daughter in every step of her advancement.

The following testimonies of Lord Derby's affectionate esteem, are too honourable to both

be omitted.

persons to

TO MR. HUMPHREYS, THE MINIATURE PAINTER,

ON HIS PORTRAIT OF MISS FARREN.

O THOU, whose pencil all the graces guide,
Whom beauty, conscious of her fading bloom,

So oft implores, alas! with harmless pride,

To snatch the transient treasure from the tomb !

Pleas'd, I behold the fair, whose comic art

Th' unwearied eye of taste and judgment draws;
Who charms with Nature's elegance the heart,
And claims the loudest thunder of applause.

Such, such alone, should prompt thy pencil's toil;
Of serving folly give thy labour o'cr;
Fools never will be wanting to our isle e;
Perhaps a FARREN may appear no more.

TO MISS FARREN,

ON HER BEING ABSENT FROM CHURCH.

WHILE wond'ring Angels, as they look'd from high,
Observ'd thine absence with an holy sigh,

Το

.1

To them a bright exalted Seraph said,

"Blame not the conduct of the exalted maid,
Where'er she goes her steps can never stray,
RELIGION walks companion of her way;

She goes

with every virtuous thought imprest,

HEAVEN on her face, and Heaven within her breast."

At length, on the death of the late Countess of Derby, the way was clear to the perfection of that happiness which his Lordship had so long anticipated. Miss Farren took her farewell of the public at Drury Lane, on the 7th of April, 1797, in the character of Lady Teazle, in the School for Scandal, on which occasion the house literally overflowed, and the curtain dropped amidst such emotions as never before were witnessed in any theatre.

On the 8th of May following, she was married to Lord Derby by special licence, at his Lordship's house in Grosvenor-square. Soon after, her Ladyship was introduced at court, and made one in the procession at the marriage of the Princess Royal to the Duke of Wirtemburg. Since that time, this noble pair have spent much of their time at their seat in the country, where her Ladyship is considered as a blessing by the tenants and the poor. In the privileged orders, among whom her Ladyship has been introduced, she is deservedly respected and beloved, as the MOST TRULY NOBLE of her rank.

.

S. K.

MR.

MR. PRATT,

THE interesting subject of our present Memoir, was born at St. Ives, in Huntingdonshire, about the year 1749-50, upon Christmas Day, old style.

His father was twice, we believe, high sheriff for that county, and many years in the commission of the peace. He was a gentleman of great worth, good family, and of considerable property; and Mr. Pratt's mother was niece to the famous Sir Thomas Drury. Our author was the only survivor of fifteen children, most of whom died

young.

Mr. Pratt received the rudiments of his classical education at Felstead, a celebrated seminary, in Essex, in which county were situated the family estates, and mansion house, the name of which was Rockwood-hall. To this was attached the Manor of Abbots, one of the Nine Roothings, or Roodings. The house itself is rendered famous in history, by being the residence of the Lord Capels, and for concealing Elizabeth from the rage of her sister Mary, till she was conveyed in safety away, by means of a subterraneous communication between the private chapel of the mansion and Abbots Rooding Church.

At a very early period of life, our author is said to have proved varieties of fortune, and by one or other of these, more especially in a disappointment of a tender nature, to have been counteracted in as various plans of establishment by some family differences,

To

To these may be traced the origin and progress of those misfortunes which overshadowed the morning of Mr. Pratt's life, and which, indeed, too frequently cloud, not only the prospects of the sons and daughters of genius, but impede their future figure and advancement. The embarrassments brought on by these domestic grievances, gave a premature check to all attempts, and more than one were tired, of fixing in the liberal professions, in either of which he was unquestionably endowed with qualities to become eminent, had not his mind been thus rendered irritable, and trammelled by difficulties; aggravated; perhaps, by the impetuous vehemence natural to youth, and more particularly to youthful genius, which threw him upon the world at an age, when, like his own Benignus, (a most interesting character in his first work of the novel kind), he was no way calculated to cope with it; no wonder, therefore, if his spring of existence was overcast, or that many succeeding years elapsed before the gloom was dispelled, so as to leave his talents unobscured, and himself free to exercise them to his own fame and the public good; or indeed permit them to shine in their proper sphere, Prior, however, to this period, he is known to have experienced not a few re

yerses.

Yet whatever inconveniences may individually have arisen from these transitions and vicissitudes, which it would be painful and invidious to detail, the public are probably indebted to them for no slight share of their amusement and gratification during the past

twenty

twenty-five years: few, if any of our English writers, having contributed more to the stock of their literary pleasure than Mr. Pratt, whose numerous writings in favor of philanthropy have now, for a longer space even than that abovementioned, deservedly ranked him high in the public esteem, and whose productions must have had a proportionate effect in diffusing that delicacy and liberality of sentiment, and those rich effusions of faney, which are no less ornamental than beneficial to society,

Mr. Pratt's first essays in prose and verse, were, as is usual with juvenile writers, diffused in private circles amongst his partial friends and admirers; but the continuation of the domestic differences we have alluded to, at length terminated in more serious evils consequent upon family divisions, including the loss of a considerable part of patrimonial property, and much of the remainder was squandered amongst the lawyers, in the progress of a long Chancery suit.These events operating on an ardent temper, and a disappointed mind, directed the pen of our young bard into more public and productive channels, but did not damp the progress of his genius. His performances, however, were, for some years, either anonymous, or under an assumed signature. His first efforts were made in the monthly publications, where they were soon sufficiently noticed to be copied into various other vehicles, till, some years after, such as the author deemed most worthy, were collected and given to the world in four volumes, under the general title of "Miscellanies," in which is prc.