more such family reasons for introducing into public life his sixth daughter.* The subject of our present notice made her first appearance on the stage at Covent Garden Theatre on the 25th of October, 1803, in the character of Lady Townly in "The Provoked Husband,” which, novice as she was, she sustained with superior elegance and judgment. Miss Brunton next appeared in Beatrice, in which representation she confirmed the favourable opinion previously formed of her powers. Thenceforward keeping the even tenor of her wayshe for four succeeding seasons sustained a variety of characters in tragedy as well as in comedy, in either of which she proved an acknowledged ornament. At the above-mentioned period we had the pleasure of meeting Miss Brunton in familiar society, at the table of our early and esteemed friends, Mr. and Mrs. Litchfield, when she was There is always something indelicate even in just praise, when the subject of it is in a manner present; but in a truth-telling page even such records become a popular right,. Truly, then, Miss Brunton was one of the personally gifted few, upon whose beauty there were no dissentients. It was of that serene, unexacting quality which engages even female hearts; her youthful vivacity was so femininely gentle, so tempered by delicate discretion, and she was withal so outwardly unconscious of her surpassing loveliness, that envy itself must have been pleased to acknowledge it. Thus liberally endowed by Nature, her youth guarded by tenaciously-honourable and honoured parents, in a well-loved home, Miss Brunton knew neither cares nor vicissitudes. She might, indeed, be said to have been "born under a midday sun, there were no shadows in her path;" and she had neither adventures nor misadventures to disturb her serenity. In this enviable state of life the Earl of Craven saw, and seeing, loved her. His devotion, early in its beginning, and publicly understood, silenced and put to flight many incipient aspirants to the heart and hand of this favourite of Nature. The first of these she had obviously bestowed upon him who duly claimed the latter. Briefly, for little remains to be told: Miss Brunton at the beginning of December, 1807, with characteristic modesty, made her final curtsey on the stage, without the formality of leave-taking; and on the 30th of the same month, as the public journals announced, "Miss Brunton, of Covent Garden Theatre, was married to the Earl of Craven at seven in the evening, at Craven House, and the following day the happy pair set off for Coombe Abbey." The Earl was in his 37th year, and his lovely bride in her 25th. The Countess of Craven's first appearance at court was one of the * Miss Louisa Brunton was a younger sister of the celebrated actress, who married Mr. Merry (the poet Della Crusca), and of Mr. John Brunton, many years an actor at Covent Garden Theatre, father of the present popular actress, Mrs. Yates, a lady whose talents, amiable disposition, and unblemished character render her an honour to any relationship. most striking imaginable. Her exceeding beauty was universally felt. Those who had only beheld her at stage distance, were hardly prepared for the real, day-light loveliness which was so charmingly blended with the first of feminine graces-modesty, for which her public deportment had at all times been distinguished; and whatever amount of loss might be said to be sustained by the stage in the withdrawal of one of its purest ornaments, was more than indemnified by the honour it acquired by the cause of her secession; whilst the dignity of the peerage suffered no deterioration or diminution by the exaltation of that " paragon of animals"-an elegant and chaste woman. It may be assumed the Lady Craven's first grief was that of a widow-for she outlived her noble husband; since whose death,-"for sorrow ends not when it seemeth done,”—she has passed her time in comparative retirement, beloved by her children, and esteemed by all who know her. By the marriage of the present Earl, who is her son, she is now the Dowager Countess of Craven. LADY THURLOW. "An actress!—well, I own 'tis true; When all within is sense and worth, A Polly in a former age Resigned the Captain and the stage, She who is artless, chaste, refined, Unsoil'd with vice's leaven, Has that nobility within Which kings can neither give nor win,- Discard your doubts-your suit prefer; By honourable passion; And if your noble friends should stare, HORACE in London. MISS MARY CATHERINE BOLTON was the eldest of five children, whose parents were of high respectability. Her father, to whom our heroine was affectionately devoted, had quitted his original pro * Captain Macheath. fession of the law, and engaged in pursuits which had proved unfortunate, and left him ultimately in great difficulty. Miss Bolton had early manifested a decision of character, which few females reveal even at a maturer age; and although her conduct and deportment were essentially feminine, she had no affectation of sentimentality, but her manners were what may be termed reserved. Perhaps the circumstances in which she found herself at the early age of seventeen, called upon, as she was, to exert herself by a public display of those talents and acquirements, cultivated originally for private life, for the support of her family, were such as to draw forth a gravity of reflection and demeanour not quite natural at such a period of life. Happily, however, the constitution of Miss Bolton's mind was too elastic to be utterly depressed by cares, enough to "stamp wrinkles on the brow of youth." Still the weight of her domestic burthen had the visible effect of rendering her at seventeen and eighteen more circumspect, staid, and womanly, than young ladies under other circumstances are apt to be, especially amid the excitement and triumph of popular admiration; but vanity formed no part of Miss Bolton's sensible and considerate character. Amongst other accomplishments, she was a good musician; and she had received much vocal instruction from Mr. Lanza, through whose medium she was afterwards introduced into public life. As soon as it became apparent that Miss Bolton's individual exertions must thenceforth supply the loss of other means, and be the chief dependence of her parents and family (three sisters and an infant brother),* Mr. Lanza brought her out at the Hanover Square Rooms as a concert-singer, where (and afterwards at Willis's Rooms), the young and interesting débutante's reception was most flattering. In the same year, 1806, Mr. Lanza received an invitation to introduce his pupil to Mr. Harris, the manager of Covent Garden Theatre; and immediately after, arrangements were entered into for Miss Bolton's first appearance on the stage, which took place at the above theatre in the autumn of 1806, in the character of Polly, in "The Beggars' Opera."+ As it too often happens with the talented and unwary, who, hoping and believing all things, confidingly enter upon a compact with the calculating and cool-headed,-the favourable reception of Miss Bolton proved more profitable to the proprietors than to herself. She had been engaged for a definite term at a rising salary of six, seven, and eight pounds per week, determinable at the end of the first season in the event of her not succeeding. Her success, however, was so positive-indeed, so great-that she repeated the part of Polly seventeen times; and performed Rosetta, in "Love in a Village," six or seven times, no inconsiderable indications of her particular attraction, when two hackneyed operas without other adventitious aid were found beneficial and sufficient to the treasury so often in one No new opera was deemed requisite to uphold her, and Miss Bolton had therefore nothing to rely on but her own powers of season. * One of her sisters, Miss E. Bolton, married Mr. Bingham, the barrister, and police magistrate. + It is remarkable that this character has led to the peerage three of its fortunate representatives,-namely, Miss Fenton (afterwards Duchess of Bolton), Miss Bolton (afterwards Baroness Thurlow), and, though last, not least in our dear love, Miss Stephens (afterwards, and still, though now a dowager, Countess of Essex). pleasing in these almost worn-out pieces, which without some extraordinary individual attraction, the managers could not have performed probably a second night in the same season without the certainty of a half-empty house. Having thus achieved the success upon which hung the conditions of her prolonged engagement, what was Miss Bolton's amazement when, during the succeeding vacation, she received a communication from an agent of the proprietary, informing her that her success had not been such as to entitle her to the terms originally proposed, namely, six, seven, and eight pounds, but, that if she chose to accept four pounds a-week, her name would be retained on the list of performers!* Dismayed by this something like a thunderstroke, the recipient was heart-struck by it at the time; but her native energy revived by the necessity for new exertion, and in the cruel and trying position in which this unhandsome offer placed her, she consulted a friend of some experience in theatrical and other business, to whom this admirable young woman declared herself quite prepared to sacrifice every feeling of personal pride, if by such sacrifice she could secure a solid, permanent good to her family. That judicious friend at once advised her to put pride out of the question, to persevere even under this unfair discouragement, or any that the future might throw in her way, and prove to the public and to her employers, who had treated her so unfairly, that her talents and merits were of too sterling a quality not to outlive the mere gloss of novelty. Miss Bolton, unlike the generality of people who ask advice, took this counsel, the wisdom of which was satisfactorily manifested by the steadfast hold which she obtained upon public favour to the end of her dramatic career; while the management had reason to feel its injustice, as Miss Bolton rapidly became of real importance to its interests, not only as an operatic performer, but by Occasionally supporting (elevating) such characters in comedy as Lady Grace in "The Provoked Husband," and others of a similar description, the impersonation of which peculiarly suited her delicate figure, lady-like deportment, and gentle cast of countenance, which had in it an expression of candour and innocency truly engaging. The greatest, as it proved the most memorable, of her later professional triumphs was achieved in the character of Ariel, in "The Tempest," to which her natural endowments, personal and vocal, combined to give a superior charm. She was in effect the "delicate Ariel" of Shakspeare," Ariel in all his quality"—an embodied piece of poetry; and so thought one of the distinguished spectators, whom the gods had made poetical, and whom " Destiny, that hath to instrument this lower world and what is in't," had led to be present on this revived representation of the bard who was "for all time." * The truth was, that the then administration of Covent Garden Theatre (from any share of which, except stage direction, Mr. Kemble, although a proprietor, was by express stipulation excluded) was aware that, after the novelty of a first season, few actress's individual attraction would continue to fill a theatre, and therefore, although Covent Garden had reaped a harvest from Miss Bolton's success sufficient to furnish the treasury for the time being, and put the proprietors in pocket for the rest of her engagement, even had they fulfilled it to its purposed close, they resorted to one of those acts of ungenerous policy, too frequent with a short-sighted management, by speculating upon the necessitous state of the young actress's family, which would urge her to yield her talents at little more than half the value they had been practically proved to possess. This nobleman's favourite pursuits were literary ;* he admired the drama, and, guided by his refined taste, sought out whatever was excellent in it. On his lordship's first visit on this occasion to "The Tempest," he was powerfully impressed by the modest gracefulness of the Ariel of the night; again and again he repeated his visits, when this play was performed, and still on every repetition found "marvellous sweet music" in her voice who performed her spiriting so gently; and it so fell out, that, as Bolton's "Polly," by her interesting figure and mellifluous notes first engaged the heart of her future lord, so "Polly" Bollon† riveted the affections of Lord Thurlow.‡ Pending the earlier devotion of this nobleman to our interesting heroine, one of the accomplished authors of "The Rejected Addresses" § published, in a popular series, the lines quoted at the head of this brief memoir; but the noble lover, to whom they pointed, needed no such stimulating suggestions; his honourable feelings and superior understanding had "talked with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love," than to allow him to harbour a vulgar prejudice. Neither could sordid considerations find entrance to a mind of such refinement, which had not to learn that "In all pursuits, but chiefly in a wife, Not wealth, but morals, make the happy life." Previously to this great epoch in Miss Bolton's life, she had amongst her many admirers several earnest suitors; but it seemed reserved for Lord Thurlow to win the prize they sought; the heart of the young actress, while "the secret look of her eye was his,” promptly responded to his passion when declared, although she had too much maidenly pride to let it appear that she could unsought be won. It followed, that having first taken leave of the green-room, Miss Bolton, on the 13th of November, 1813, became the joyful bride of Lord Thurlow, carrying into a higher sphere the affectionate good wishes of all those whom she had left to fret and strut their hour upon the stage. With marriage-except upon the stage-the interest of life's drama does not necessarily end; but the habits of Lord and Lady Thurlow were so wisely retired and so amiably domestic, that little remains to relate, but what the Peerage has registered. It will there be seen that the wedded happiness of this noble pair was increased by the birth of three sons (all of whom still live), namely Edward Thomas Howel Thurlow, the present Lord, born November, 1814. A nobleman who adds grace to his title by superior attainments;-Thomas Hugh, born May, 1816;-and John Edmund, born July, 1817; both in the army. Miss Bolton had, as we have said, a delicate figure; she was tall His Lordship had published a volume of poems. + So called by her admirers, from the celebrity she acquired by her performance of Gay's heroine, and in double allusion to the coincidences of christian and sir names. Edward Howel Thurlow, the second Baron, born 10th of June, 1781, succeeded his uncle, Lord Chancellor Thurlow (the first Baron), on the 12th of September, 1806. § Horatio Smith. |