American literature -- History and criticism; Authors; English literature -- History and criticism
After he had been married about two years he read in a country newspaper
an account of the death of his uncle, which occurred towards the close of
the year 1793. Early in the following January, he repaired, with his wife,
then nineteen years of age, to Burleigh House. He merely told her that he
had to go to a distant part of the country, and wished to have her
company. They travelled on horseback, the wife being seated on a pillion
behind her husband, according to the fashion of the period. They stopped
at the several noblemen's and gentlemen's seats on their route. At last
they reached Burleigh House, where she was told that she was a countess,
and the mystery of Henry Cecil solved.
When surrounded by the titled and the great, she sighed for a humbler
position, but nevertheless she made an excellent wife and mother, and the
happiness of her husband was complete. It was of short duration, for in
the flower of her life she died, deeply lamented, on January 17th, 1797.
In addition to the first-born previously mentioned, they had a daughter
and two sons. One of the sons was the peer who succeeded his father. Lord
Burleigh settled seven hundred a year on his wife's parents, and gave them
the house he had just vacated. The Countess was cordially received by the
Earl's relatives, and mixed in the fashionable society of London, and won
respect and regard from all with whom she came in contact.
Lawrence painted her portrait. She is represented as far from rustic in
appearance, her face being oval and very pleasing.
It remains to be stated, to complete the outline of the life of Henry
Cecil, that he was created a marquis, that he married for his third wife
the Dowager-Duchess of Hamilton, and died in the year 1804.
The Compiler of "Old Moore's Almanac,"
Henry Andrews.
The name of Henry Andrews is familiar to the literary and scientific world
as the compiler for many years of "Old Moore's Almanac," but the
particulars of his life are not generally known. His career, although not
an eventful one, was most honourable, and furnishes a notable example of a
man who, from a humble beginning, by perserverance attained an important
position in life.
He was born at Frieston, near Grantham, on February 4th, 1744, of parents
in poor circumstances, who were only able to afford him a limited
education. In his earliest years he appears to have had a love for
astronomy, a science in which he afterwards became one of the most
proficient of his day. It is recorded that when only six years old he
would frequently stand in his shirt looking at the moon out of his chamber
window at midnight; when about ten years of age, he used to fix a table on
Frieston Green on clear frosty nights, and set a telescope thereon
through which to view the stars. The young student would afterwards sit
by the fireside with a table covered with books, making astronomical
calculations.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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