does not seem to have possessed any talents or acquirements which would render her _very_ remarkable in these days; though in her own time she was styled "a grace for beauty and a muse for wit." Her youth, her accomplishments, her captivating person, her station at court, (as maid of honour to Maria d'Este, then Duchess of York,) and her premature death at the age of twenty-four, all conspired to render her interesting to her contemporaries; and Dryden has given her a fame which cannot die. The stanza in this ode, in which the poet, for himself and others, pleads guilty of having "made prostitute and profligate the muse," Whose harmony was first ordain'd above For tongues of angels and for hymns of love! --the sudden turn in praise of the young poetess, whose verse flowed pure as her own mind and heart; and the burst of enthusiasm-- Let this thy vestal, heaven! atone for all! are exceedingly beautiful. His description of her skill in painting both landscape and portraits, would answer for a Claude, or a Titian. We are a little disappointed to find, after all this pomp and prodigality of praise, that Anne Killegrew's paintings were mediocre; and that her poetry has sunk, not undeservedly, into oblivion. She died of the small-pox in 1685. The famous Tom Killegrew, jester (by courtesy) to Charles the Second, was her uncle. There was also the young Duchess of Ormond, (Lady Mary Somerset, daughter of the Duke of Beaufort.) She married into a family which had been, for three generations, the patrons and benefactors of Dryden; and never was patronage so richly repaid. To this Duchess of Ormond, Dryden has dedicated the Tale of Palemon and Arcite, in an opening address full of poetry and compliment;--happily, both justified and merited by the object. Lady Hyde, afterwards Countess of Clarendon and Rochester, was in her time a favourite theme of gay and gallant verse; but she maintained with her extreme beauty and gentleness of deportment, a dignity of conduct which disarmed scandal, and kept presumptuous wits as well as presumptuous fops at a distance. Lord Lansdown has crowned her with praise, very pointed and elegant, and seems to have contrasted her at the moment, with his coquettish Mira, Lady Newburgh. Others, by guilty artifice and arts, And promised kindness, practise on our hearts; With expectation blow the passion up; _She_ fans the fire without one gale of hope.[102] Lady Hyde was the daughter of Sir William Leveson Gower, (ancestor to the Marquis of Stafford,) and mother of that Lord Cornbury, who has been celebrated by Pope and Thomson. The second daughter of this lovely and amiable woman, lady Catherine Hyde, was Prior's famous Kitty, Beautiful and young, And wild as colt untam'd, the "female Phaeton," who obtained mamma's chariot for a day, to set the world on fire.