Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1868 edition. Excerpt: ... Byron, according to the testimony of her daughter-inlaw, manifested a great poetical genius, which was fostered by the education she obtained under the care of the learned Lady Arabella. She married Sir Thomas Hutchinson, and died at the early age of twenty-six, in the act of singing a divine strain of sacred melody. Margaret Byron had always been celebrated for her heavenly voice, but her expiring notes surpassed all she had ever sung before. chapter xii. Arabella at first tried to resign herself to her fate, and spent some time in working an elaborate piece of embroidery to present to the king, who up to the unlucky time of her marriage had been uniformly indulgent to her; but when she sent it to him he refused to accept it, to her deep and bitter disappointment.1 Arabella's reason was in a tottering state even before her rash marriage, as several of her letters prove. The following is supposed to have been addressed to her royal cousin, Henry Prince of Wales, before his death: --"Sweet Brother, --Every one forsakes me but those that cannot helpe me. "Your most vnfortunate sister, "Arbella Seymouke." 2 At the marriage of the king's young daughter, the Princess Elizabeth, with the Elector Palatine, she ordered four costly dresses, one of which cost no less than 1 Harleian ms., No. 7003, fol. 153. From her autograph, in the possession of John Thane. 1613. becomes insane. 389 fifteen hundred pounds--a proof that she was not, as falsely represented by some writers, without money, but was still in possession of enough to lavish in idle and useless extravagance. Her mind was at last unhinged, and though she continued to petition the king for liberation and pardon, her letters became incoherent, and she was pronounced mad. In the postscript of...