The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1839-10-25 00:00:00

LATE LADY HESTER STANHOPE.

(From an Eastern Print)
We announced in our last number the death of Lady
Hester Stanhope. Our readers will no doubt be glad to have
a brief sketch of the principal circumstances of that extraor-
dinary woman's life.
It is at Djouni, in Syria, that Lady Hester has died, after a
long illness, at the age of 64. That reader mustbe indiffer-
ent who reverts not with interest to his recollections of a
woman who has expired on the borders of the desert, amidst
the Druses and Turkomans, over whom that noble daughter

of the infidels once exercised so strange and so marvellous a

sway. The destiny of Lady Stanhope prese9ts one. of those
features of which not another instance could perhatis be foAnd
in the annals of the East. Only imagine forty thousand
Arabs suddenly assembled upon the ruins of Palmtra, and
these wandering, savage, and indomitable tribes surround-•
ing, in silent astonishment and admiration, a foreign woman,

arid proclaiming her Sovereign of the Desert and Queen of
Palmyra! Convey yourself in thought to the Scene of this
incredible triumph, and you will then conce.r•k' what woman
that must have been who imposed silence on MuSsulman fa-
naticism, and created for herself,'astrwere;byturtaig,sm-So;-
vereigiicy au tau. .r..x.ataaualautai
" Lady Hester Stanhope," says M. de Lamaitine in liis
admirable work, " was a niece of Mr. Pitt. On the death
of her uncle she left England, and visited various parts of
Europe ' • young, handsome, and rich, she was every where
received with the attention and interest due to her rank, for-
tune, mind, and beauty ; but she constantly refused to unite
her fate to that of her worthiest admirers, and, after spend-
ing some years in the principal capitals of Europe,"embarked -
with a numerous suite for Constantinople. The real cause
of this expatriation has never been known , some have
ascribed it to the death of a young English officer, who -was.
killed at that period in Spain, and whom an eternal regret
must render for ever present in Lady Hester:Stanliope's
heart ; others have imputed her voluntary banishment to a
mere love of adventure in a young person of an enterprising
and courageous character. However this might :be, she de-
parted, spent some years in Constantinople, and then sailed
for Syria in an -English vessel, which carried also the larger
part of her fortune, as well as jewellery, trinkets, and pre-
sents of all sorts, of very considerable value."
The vessel encountered a storm in the Gulf of Macri,

the road to Caramania ; the ship was wrecked; lady Ilester
Stanhope's property was all lost, and it was as much as she •
could do to save her own life. Nothing, however, could
shake her resolution. She returned to England, gathered
the remainder of her fortune, sailed again for Syria, and
landed at Latakia, the ancient Laodicea. She had at first
thought of fixing her abode at Broussa, at the foot-of the
Olympus ; but Broussa is a commercial city, situate on •the
avenues to the Ottoman capital, and reckoning not less than
sixty thousand inhabitants • and Lady Hester Stanhope
sought the independence and solitude of the desert. She
therefore selected the wilderness of Mount Lebanon' whose
extreme ramifications lose themselves in the sands:: Ruined
Palmyra—Zenobia's ancient capital—suited her fancy. The
noble exile took up her residence at Djouni, prepared for
every vicissitude. " Europe," said she, "is a monotonous
residence ; its nations are unworthy of freedOm, and'endless
revolutions are their only prospects." She applied herself
to the study of the Arabic language, and strove it° obtain a
thorough acquaintance with the character and manners of the
Syrian people. One day dressed in the costume of the
Osmanlis, she set out for Jerusalem, Damascus, Aleppo, and
the Desert ; she advanced amidst a caravan loaded with
wealth, tents, and presents for the Scheiks, and was soon-
surrounded by all the tribes, who knelt to her, and submitted
to her supremacy.
It was not solely by her magnificence that Lady Hester had
excited the admiration of the Arabs ; her courage had been
proved on more than one occasion, and she had always faced
peril with a boldness and energy which the tribes well remem-
bered. Lady Hester Stanhope knew also how to flatter the
Mahomedan prejudices. She had no intercourse with Chris-
tians and Jews ; she spent whole days in the grotto of a san-
ton, who explained the Koran to her ; and never appeared in
public without that mien of majestic and grave inspiration
which was always unto Oriental nations the characteristic of
prople",. With her, however, this conduct was not so mach
the result of design as of a decided proneness to every species
of excitement and originality.
Lady Hester Stanhope's first abode was but a monastery.
It was soon transformed into an Oriental palace, with pa-
vilions, orange gardens, and myrtles,-over which spread the
foliage of the cedar, such as it grows in the mountains of
Lebanon. The traveller to whom Lady Hester Stanhope
opened this sanctuary, would behold her clad in oriental gar-
ments. Her head was covered with a turban made of a red
and white cashmere. She wore a long tunic, with open loose
sleeves ; large Turkish trousers, the folds of which hung over
yellow morocco boots embroidered with silk. Her shoulders
were covered with a sort of burnous, and a,yataghan hung to
her waist. Lady Hester Stanhope had a serious and imposing
countenance ; her noble and mild featurei had a isTajestic ex-
pression, which her high stature and the dignity ofher-move-
ments enhanced.
The day came when all this prestige, so expensively kept
up, suddenly vanished. Lady Hester's fortune rapidly de-
clined ; her income yearly.drcreased ; in Short, the substan-
tial resources which had, at one time, sustained-the magi 6 of
her extraordinary domination were daily forsaking her. The
Queen of Palmyra then fell back into the rank of mere mor-
tals, and she who had signed absolute firmans, enabling the.
traveller to visit in security the regions of Palmyra—she
whose authority the Sublime Porte had tacitly aeknowledged
—soon saw her people disown her omnipoteney ; she Was left
the title of Queen, but it was but an empty name ; a more re-
collection, and again the monastery's silence ruled over the
solitude of Djouni, A Queen, stripped of her glory of a day,
Lady Hester Stanhope has expired, the sport of fate, at the
moment the East is convulsed. She has expired in obscurity
and loneliness, without even mingling her name with the
great events of which it is now the theatre.

Mr. Batty, at his amphiteatre at Sheffield, is exhibiting a
person named North, who throws fifty-five surnmersets con-
secutively with apparent ease, and who leaps from a horse,
going full gallop, over a piece of cloth extending to nearly a
fifth of the circle, alighting with perfect precision on his sad-
dle. We should think that this man will so get into the prac-
tice of throwing summersets, that some day or other he will
be unable to stop.

IRISH CORRECTNESS.—In quoting the well known letter
of the Prince Regent to the Duke of Wellington, on the oc-,
sion of the transmission of a British field-marshal's baton
to his grace, an Irish paper publishes the following conclu-
ding sentence as part of what it terms "an authentic copy :"
—" That uninterrupted health and still-increasing laurels
may continue to crown you through a glorious and long
wishes of, my career of life, are the never-ceasing and most
ardent, dear lord, your very sincere and faithful friend
(Signed) " G. P. IL"

DEATH OF REAR ADMIRAL SIR SAMUEL WARREN.—
Died, on Tuesday, the 15th of October, at his house. Port-
land-terrace, Southampton, in his 71st year, Rear Admira
Sir Samuel Warren, K.C.8., K.C.H.

APPLES.—The crops of apples in the neighbourhood of
Barnstaple are far more productive than was expected;
parts of several cargoes have been, and still opntinue to be,
shipped off; the price a fortnight since for apples was is. 6d.
per bag, which is now reduced to Gs. per bag, and a still
greater reduction is expected to take place.—Plymouth
Journal.

MARISCHAL COLLEGE, ABERDEEN.—The crown has in-
stituted a professorship of anatomy, and one of surgery, in
Marischal College and University, and has presented Allen
Thomson, M.D., lecturer on anatomy iu Edinburgh, to the
professorship, and Wm. Pirrie, M.D., formerly lecturer on
anatomy to King's and Maribehal Colleges, to the latter.