Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1859-10-06
Romance OF Fanny Braddock.


of competent fortune. On his death ne lett
no less thar six thousand pounds as proVi-
sion for his two daughters, and probably a
much larger sum to his only son, Edward
Braddock.
One of the daughters died early, and her
sister Fanny Braddock, became possessed OF
her share OF the fathers legacy. Goldsmith,
in his life of Beau Nash, has told the ro-
mantle story of Fanny, under the name OF
Miss Sylvia S." with his sweetness OF mar
rative and gentle kindness of sympathy
She was descended, he says, from one OF the
best families in the kingdom, and was LETT
large fortune upon her sisters decease.-
Whatever the finest poet could conceive OF
wit, or the most celebrated painter imagine
of beauty, were excelled in the PROJECTIONS
of this young lady. She was naturally gay,
generous to fault, good natured to the
highest degree, afable in conversation; and
some of her letters aud other writings, as
we'll in verse as in prose, would have shone
among those of the most celebrated wits or
this or any other age, had they been pub
lished.
But these qualifications were marked by
another, which lessened the value OF them
all; she was imprudent-"by which" says
the kind philosopher, Il mean she had no
knowledge of the use of money" She was
arrived at the age of nineteen, when the
crowd of her lovers and the continued repe-
tition of new fattery had taught her to
think that she could never be forsaken and
never poor. "Young ladies are apt to ex-
pect," wisely moralizcs Goldsmith in a
strain that reminds us of passage IN the
Vicar of Wakefield" ga certainty of sue
cess from number of lovers; and yet |
have never seen a girl courted by q hundred
lovers that found a husband in any. Before
her choice is fixed she has either lost her
reputation or her good sense, and the loss of
either is sufficient to consign her to perpetual
virginity."
Among the number of this young lady's
lovers was handsome, good-natured, easy
kind of fellow, of whose name we can learn
nothing beyond it's initial IS" lie was
"constitutionally virtuous," but practically
it appears quite the contrary, for he followed
the dictates of "every newest passion" lie
loved Fanny Braddock, and Fanny Brad
dock loved him. The vices of the man
Goldsmith gently terms them "impruden-
cies,") soon ruined him, and he was thrown
into prison for debt. Fanny Braddock,
with the disinterestedness of pure and
loving woman, was resolutely bent on free
ing him, and sacrificed her whole fortune IN
relieving her lover from his obligations to
his creditors, and thus restored him to liber-
ty. S, instead Of improving in friend
ship or affection, only studied to avoid a
creditor he could never repay; for though
r.
destroy friendship" says Goldsmith, who
could utter maxims worthy of Solomon,
while he lived rs riotously as the Prodigal
Son.
Poor Fanny, however, was ruined, in
reputation as we'll as in fortune, by this pro-
fuse generosity to her ungratetul lover
Beau Nash, then meeting with her among
some Of his friends in London, prevailed
upon her to go with him to Bath, where the
Beau, being paramount in power. might IN
troduce her to the best company, and leave
it to her merit to do the rest People of dis
tinction courted her acquaintance, and strove
to divert her with the social enjoyments and
fashionable frivolities of the place; but 1t
was apparent that settled melancholy had
taken possession Of her mind, and she moved
among but was not Of the gay throng. With
loss of love, loss Of fortune, loss of friends,
and loss of health, she was finally induced,
as mere refuge from her own wretched-
ness, to yield to the invitation OF dame
Lindsey, who desired to secure so much
beauty, as an additional temptation to those
who resorted to her gambling rooms. Al
though she yielded to dame Lindsey's invi-
tation, Fanny Braddock is not believed to
have been tainted with any other vice than
that of presiding at the hazard table for the
advantage of others.
She could not long, however, endure this
disgrace, and preferred the humble condl-
ton of housekeeper in gentleman's faml-
ly, to which her poverty now reduced her.
Here she remained, always sad, but faithful
to her duty. The gentleman with whom
she lived, now went up to London with his
wife, leaving the children and the house to
her care. On the day when he was expec-
ted to return, Fanny, after the discharge OF
her daily household duty, went into the dim
iug-room and wrote these lines upon one Of
the window panes:
"0h Death thou pleasing end of human woe,
Thou cure for life, thou greatest good below
Still may'st thou fly the coward and the slave,
Some visitors coming in she entertained
them cheerfully, and, on their going out, she
went to the library, where she had ordered
supper. Here 'she spent the remaining
hours preceding bedtime in handling two of
Mr.. Woods 1.-THE gentleman in whose family
she lived children on her knees. In retlr-
ins thence to her chamber, she went into
the nursery, to take her leave Of another
child, as it lay sleeping in the cradle
Struck with the innocence of the little babe 5
looks and the consciousness of her medita-
ted guilt, she could not avoid bursting into
tears, and hugging it in her arms. She
then babe her old servant good night, for
the first time she had ever done so, and went
to bed rs usual.
1T is probable she soon Quilted her bed.
She then dressed herself in clean linen and
white garments of every kind, like brides
maid. Her gown she pinned over her breast
Just as nurse pins the swaddling clothes OF
an infaLt." She then took pink silk Cir
die, and frightening it with another made Of
gold thread she made moose at one end
and tied three knots at small distance
from each other.
She now sat down to read that passage in
Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso," where Olym-
pia is abandoned by her bosom friend, and
ruined. Having laid aside her book, she
arose, took the girdle she had prepared, and,
throwing the end of the girdle over the clio