Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1866-06-14
English AufhOreases.

In his last letter frem London to the
Round Table, Rev. NJ. D. Conway gives
the following graphic description Of the
personal appearance Of some Of the leading
female writer's of England; ....
What Margaret Fuller's father said to
her when she was girl-mceda regina-
may be said Of the mature woman who writes
under the name of George Eliot. She is a
finely shaped woman, and quite large,
though not in the sense in which Hawthorne
describes English female largeness. She is
by no means corpulent, nor are there any
suggestions of steaks and sirloins about her;
but she is of large skeleton. She is not
meagre either, but has the look of being
mads out Of fine clay. She is blonde, with
very light auburn hair, clear, serene, smiling
eyes. beautiful teeth. She has also gracious
and easy manners, with an indefnable air of
unwozldliness-of having been made for
large and fine societies, but never entered
them. In word, she is q woman who,
though not handsome, would personally
satisfy her most ardent admirers.
In remarkable contrast every way to
George Eliot is Miss Braddon, the great
sensational novelist. One would, seeing
her, naturally doubt whether she could
write her name. Mixed of lower clay, the
exact embodiment OF the Southern phrase
'cemmony," with color which looks like
rouge but is not, she is really indescribable
here; but my reader may see her. anywhere
on Broadway at any time of day Mss
Francis Power Cobbe is huge. The first
impression she makes is that of great mass
of merry flesh md blood, weighing nearly
$50 pounds. She too often has to walk
about on crutches, which gives one sad
feeling that this enormous size is far from
being the result of, or accompanied oy
health. But when one converses with Miss
Cobbe he finds that the chief charac, eristic
of her face and expression is delicacy.
There is lambent humor about her mouth.
a subtle perceptiveness blended with sweet
ness about her eye, q sensitiveness and
sensibllity in her manner, under which-as
conversation and acquaintance go on-the
cerpulency seems to shrink, and the most
charming physiognomy to be unsheathed.
Miss Cobbe has an extraordinary power of
conversation, is one of the whites of mcrtals,
and wherever she appears has about her
group OF fascinated young people-partic
ularly of her own sex-by whose bursts of
merriment one may know on entering a
company where the authoress of "Intutive
Morals" is seated.
Very likely there will not be very far off
Miss Isa Craig. editor of the Argosy, lead
ing secretary of the Social Science Society,
who has literary position in England quite
beyond what enc might imagine, and which
is much more the result of her personal at
tractiveness than of any of her published
works. She is not pretty, is something of
q German, has nez retrousses, is not bloom
iDr: but she ia Young has n nure childlika
expression, an eye full of delicate and refined
feeling, and gentle voice that every one
kkes to hear. She is enc of the few persons
of culture, and of a talent verging on genius,
whom have seen devoting themselves more
to the work that will do good than to that
which wi bring the public gaze upon them
She is a near friend of George Elliot, G.
ii. Lewes, Herbert Spencer, and others of
that ilk, who admire her warmly. She
will soon be married.
One cannot do any justice to these ladies
In brief letter. nor can he even mention
many of the ladies known to the literary
world. There, for instance. is the soul Of
mystic meditation invested in the substan-
tial and good looking person of Zschokke's
best translator, Frederika Rowan; there is
the strange and vigorous. but net altogeth-
er attractive, Mrs. Il. Lynn Linton; and
now and then, in few companies. one may
see the still brilliant eye and eager, scorn-
full face Of the Hon. Mrs. Norton. For
some we'll beloved faces one must now, alas,
look in vain; they look down upon us from
the walls. 1t would be hard to say how
many hearts in England are still draped
and lingering comfortess about the graves
OF Mrs. Gaskell and Mrs. Browning.