Daily national Republican. (Washington City [D.C.]) 1870-1872, 1872-07-24
LADY LOvELACR,
A Chapter II the Hlstory Of the ByroR Family.
tFrom the Boston uiobsl

persons probably have ever read the the COM
mencing and concluding stanzas OF the third
canto OF Collide Harold without deep in
phIzes. The story OF her life, Intimately
enough known In those repeTtOlres OF un-
written biographies OF the English arlstocracy
the Pail Mall clubs though a. full Of weird
romance a. Of sad reality, has not often been
told abroad. The lady has been many years
dead. Another wife has long since taken her
place. Friends, neighbour acquaintance,
social equals, and even strangers, have been
familiar with the history OF Augusta Ada
Byron for more than two decades. We re-
veal no secret aud break no promise by
briefly narratlng IL here. II will be romem.
bered that the first and only born Of that I'M
happy marriage Of Lord Byron TO Miss Mill
| banke was Just i've weeks old when the
mother aud wife for reasons never satlsfae-
tOrily explained, returned TO her fathers
house. Here the infant grew Into girlhood
under the care Of her mother, and here, after
Lady Byron's accession to her properly
were the foundations of Augusta Ada's edu-
cation laid. lnherltlnk uncommon genius,
though, as we shall presently explain, wholly
dlyerfe from her fathers, she was brought
up with the most tender care and educated by
the mUst thorough training. Her personal
beauty developed with her mind.
She Is descrlbed by = person who frequently
saw her, when, at the age Of twenty years,
Il
Springs, o. Of the most queenly presence and
graceful carriage, her complexion fresh her
| features OF perfect contour, her eyes large
aud brilliant, her head set upon her shouldera
like her fathers, her hair chestnut abundant
aud wayy, and her person slightly einboH-
RC but Psrisc! In EToPOFtio oso To these
sweetness, aud a ylyacity in couyursRtlon
that held In thrall all who approached her.
| Her tastes, however, were for pure mathe-
matlcs. Whether owing to her education
for she read no poetry and never raw work
/ OF Lord Byron TIL past her puberty-Or TO In
heritance from her mother her understand
ing Of the exact sciences was excelled by no
woman OF her time except Mrs. SommeVille,
aud, indeed by few Of the other sex. In
proof of her extraordinary Attachments In
| this respect II IL mentioned by the late
Charles Babbage, In his Passages from the
Life Of a Philosopher" that She Informed
i him that she had translated for her amuse-
ment "Menabrea's Memoir OF the Analytical
Engine, from the "Bfbllothlque Uniycrselle. "
i He proposed that she should add notes OF her
i own. THIS she did, extending them 10 three
4 times the length Of the original memoir,
Babbage says that To all persons capable Of
understanding the reasoning, II furnishes "a
i demonstration that the operations of analysis
are capable uf being executed by machinery"
This translation, with the notei, may be
found In volume 81 of the transactions Oi
the Royal Society"
| Ada Byron was married to the Earl OF
LOyelace ia March, 1885. Tho marriage was
not an unhappy one. Her husband, respect
able In talents aud dom site 10 habits, lord.
lieutenant of his county aud high IN social
position, suitable lp age, and possessed OF
large estates, regarded his wife with mingled
feelings pf affection and admiration.
Unwilling that she should be known pub
llcly rs an authdress he nevertheless more
than once gave permission that certain OF her
Particles on various branches Of science about
which thinking men made inquiry, might be
acknowledged IA hers. Children were torn
| 10 them. Their tastes were no more dls5iWl
lar than was consistent With common II mol
prOmotiyo Of unusual harmony, aud theil
home was Often spoken Of, by those old
enOpgh 10 remember the two, rs furnishing
happy contrast TO that which her mother
had abandoned twenty years before BuI
Lady LoVelGco crayed excitement, Neither
town life nor country WI gUttIoiuut to sat.
lsiy her lnherlled dellge Tor constant stlmu
luE. Neither her studies nor her pen, thu
care Of her children nor the pleasures Of so
ciety, her rank among the nrlstocracy moi
the admiration her beauty aud gifts yppeiyet
wherever she appeared, were sufficient. She
specuatOd In tho funds, bet at horse races,
bOughI aud sold In the stock market, and
finally, during tho railway mania that, under
| the lead OF Hudson, was sCcQnd only Ia Ia
universally among the rich and great " the
South Sea bubble Of the early days Of the
Last century, partOOk largely In the venIurcs
All this could well enough DO without the
knowledge, M 1t was, Of her husband Be
sides the ample 'pin-mOney" allowed her In
the marriage settlement, large returns came
70 her from trust funds held for her Ia hei
own right But che went too deep. llel
risks were. unfortunate; md though she
might have recovered from all this, most In
I q 49, N.nR
rupL and her operations Nnge exposed, IN hii
assets before tue courts, 10 the world. Tor
rihlY mortlaed, she appealed 10 her husband
who, TO save the scandal Of any legal pro
cesa, cancelled her liabilities by very cOnsid
cradle pecunlary sacrifices.
The shock, however, was too great for hel
excltable nature, aud II has always been be.
lieyed by those who best knew what followed
that the shame sue felt at the exposure wy
the remote II not the approximate cause o.
her death, I Is not beat, perhaps, 70 trace
too accurately family history, Bn "blOOd
Ia thicker than water" and lesson In stir
, piculturo may be learned from a word NOR,
. about race that has for more than q cen
, | tuTy, In some one OF Its representatives, beef
before the world. OF the living We havI
nothing TO say, bnt Lord OakhRm, the eldes
sou Ht Lady LOyelAod, Inherited the Vices Of
the BYrOps without thelr genlua In his or
rattle life as = boy whom no discipline could
tame, mldshlpman In the royal navy dis
graoed for petty thleyings, a common sallOl
! sober only when out at sea before the mast
plmp for the paltrlest gains In the purlienl
Of Calcutta, and a navy" In Scott Russelll
shlp-yard near the London docks, he exhib
lied all the Weaknesses OF the b irons Of thl
! last century, without redeemlng trait o
their nobleness. He died September |, 1854
At the aye Of twenty-Slx. ThomaA CaTlYlI
says that every mans life contains material
for An epic poem, That the lives Of W.
ByrOns could do this every one af them sine
the middle Of the seventeenth century, n,
reader Of Engllsh biography will doubt
, Gifted Ahnye W pooys, proud, Pashi endOweG
with extraordinary physical strength anl
! beauty, at war with eOnventlonalltles, an
sometimes depressed, sometimes exalted b.
fortune the Byron race has furnished to soc
1 ologlsts from time out Of mind, physical pht
4 nOmena that are as positive In principles a
4 they arc invaluable as facts. From beglnnln
4 TO end the race Is the same. And as the ne
. gro, the ChlnAmAu, the Hlx-hngered, u
! scrofulous the halr-lipped, the lett-hAndet
a the bOw-legged, the dWArfed, and the gigar
a Tic peTpetuate their kind, despite the inte
n walls that may elapse, so in the Byron famil
A have the ruling traits OF the distant ancestC
\ Teappeared In the most remote descendant,
= Accom- rSG to an Indianapolis paper thel