The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1875-12-15

trusted and experienced agents. Her energet
ic munifcence has built churches and schools
in desolate districts in London and in the
provinces. She has planted the Church Of
England itself in several.of our colonies by en-
dowing bishoprics in Australia, in the Cape of
Good Hope, and in British Columbia, at an
aggregate cost that might have purchased q
principality of broad acres for her own enjoy
ment. A society for improving the conditios
OF the aborigines was instituted at her sugges-
tlon and by her aid. Her interest in every eff
fort to promote religious knowledge has never
slumbered. She provided funds for Sir Henry
James's typographical survey of Jerusalem, and
she employed agents to obtain ancient manu-
scripts from the East for the verification of
Scripture"
The Oldest lady in California, probably, is
Dona Lulalie CULLEN. who is now supposed to
be 40 years of age, who recently moved to the
San Jose Valley, near Pomona, for her health.
1t is thought that the Pomona climate will en-
able her to live to good old age.
Cora Pearl is said to be incom mparably the
finest equestrienne to be seen in the Bois de
Boulogne. Her figure is fine, her dress is fault
less, her horse superb, and all this is fortunate
for she is getting so old now that she looks to
advantage only on horseback.
Mary Cowden Clarke, in "Rscollections of
Literary People in London" says, "The No
vellos after leavinglOxford street, and residing
for few years at Percy street, had taken
large old-fashioned house and arden on Shack
well Green, and. it was here that they made
welcome Mrs, Shelley and Mrs. Williams on
their return from Italy--two young and beauti-
full widows, wooing them by gentle degrees
into peacefuller and hopefuler mood of mind
after their bereavement abroad. BY quiet
meetings for home music, by calmly cheerful
and gradually sprightler converse, by affec-
tionate familiarity and reception into their own
family circle of children and friends, Vincent
and Mary Sabilla Novello sought to draw those
two fair women into reconcilement with life
and its still surviving blessings Very, very
fair both ladies were, Mary Wolstonecraft
Goodwin Shelley, with her well-shaped, golden
haired head almost always little bent aud
droopiog, her marble-white shoulders and
arms statuesquely visible in the perfectly plain
black velvet dress, which the customs of that
time allowed to be cut low, and which her own
taste adopted (for neither she nor her her sister
in sorrow ever wore the conventional widows
weeds and widows cap), her thoughtful, ear.
nest eyes, her short upper lip and intellectually
curved mouth, with a certain close-compressed
and decisive expression while she listened, and
a relaxation into fuller redness and mobility
when speaking, her exqnsitely formed white
dimped, small hands, with rosy palms and
plumply commencing fingers that tapered into
tips as slender and delicate as those in
Vandyck portrait-all remain palpably present
to memory Another peculiarty in Mrs. Shell
ley's hand was its singular fiexiblity, which
permitted her bending the fingers back so as
almost to approach the portion of her arm
abova her wrist She once did this smilingly
and repeatedly to amuse the girl who was not
ing its whitehess and pliancv, and who now as
an old woman, records its remarkable beauty"