The star. (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1874-1875, 1875-01-12
English Gossip.


|, English Gossip.
At the rink one often sees many of the
celebrities of Brighton, for sometimes
there are as many as 1000 people, skat
ers and speculators, there at one time
and among such u number, of course, mix
many whose names are familiar to the
public tongue. Many times may be seen
there fair woman, upon whose brown
head falls the sunehine yet from the east
ern horizon of life, whose contours have
a girlish rOundness, but whose features
begin to show the harsh touch of the
chisel of care. Looking upon her one
would believe her to be II girl yet, Tor her
years can not be more than 23-one who
has been very Psyche of girls, and is
not vet far separated from radiant,
buoyant youth. And yet this fair woman
is one whose name has been smirched
and whose fair fame tarnished by one of
the most mOnStrOus scandals OF fashion,
able English society. She is the wife of
a member of the proudest aristocracy in
the world, who is heir TO two EarldOms,
and whose wealth is so great that he him.
self hardly knows its extent.
This is Lord Wentw orth, son of Lady
| Lovelace, who was "Ada, sole daughter
of the heart and home" of the poet, Lord
Byron. BY the paternal line he will in
| berit the titles and honOrs of Lord Love-
lace: bv the maternal he came into pos
session OF his present one. 1t would
seem that some dreadful curse had fall
en- upon this family to make its dOmes-
tic nests foul with toads and vipers, and
all unclean things. Ada Byron, the first
Lady Luyelace, WAS of II very peculiar
| temperament, inheriting from her father
| the morbid conditions which, Ill his case,
were Il reacLi0nary effect Of emotional
ldcIusions, but i'll hers constitutional
| depression.
Lady Lovclace, Ada Byron, transmit
| ted a peculiar mental con stit,ltiou to her
sons. The elder Lord Ockam, who would
| have been Lord Wentworth had he not
| died before the title descended from an
elder branch, was youth oil many alb
normal tastes and eccentric habits. In
his early youth he abandoned his home,
his luxurious habits, and all the refined
associations OfhiS rank, anu worked Tor
months in blacksmith shop. Later in
life he married publicaws laughter,
and it is not unreasonable TO suppose
that the curse OF his race, domestic
blight or tragedy, would have come also
to him had he not died soon after his
marriage. Dying childless, the title,
which IS now Lord Wentworth's, passed
over him 10 Lady Loyelace's second son,
who NOW bears it.
And now this son, Lord Wentworth,
rich, noble, only thirty-twO, and the hus-
band of a wife 80 beautiful that, when
she appeared bride in London assem-
blies, stately dowagers ana mother-of-
the-Gracchi matrOns mounted chairs and
tables to look upon her over intervening
heads as she passed-it would seem that
he must indeed be the man whose gar
ment could cure the Kings malady. But
no! Marrying in haste n beautiful girl,
whose praces were those that enchant
ONLY the senses, he repented at leisure,
when the glamour melted from before his
sight, and he saw that the bright eyes
had no shadowed depths; that the mer-
ry laugh bespoke vacant mind; that
the woman was but an airy nothing, the
most impalpable shimmer OF bubble be-
hind her beautiful tace.
It is told of this nobleman that one
evening, going into the theater, he made
bet. with one of his companions that he
would marry the most beautiful woman
at the play that night. 1t chanced that
the lovely daughter of Newcastle cler-
yyman occupied stall near enough to
the Young men to discover tnat she was
lovely enough to have contested for the
golden apple in the gilt OF Paris; and
before the curtain had fallen upon the
drama of that night the tragedy OF their
lives had begun, tor Lord wentworth de-
termined upon the spot to make The lar
girl his wife. Ofthe subsequent appear
ance of the couple in the divorce courts,
of the shameful charges brought against
the wife, OF the dreadful counter charges
brought aga!nst the husband, who seemed
to have in him The morbid taint OF his
ancestry, all England, which has pas
sion for spicy bits OF faristocrutlc scandal,
knows full we'll.
Sometimes, also, we see at the rink
tall, rather angular woman, evidently
upon the shady side of forty, with dark
hair, cut short, and Streaked with gray,
wi ith coarse lines about her mouth, ana
II deep furrow between her eyes. She
dresses tolerably well, not elabOfately,
or with blind obedience to the latest
mandates of fashion, bit with evident
Indifference to cost, if, also, with a sense
obtuse to the more subtle gradations OF
harmony in color, She is person whom
one might imagine TO be the Principal OF
a girl's school, or the splnster aunt of a
large family Of Obstreperous boys and
nagsing girls, and thus account for the
stern lines of her face, which seem not
SO much that OF Il dominant or a con-
quered sorrow as OF repre- ssed passion.
She is pointed out as formerly an act
ress in the Brighton Theater, now the
wife of London publisher. She has no
trace OF the actress about her; no over
flow OF the Bohemian soul in startling
eccentricities of dress or manner. She
does not look the thorough lady, nor
does she seem the vulgar woman. In her
rather raw-boned physique there is no
evidence 'Overbalanced OF the sensuOus
elements, although that Overbalance can
scarcely but exist in one whose spiritual
perce ptiohs are SO dimmed by the phos-
phorescent light OF fleshly pleasures as
TO enable her to create The sensational
romances that bear her nom de plume
NJ. 4. Braddon.