Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1876-07-22

dldIIueu ny u oIOiul uulAuS bllC |
passage, her voice no less than her
fears at once betrayed her to Carlyle. |
This led to an avOwal Of her pro-
fession and of the object of her
journey, and the young, handsome
Scotchman took care not to leave
London without seeing his fair
fellow-traveler on the opera stage,
where he found her dancing to be
exquisite"
Such was the general verdict.
The dancing Of those days was not
a thing in which every womanly
feeling, every refined grace, was
violated. 1t aspired to delight by
the poetry of motion, not to amaze
by complexities of distortion or
brilliant marvels Of muscular force.
Beautiful, modest, accomplished,
the Violette not only charmed on
the stage, but soon found her way
into fashionable society.
So early as June, TAG, Horace
Walpole writes to his friend Mon
tague: "The fame of the Violette
increases daily. The sister Count
esses of Burlington and Talbot ex-
ert all their stores of sullen partial
ity and competition for her." The
Countess of Burlington took her to
live with her, and was in the habit
of attending her to the theater, and
waiting at the side wings to throw
a shawl over her as she left the
stage. These attentions, due solely
to the charm Of the young lady and
the enthusiasm of her patrOness,
were quite enough to set in motion
the tongues Of the Mrs. Oandors and
Sir Benjamin Backbites Of society.
The Violette, they began to whis-
per, was a daughter of Lord Bur
lington by Florentine Of rank;
and when, upon her marriage with
Garrick in 1749, she received a
handsome marriage portion from
the Countess, this was considered
conclusive evidence of the scandal
1t was not, however, from the Ear
, but from the Countess that the
: dowry came. 1t consisted OF a sun
of five thousand pounds, secured OIL
one of her ladyship's estates, Gar
: rick on his part settling ten thou
, sand pounds on his bride, with sew
: enty pounds year of pin money
: 1t is quite possible that the securit
: for five thousand pounds granted b
the Countess was simply an equiv
= alent for some such sum previousl
S handed over to her by the youn
If lady. But the parties kept thei
n own counsel in their arrangements
d and SO left the busybodies at fault
e. The Countess, it is said, locke
y higher for her young friend thal
n the great player, as a countess wit
y so celebrated a beauty in hand wa
d likely to do; and it was not withou
Il difficulty that Gar1ck won wha
IS proved to be the great prize Of hi
!. life. He had on one occasion t
1t disguise himself as a woman in OF
n der to convey a letter to his mis-
i" tress. But the fact of her receiy
d ing it bespeaks the foregone cor
le clusion that he had won her heart
If and, that fact once aScertained, tn
Countess was probably too wise t
!" oppose further resistance. Ho'
Iy attractive in person the youn
d dancer was her portraits survive t
n tell us. What her lover thought {
D. her appears from some verses whic
e. he wrote in the first happiness {
le what we cannot call his honeymoon
W for their whole married life was on
n honeymoon.
Il ',Tis nit. my friend, her sneaking face
Her shane. her youth, her winning grace
* Have reached my heart; the fair one MI
IN Ouiek as her eyes, yet soft ana klhu-
A gayety with innocence,
1r A soft address, with manly sense;
Il, Ravishing manners void OF art
IN A cheerful, firm, yet FEELING heart,
ne Beauty that charms all puolic gage,
~ And humble amid pomp and praise