Litchfield enquirer., 1879-04-24

gz-~=- -MRs.- -fEeHBAI5D AND HER 0FFERs.-Aff the men were in love with her, among the rest Dr: W0lcott, (''Peter Pindar, who addressed to her cepy of verses commencing ~
 v s"Eliza, when, with female art, .
 hY s You seem to shun andsyet pursue"-I
 in which, in very plain language, he intmated that the dame was too coy for so warm alover as himself. Holcreft, in one Of hls widow hoods, made her an offer; also a gentleman named Glover, who would have settled .f500 year upon her; but there was Sir Charles Bunbury, who paid her devoted attention, and for the chance of becoming My Lady," and for preference to the gay, dashing Baronet, she refused this very advantageous proposal. Sir Charles dangled after her for years, tried hard to obtain her upon easier terms than mar riage, was several times forbidden the house in consequence. and as many times made his peace She was undoubtedly fascinating to an extraordinary degree; it was said of her that when she came into room and sat in a chair ill the middle of it, as was her custom, every man gathered around it, and it was useless for any other woman to attempt to gain attention. Goodwin described her as a piquant mixture between lady and a milk maid; Sheridan declared she was the only autheress whose society pleased him, and George Frederick Reynolds tells us that the impediments in her speech-which YVES never heard upon the stage -imparted charm rather than defect to her conversation At nearly 90 she was still belle and coquette; she was always Iii love, but still always with the wrong man, with the one who-could not or would not marry her. Mrs Shelly says it was because they were too mercenary to take an actress and a poor atl- theress for wife; but with the example of the Earls of Derby and Craven, who married la dies decidedly inferior in intellectual, if not in personal charms, to Mrs. 1nchbald, before them, they would have scarcely hesitated upon those grounds It was her violent and capric- ions temper they all feared to undertake. There was Dr. Osborne, who for time took tea with her two or three times week, and paid her the most devoted attentions but one day, when she was fully expecting dec laration and an offer of marriage, she says ''he talked seriously of marrying, but not to me-" The widows rage and modification may be conceived, she ordered him out of her room, and forbade him ever to visit or even write to her again. But although these admirers could not summon up courage to put the moose round their necks no snubs nor insults could drive them away, and after time Gisborne was permitted to renew his tete-a-tete There was Dr. Warren, but he was married man, for whom she conceived most desperate fancy. It was delight to her even to hear his name mentioned in company; she would walk up and down Sackvlle- street, where he lived, to watch for the lights in his apartments and would follow his carriage about the town for the chance of catching glimpse of hlm. She would even accept strangers in the street. Yet it must again be repeated that not even scandal could ever cast stain upon her char acter. "No woman," says Reynolds the dramatist, lever entered the walls of a thea Ire with more fair honorable pride than Mrs. 1nchbald, nor ever quilted it with more admi- ration and esteem, Temple Bur.