Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1880-06-24
LORD BYRON's DAUGmTER.
A Genius in the Exact Sciences
magnificent in Look "A
Reckless Stock Gam.
bier, She Dies a
Bankrupt.
Nom York Homo-Jonrnnl.l

Few persons probably have ever
read the commencing and concluding
stanzas of the third canto of Child
Harold" without a. deep interest in
the Ada" he touchingly a~postroph-
ICES. The story of her life, intimately
enough known in these repositories Of
unwritten biographies of the aris-
tocracy-the Pail Mall club-has not
often been told abroad.
1t will be remembered that the first
and only born of that unhappy mar
|riage of Lord Byron to Miss Millbank
was just five weeks old when the
mother and wife, for reasons never
satisfactorily explained, returned to
her fathers house. Here the infant
grew into glrlhood, under the care Of
her mother, and here, after Lady
Byron's accession to her property,
were the foundations of Augusta Ada's
education laid.
lnheriting uncommon genius,
though, as we shall presently explain,
wholly diverse from her fathers, she
was brought up with the most tender
care, and educated by the most thor
ough training. Her personal beauty
developed with her mind. She is de-
scribed by a person who frequently
saw her, when at the age of twenty.
years she was living with her mother
at Clifton Springs, as one OF the most
queenly presence and graceful car
riage, her complexion fresh, her fea-
lures of perfect contour, her eyes
large and brilliant, her head set upon
her shoulders like her fathers, her
hair chestnut, abundant and wavy,
and her person slightly e%mbonpoint,
but perfect in proportion. To these
charms there were added a voice #
great sweetness, and a vivacity in con
versation hat held in thrall all who
approached her.
Her tastes, however, were for pure
mathematics. Whether owing to her
education-for she read no poetry,
and never saw a work of Lord Byron
till past her puberty-or to inheri-
lance from her mother, understand
ing OF the exact sciences was excelled
by no woman of her time, except Mrs.
Somerville, and, indeed, by few of the
other sex. In proof of her extraor.
binary attainments in this respect, it
il mentioned by the late Charles
Babbage, in his Passages from the
life of a Philosopher, that she in
formed him she had translated for
her amusement "Menabrea's Memoir
of the Analytical Engine from the
"Bibliothique Universelle." He pro-
posed that she should add notes of
her own. This she did, extending
them to three times the length Of the
original memoir. Babbage says that
to all persons capable of understand
ing the reasoning it furnishes "a dem
onstratiOn that the operations of
analysis are capable Of being axe
cuted by machinery" This t%ransla-
ton with the notes may be found in
volume 81 of the Transactions of the
Royal Society"
Ada Byron was married to the Earl
of Lovelace in March, 1885. The
marriage was not an unhappy one.
Her Husband, respectable in talents
and domestic habits, lord lieutenant
of his country, and high in social po-
%sition, suitable in age, and possessed
of large estates, regarded his wife with
mingled feelings of affection and admi-
ration. Unwilling that she should be
known publicly as an authoress, he
nevertheless, oftener than once gave
/ permission that certain of her articles
on various branches of science, about
which thinking men made inquiry,
might be acknowledged as hers. Chill
dren were born to them their tastes
we're no more dissimilar than was
consistent with common If not promo
tive of unusual harmony and their
home was often spoken of by those
old enough to remember the two, by
furnishing a happy contrast to that
which her mother had abandoned
twenty years before.
But lady Lovelace crayed excite
ment. Neither town life nor country
was sufficient to- satisfy her inherited
desire for constant stimulus. Neither
her studies nor her pen, the care Of her
children nor the pleasures of society,
her rank among the a~ristOcracy, nor
the admiration her beauty and gifts
received wherever she appeared, were
sufficient. She speculated in the funds,
bet at horse races, bought and sold in
the stock market, and finally, during
the railway mania, that, under the
lead of Hudson, was second only in
its universally among the rich and
great to the South Sea bubble of the
early days Of the last century, partook
largely in the ventures. All this could
we'll enough be without the knowledge.
as it was, of her husband. Besides
the ample "pin-money'' allowed her in
the marriage settlement, large returns
came to her from trust funds held for
her in her own right.
But she went too deep. Her risks
were unfortunate, and, though she
might have recovered from all this,
most inopportunely her attorney be.
came a bankrupt, and her operations
were exposed to the world. Terribly
mortified, she appealed to her hus-
band, who, to save the scandal of any
legal process, Cancelled her liabilities
by a very considerable pecuniary sac
riice. The shock, however, was too
great for her excitable nature, and it
has always been believed by those
who best knew what followed that the
shame she felt at the exposure was
the remote. If not the prOximate cause