Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1883-04-27

Story .. the Li:e OF Lord Byrons Only
Child.
DER GfE "a FoNDNE>~ TOi: ~PEII-
i.ITtU<.

EATIU\.
Few persons probably have ever
r"ad the commencing and conclud-
ing stanZas Of the third cantu Of
"Chllde Harold without deep in
tsrest III the Ada" he touchingly
tpostrophizes. The story of Ecr
life. Intimately enough known in
those repertOrles OF unwritten bio
.,raphies of the aristocracy 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 Mill
| bankr WAS llst five week, old when
tn" mother and wife. for reason,
never satisfactorily explained. re-
/ turned 10 her fathers house Here
the infant grew into girlhood under
tn" care of her mother. and here,
after Lady Bvron's accession to her
! property, were the foundations Of
Augusta Ada's education laid
lnhcrtlnS uncommon genius.
though. Is We shall presently ex
! plain, only diverse from her fathers.
eh" WAS brought up with the most
tender care. and educated by the
most thorough training. Her per
sonal beauty dev"!oped with her
mind. She Is described l,v person
who frequently saw her, when at the
! az Of twenty years she was living
with her mother at Clifton Springs,
as of the most quecnly presence and
graceful carriage. her complexion
fresh, her rfeatures of perfect contour.
her eyes large and brilliant, her head
set upon her shoulders like her ia
thcr's. her hair chestnut, abundant
and wavy, ans! her person slightly
e"tto"poim. but perfect in proper
tons. To these charms there were
added voice of great sweetness. and
a vlvaclty i'll conversation that held
i'll 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 work of Lord Byron till
pass her puberty OF TO. inheritance
from her mother. her understanding
of the exact sciences was excellpd by
no woman OF her time, except Mrs.
Somerville. and. indeed. by few of
the other sex. In proof OF her extra
ordinary attalnmcnts i'll this respect,
it is mentioned BY the late Charles
Babbage, i'll his " Passages from the
life of Philosopher" that she in
formed him she had translated for
her amusement. Menabrea'a Me-
NOR of the Analytical Engine" from
the " Bibliotheque Universellc" He
proposed 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 de
monstration that the operations of
analysis are capable OF being executed
by machinery" This translation
with the notes may he found in vol
ume NNNI. of the " Transactions of
the Royal Society"
Ada Byron was married to the
Earl of Lovelace, i'll March 1885.
The marriage was not an unhappy
one. Her husband. respectable in
talents and domestic habits, lord
lieutenant of his county and high in
social position. suitable in age and
possessed of large estates. regarded
his wife with mingled feelings of af
fection and admiration. Unwilling
that She should be known publicly as
an authoress. he nevertheless. oftener
than once. gave permission that Ger
tain of her articles on various
branches of science, about which
thinking men made inquiry, might
be acknowledged as hers. Children
were born to them: their tastes were
no more dissimilar than was consis
tent with common ii not promotive
of unusual harmony: and t1.eir home
was often spoken of by those old
enough to remember the two, as furn-
ishlng happy contrast to that
which her mother had abandoned
twenty years before.
But Lady Lovelace craved excite
ment. Neither town life or 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 so
clety, her rank among the aristocracy,
nor the admin alton her beauty and
gifts received wherever she appeared,
were sufficient. She speculated in
the funds. bet at horse races. bought
and sold III 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 earl V days of the last
century, partook largely in the ven.
tunes All this could we'll enough be
without the knowledge. as it were, of
her husband. Beside 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 was too deep. Her risks
were unfortunate: and though she
might have recovered from all this.
most inopportunely her attorney be
cam" Il bankrupt. and her operations
were exposed, III his assets before the
courts. t. the world. Terribly morti-
fled, she appealed to her husband,
who, To save the scandal of any legal
process, cancelled her liabilities bv
very cnneid"rahlr recuniary sacrifice.
The shock. however, was too great
for her cNcitahle nature. and il 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 of her death.
1t was at the shore. and a gentle
man was chatting on his cottage
porch with two OF three guests. His