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to her notice as the writer of a col- || twenty years the hospitable mansions lection of miscellaneous poems, and of the Cliff and Holy Wells (her which were submitted to her inspec- late residence) were enlivened by an tion. These she corrected, arranged, annual party on the evening of St. and prefaced with an introductory Valentine's day, for which festive narrative, and published for the au- occasion Mrs. Cobbold designed, thor's benefit, under the following composed, and executed, with great title: “ Poetical Attempts, by Ann | taste and elegance, a collection of Candler, a Suffolk Cottager; with a Valentines, generally to the number short Narrative of her Life." Of of eighty, which were all cut curithis little work more than five hun-ously out on a half-sheet of letterdred copies were sold, the profits of paper, and each inscribed with verses which, to a person in the writer's applicable to the subject. They lowly circumstances, afforded a con- were then folded precisely alike in siderable relief. At an amateur per- blue paper, and placed, the ladies' formance at the Ipswich theatre in Valentines in one basket, and the 1805, for the benefit of the Lying-in gentlemen's in another; and when Charity of that town, ever ready to cards or music had contributed for aid a charitable purpose, Mrs. Cob- | an hour or two to the amusement of bold wrote an appropriate and witty the evening, these baskets were handepilogue; and subsequently, on a si. ed round to the unmarried visitors, milar occasion, she furnished an ex- and the Valentines drawn by them cellent introductory address. From as a lottery, each lady or gentleman her love of the drama, she was a selecting one at their pleasure from very constant attendant on the thea- the respective packets. The prize tre, and a warm patroness of that was intended to prognosticate to the delightful recreation. She herself person who drew it marriage, or a also possessed much taste and skill matrimonial engagement, in the enin dramatic composition, and wrote suing year; while the others, from several pieces of great merit. At their fancied coincidences with the the commencement of Mr. Raw's supposed sentiments of the parties, “ Ladies' Fashionable Repository” in afforded a unique and interesting 1809, she became a valuable contri- amusement. butor, and continued annually to the The following scena, which formclose of her life to grace with her ed one of the Valentines for the poetical effusions the pages of that year 1814, is introduced, as in some highly favoured publication. When measure depictive of this entertain, any subject of interest engaged her ment: feelings and attention, it was frequent

SCENA, ly celebrated and adorned both by

OBERON AND ROBIN GOODPELLOW. her pen and pencil; and the application of her ready talent for writing

Come, blythest Elf of Fancy's band,

Obey the Fairy King's command. poetry on any particular event that occurred, as it was always done in

Robin Goodfellow. perfect good-humour, was a source

* 'Tis now the time, as swains relate,

When every bird selects its mate. of gratification and pleasure to her

Now elves to eastern climes resort, friends. For a period of nearly Their sprightly fairy dames to court,

Oberon.

And hold their revels, blythe and boon, interesting and happy party, while
Beneath the mild and dewy moon. l each individual enjoyed the general
What, in this consecrated hour,
Exempt from aught of mischiet's power,

gaiety of the evening. Has Oberon, 'mid lovers true,

In consequence of the anxiety exFor Robin Goodfellow to do?

pressed by many of Mrs. Cobbold's Oberon.

friends to possess copies of her Va. To Britain's eastern coast repair,"

lentines, she in 1813 and 1814 printWhere gently glides the Orwell fair; There shalt thou find a cheerful dame,

ed them for private circulation; and More grac'd by happiness than fame, on the presentation of a copy to a Who gives to-night a festive scene noble earl in the vicinity of Ipswich, In honour of our Fairy Queen.

his lordship inserted in the blank And Britain's loveliest daughters there The mental revel freely share,

page the following complimentary And draw the merry Valentine,

verses: Inscrib'd with many a sportive line.

A Valentine of adverse fate, Go thou, and so the packets guide,

Still anxious for a willing mate, That each, appropriately supplied,

Into this book once took a peep, May find an emblem to impart

In hope some benefit to reap; The secret wishes of her heart.

At least to search with eager eyes So Beauty's animated smile

The likeliest way to gain a prize. Shall well reward thy wanton wile;

Encourag'd by the courteous strain, And Mirth and unaffected Glee

He read, admir'd, and read again : Shall join the gentle revelry.

The Graces lead him through the page, I will not, Puck, where all are fair,

The Muses too bis mind engage, Presume to bid thee choose the fairest;

Announcing in Attraction's name But to thy love a billet bear,

A welcome to the festive game; And when thy choice thou thus declarest,

And from her train of thronging fair, Tell her, that in her sparkling eye

Not one is bapish'd but Despair: Such gay good-humour thou didst spy,

Wealth, Wit, and Beauty here combine Such mirth, thou couldst not but opine

To celebrate Saint Valentine, That she would share these tricks of thine, il

By which this coveted retreat And bid that eye's bright lustre shine

Displays Elysium complete. Approving on her Valentine.

Enraptar'd with the painted bliss, The recurrence of this festival was

He cries, “ Explain the cause of this!

What goddess here so chaste resides, ever anticipated with the greatest

And with such attic taste presides? pleasure by those who were accus Under what star auspicious teems tomed to share in the invitation to

The soil with such Pierian streams? this annual recreation, particularly

At Cliff, declare on whose account

Parnassus rears another mount!" by the younger part of her visitors,

Quoth Truth, " 'Tis COBBOI.D here is queen; whose hopes and feelings must often Her genius forins the classic scene." have been woven as it were into this ! (To be concluded in our next.)

THE CONFESSIONS OF A RAMBLER.

No. XIX. I once more sit down to give a session of Congress, to hear the defew reminiscences of my visits to bates. I found very little order or Washington; though perhaps they regularity in that assembly. The will afford less amusement to my hall in which the representatis readers in the perusal, than to my- met was a splendid room, handself in the recollection. I several | somely fitted up. The speaker times visited the capital during the placed in a chair of state, with a

gorgeous velvet canopy over his head; || tagonist'; whilst Matthewwould knock the members seated in their elbow- him down, spit in his face, or as I chairs with stuffed seats, whilst the understand was once the case) bite fioor was covered with rich carpeting; off his ear. Indeed personal alterand the elegant drapery which de- cations, not always conducted accorated the apartment, were very cording to the most approved rules unlike the stern simplicity of repub- of good breeding, were by no means licanism. The members had a very rare in the American legislatare; and undignified appearance, and their I have heard very uncourteous terms manners were as undignified as their applied by one niember to another, looks. They lounged in their easy | without exciting even a call to “or. chairs, read their newspapers, wrote | der" from the speaker. letters, slept, or left their places, and I have mentioned Mr. Lyon, and huddled round a particular speaker, he was an instance of wonderful good without any regard to order, and still fortunę, if his history, as related to less of attention to the matter in de me, was correct. He was a native bate. I heard only one speaker who of the Emerald Isle, and einigrated could really be called an eloquent when quite a lad, as a redemptioner; orator, and very few who were even that is to say, the captain of the vespassable; and yet the Americans, sel gave him his passage, and sold with true Yankee vanity, arrogate him, on bis arrival in America, for a to themselves a supremacy in this term of seven years to the best bidpoint, as well as in every other, over der. He had a good heart and a the old world. The eloquent speaker | stout frame, and never hesitated at tu whom I allude was the celebrat- working hard, however ill he fared. ed John Randolph, to whom I was This is the sort of people who get introduced by Mr. Matthew Lyon, a on in America; and accordingly Mr. member from either Tenessee or | Lyon from a white slave became a Kentucky, I now forget which, with man of substance and a representawhom I had become acquainted at tive in Congress. He was an eccenMr. Mortimer's. No two men could tric but a worthy man; his greatest present a greater contrast than Mr. fault was an inveterate antipathy to Lyon and Mr. Randolph. The form- || England and its government. er was tall and stout; the latter small Mr. Randolph, as in person and and slim: Mr. Randolph, though i acquirements, so in birth and forextremely juvenile in his appearance, tune, was the very reverse of Mr. had a gentlemanly aspect; Mr. Lyon Lyon. He may be said to belong to resembled a boor from some of the the real aristocracy of America, for inlanıl counties in England, who had he is descended from one of the never seen any thing of civilized-so most ancient families in the state of ciety. Both were of irritable tem- || Virginia, and allied to the famous pers; but Randolph, if assailed in Pocahontas, whose romantic story the house, in a tone which roused every one must be acquainted with. all his passions, and almost put them The following particulars relative to beyond the controul of prudence, him are, I believe, perfectly authenwould retort in a strain of keen sar tic. They are taken froin a memocasın or severe rebuke upon his an- l rancium collected from sources which

fell in my way whilst in America, || his researches into that branch of it and from private information. I give which related to nature and nations, the slight sketch (with some verbal About this period his fellow-citizens, corrections only) as I wrote it some looking upon him as a prodigy, efecto years back for a different purpose. ed him their representative. tu Con

He was born about the year 1777, gress, at the early age of twenty-two and received the first rudiments of years; and he has since continued a his education at Richmond Academy, very active member of that body.. from whence he was sent, with his When he presented himself be. two elder brothers, to the college at fore the speaker, Mr. Sledgewick, New-York. Whilst there he seldom to take the customary oaths, struck mingled in the sports of his youthful with his boyish appearance, that gencotemporaries, but devoted the hours tleman demanded, with a sternness of permitted and necessary amuse. peculiar to him, whether he was of ment, either to a literary lounge in a age. “ Ask my constituents who bookseller's shop(book-stores, as they sent me here," retorted Mr. Ran. term them in America--the Ainericans dolph; which silenced the speaker, do not like to talk of the shop), or to and astonished the whole house. He the perusal of some favourite author commenced his political career as a in his own apartment. He hence oh- warm supporter of the line of politics tained the name of "the book-worm,” which distinguished Mr. Jefferson's and " the young pedant;" but heed- administration. But disgusted with less of the ridicule of his thoughtless the partial conduct which marked classmates and giddy brothers, he the intercource of the cabinet with pursued his course, and laid up a France and England, he was, during store of useful learning, instead of the period of my sojourn in America, wasting his time in dissipation. generally found in the list of oppo

He finished his studies with credit, || sition. His enemies, instead of atand obtained his degree without diftributing this change to his indeficulty. On his return to his native pendent spirit, which scorns to supstate, at the carnest request of his port ineasures opposed to the welfather, he devoted himself to the fare of his country, ascribed it to study of the law, under the care of interested motives, springing out of a maternal uncle. In a short period, a disappointment in not being aphe made a very considerable progress pointed to a foreign embassy which in that important science; and when he solicited. From the highest auintroduced to practice, his fame spread thority, I have reason to know that like electricity, and he appeared to this report was erroneous: he never be fast rising to the liighest emisolicited any such appointment, for nence in his profession. The death which the weakness of his constituof his father and elder brother hav- tion unfitted him; and the petulance ing, however, placed hiin in posses of his temper certainly afforded no sion of a fortune more than compe- recommendation for a diplomatic sitent to his wants, as his habits were tuation. very abstemious and regular, he re- In private life, Mr. Randolph is linquished the law as a profession, humane and benevolent; but in the but commencel, as a course of study, social circle too apt to assume a dic

tatorial manner. He is naturally very | As an orator, Mr. Randolph was irritable, and if once offended, is certainly the first on the floor of seldom or ever reconciled. The fol. Congress. A panegyrist in an Amelowing anecdote is authentic, and rican paper says of him, that " he does not display a favourable trait in unites the solidity of a Fox with the his character:

fire of a Burke; the majesty of a From his first introduction into Pitt with the playful humour and public life, a very friendly intimacy || biting satire of a Sheridan." Withsubsisted between him and Mr. Ma | out giving credit to this eulogium in dison. The house of the latter was its utmost extent, it is certain, that Mr. Randolph's home, and he was he is equalled by no member of the considered as a son of the family. | American legislature, and is not surAlthough he frequently violated the || passed by many in the British serules of decorum, in attempting to nate. His action is chaste, and his dictate to that gentleman when se- | diction classical. His voice is weak cretary of state in respect to his of- and effeminate, yet his utterance is ficial duties, yet it was overlooked. | distinct and melodious; and where Not content, however, with this, Mr. | the judgment cannot assent to his Randolph attempted to play off some reasoning, it is often bewildered by of his sarcastic humour upon the fe- the force of his eloquence. males of the family. This rudeness I look back with pleasure to my was properly resented from that short intercourse with this eminent quarter; and from that day Mr. Ran- | man; I found his conversation not dolph became a stranger to, and has | merely entertaining, but highly insince been the enemy of, one of his structive; and his views more truly warmest friends. This acerbity and | liberal (I use the word in its legitiirascibility in his disposition are the mate sense, and not in accordance more to be lamented, united as they with the cant of the day), than those are with the most cordial benevolence of any native American with whom and goodness of heart, which are it was my fate to become acquainted. evinced in his conduct to those whom

A RAMBLER, he has the power to relieve.

THE LITERARY COTERIE.

No. VII. Our party met on the 10th of, lours of the spring; for a few genial August, all in “merry mood;" for so showers, which had fallen during the delightful was the evening, that it past week, had changed the arid apwas sufficient to inspire with mirthpearance that a few days back it exevery heart not totally insensible bibited; and the latter was in full to the charms of nature. I have bloom; and the rich and beautiful already said that the vicar's study tints of the flowers charmed the eye, opened to a lawn, and that a“ beau- whilst their perfume was grateful to tiful flower-parterre ornamented the the smell. The windows were thrown front of the house." The first was open; Mrs. Primrose, with the young blooming in all the refreshing co. Il ladies, Mrs. Mathews, and Mrs. Mon

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