living friend, in the person of Lady
Margaret Harley, who became the celebrated Duchess of Portland. This
intimacy was kept up to the end of their lives, by constant letters,
visits, and other endearments. The admirable Mrs. Barbauld, Hannah
More, and Elizabeth Carter, were also her cherished friends. She was
the founder of the far-famed "Blue-Stocking Club." Few friendships,
it is certain, have ever existed between women more thoroughly sound
and comforting than that of Hannah More and Mrs. Garrick. After the
death of the great tragedian, Hannah spent a large part of her time
with his widow. Mrs. Garrick fondly called Miss More her chaplain. As
friends of Elizabeth Carter, besides those already named, Pulteney,
Earl of Bath, Mr. Montague, Dr. Johnson, Sir George Lyttleton,
Archbishop Seeker, Miss Sutton, Mrs. Vesey, and, above all, Miss
Catherine Talbot, deserve to be especially Mentioned. Miss Carter and
Miss Talbot corresponded regularly for thirty years, and shared
almost every secret. Not a single misunderstanding occurred to mar
the placidity of their solid confidence and good will. It is a
pleasure, even at this day, to look through their voluminous, rather
stiff and prosy, but entirely sensible and affectionate
correspondence.

There was an ardent friendship, of which the details have perished,
between the once famous novelist and poet, Charlotte Smith, and the
lovely, unhappy, romantic Henrietta, Lady O'Niel.

Twelve times the moon, that rises red
O'er yon tall wood of shadowy pine,
Has filled her orb, since low was laid,
My Harriet, that sweet form of thine!

No more thy friendship soothes to rest
This wearied spirit, tempest-tossed:
The cares that weigh upon my breast
Are doubly felt since thou art lost.

But, ere that wood of shadowy pine
Twelve times shall yon full orb behold,
This sickening heart, that bleeds for thine,
My Harriet, may like thine be cold!

Anna Seward, considerably admired in her own generation, as a beauty
and as a writer, though the great faults of her judgment and style
are fast bringing oblivion over her pages, was a devoted friend of
that beautiful Honora Sneyd of whom Major Andre was the rejected
lover. It was a profound sympathy with both the parties which
prompted the composition of her once famous "Monody on Major Andre."
One is sorry to learn, that, on the marriage of Honora with Mr.
Edgeworth, and her removal to Ireland, her friendship for Anna, as
often happens in s