health, and begging to know whether there was any thing at
table that she would like to eat? The answer was always--"Lady
Cathcart's compliments, and she has every thing she wants." An instance
of honesty in a poor Irishwoman deserves to be recorded. Lady Cathcart
had some remarkably fine diamonds, which she had concealed from her
husband, and which she was anxious to get out of the house, lest he
should discover them. She had neither servant nor friend to whom she
could intrust them, but she had observed a beggar who used to come to
the house, she spoke to her from the window of the room in which she was
confined; the woman promised to do what she desired, and Lady Cathcart
threw a parcel, containing the jewels, to her.

The poor woman carried them to the person to whom they were directed;
and several years afterward, when Lady Cathcart recovered her liberty,
she received her diamonds safely. At Colonel Macguire's death, which
occurred in 1764, her ladyship was released. When she was first informed
of the fact, she imagined that the news could not be true, and that it
was told only with an intention of deceiving her. At the time of her
deliverance she had scarcely clothes sufficient to cover her; she wore a
red wig, looked scared, and her understanding seemed stupefied: she said
that she scarcely knew one human creature from another: her imprisonment
had lasted nearly twenty years. The moment she regained her freedom she
hastened to England, to her house at Tewing, but the tenant, a Mr.
Joseph Steele, refusing to render up possession, Lady Cathcart had to
bring an action of ejectment, attended the assizes in person, and gained
the cause. At Tewing she continued to reside for the remainder of her
life. The only subsequent notice we find of her is, that, at the age of
eighty, she took part in the gayeties of the Welwyn Assembly, and danced
with the spirit of a girl. She did not die until 1789, when she was in
her ninety-eighth year.

In the mansion-house of Tempo, now the property of Sir John Emerson
Tennent, the room is still shown in which Lady Cathcart was imprisoned.

FOOTNOTES:

[K] Lady Cathcart's marriage to Macguire took place 18th May, 1745.

LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY.

FROM OUR FOREIGN FILES, AND UNPUBLISHED BOOKS.

Sidney Smith's account of the origin of the _Edinburgh Review_ is well
known. The following statement was written by Lord Jeffrey, at the
request of Robert Chambers, in Nove