Published by Whittaker & in La Belle Afsemblee N°76/new Series) for April, 1837 The Proofs by M.Conaghi, 23 Cockspur Street LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉ E, FOR APRIL, 1831. ILLUSTRATIVE MEMOIR OF LADY CUMMING GORDON. and merit have long entitled her to move. Having, in our memoirs of Lady Charlotte Bury, and her younger daughter, Lady Tullamore, presented ample details of the illustrious house of Argylle, maternal ancestors of Lady Gordon, we shall now, instead of repeating information previously given, proceed briefly to notice the ancient family of Cumming Gordon, to the representative of which, Sir William, Miss Campbell was married in the year 1815. WITH the ancestral descent of this lady,|| that splendid circle in which her birth maternal and paternal, the readers of LA BELLE ASSEMBLEE have been some time acquainted. Eliza Maria, wife of Sir William Gordon Cumming Gordon, of Gordonstown, in the county of Elgin, Baronet, is the eldest daughter of the late Colonel John Campbell (eldest son of Walter Campbell, of Shawfield, North Britain, Esq.) by the Right Honourable Lady Charlotte Maria Campbell (now Lady Charlotte Bury); consequently, she is a grand-daughter of His Grace, the late, and niece of the present Duke of Argylle; and sister of the Right Honourable Harriet Charlotte Beaujolois, Viscountess Tullamore.* Lady Cumming Gordon's father died on the 15th of March, 1809; her mother, eminently distinguished by her beauty, her talents, her intellectual powers, still survives, the admiration of • In the XIth volume of LA BELLE AsSEMBLEE, page 231, will be found a portrait of Lady Charlotte Bury, engraved by Wright, from Sir Thomas Lawrence's celebrated pic ture; in the IIId volume, page 186, a portrait of Lady Tullamore, engraved by Cochran, from a miniature by Wilkin; and, in the IId volume, page 139, a portrait of the Countess of Charleville, mother of Lord Tullamore, engraved by Thomson, from a painting by Hamil ton. No. 76.-Vol. XIII. In the opinion of several antiquaries, the Cumming, or Comyn family, is of Norman extraction, and descended from the Comyns of France, through Robert, Comes, or Count, de Comine, who accompanied William the Conqueror, in 1066, and became progenitor of all the Comyns in this country. It appears, however, from good authority, that the Comyns were settled in Britain before the Conquest; for Robert Cumine, Earl of Northumberland, a powerful Baron in the north of England, was employed, in 1068, by the Norman Duke against the insurgents of Durham, whose immediate descendants were expelled from England, by William Rufus, in 1095. According to other statements, the Comyns are of the ancient inhabitants of Scotland; Cumine, who succeeded Columba, in 597, having 2 A 1 been the second abbot of Icolmkill; and Comineas Albus, living in 657, was the sixth abbot of the same monastery. Be this as it may, there was no name so great, or so extensively diffused, when surnames became hereditary in this country, as that of Comyn; and, from the reign of King Malcolm Canmore, to that of Robert Bruce, the individuals who enjoyed it had larger landed possessions, and far greater power, than any other clan in Scotland. In 1255, there were no fewer than thirty-two knights of the name of Comyn, in Scotland; and, unquestionably, the Comyns, lords of Badenock-from whom descended the Earls of Buchan, Monteith, Angus, &c.-held the chiefship || of the whole clan. Robert Comes de Comyn, the earliest ancestor of this family upon record, was a nobleman of the first rank in Scotland, in the reign of King Malcolm Canmore, and he also held a considerable estate in the county of Northumberland. He fell at the battle of Alnwick, in 1093. His grandson, William, came into honourable notice in the year 1200, as one of the envoys whom King William the Lion deputed to King John, to congratulate him on his accession to the English throne. About ten years afterwards, he became Earl of Buchan, in right of his second lady, the Countess and heiress of Buchan. Walter, one of his sons by a former marriage, became Earl of Monteith. Thus, through a long race of distinguished individuals, descended Alexander Penrose Cumming, Esq., eldest son of Alexander Cumming, Esq., of Altyr, in Elgin, by Grace Penrose, niece and sole heiress of John Penrose, of Penrose, in the county of Cornwall, Esq.; and, as the heir and representative of the last Sir William Gordon, Bart., of Gordonstown, he assumed, in obedience to the testamentary injunction of that gentleman, the name and arms of Gordon, and was created a Baronet on the 21st of May, 1804. Sir Alexander married Helen, daughter of Sir Ludovick Grant, of Grant, North Britain, Bart., by whom he had a family of two sons and nine daughters. Of the sons, the elder was William, his successor, the present Baronet, born on the 20th of July, 1787. On the decease of his father, February 10, 1806, he succeeded to the title; and, on the 11th of September, 1815, he married' the lady whose portrait is here prefixed. The offspring of this union are as follows:-Alexander Penrose, born August 17, 1816;-Ronaleyn George, born March 15, 1820;-Henry, born November 14, 1822;-John Randolph, born June 21, 1826; - Anne Seymour Conway;-and Adelaide Eliza. Sir William Gordon Cumming Gordon "represents, in the male line, as chief of the name, the ancient family of Cumming; and he inherits, through female descent, the estates of the knightly house of Gordon, of Gordonstown, premier Baronets of Nova Scotia, whose dignity, in the terms of the regulating patent, under the sign manual of King William the Third, is merged in the ducal house of Portland. Sir William is also heir-general of the very ancient family of Penrose, of Penrose, in Cornwall, which family was settled there antecedent to the Conquest.” NATIONAL COSTUME AND CHARACTER OF WOMEN. From a Traveller's Note Book. FRANCE. The head and fountain of || taste and fashion in dress, yet without any distinctive marks to tell the source from which their fashions spring. Whilst the French disperse all that is valued in dress to the whole world, it is amongst their peasantry alone that any thing approaching to a national or characteristic costume may be seen. The dress of the Parisian belle is a compound of the produce of earth, sea, and air. The growth of the whole world, from Siberia to Otaheite, is made tributary to her || wants; and she gives to every nouveauté a name by which it is distinguished and made known. None will dispute the gracefulness of most French women, nor their successful pains to resemble the finest statues of antiquity, from which they seldom depart, always taking care, through every variety, not to outrage nature. In illustration of their manners and character, a scene from real life will perhaps be more acceptable than any laboured moral disquisition. The Hôtel de was the most attractive in all Paris, particularly to young Englishmen, whose residence in the capital was but migratory. I amongst the number was dazzled by the beauty and splendour of the soirées held there, to which, by good fortune, I managed, with a friend, to get introduced. We there met the lovely young Countess and her sister, nearly as lovely as herself. They were the most interesting creatures in the room, and seemed endowed with qualities that to our minds appeared more English than French. How these charming girls, thought I, to all the fascinations of French manners, add the endearments of affability and candour! My friend was with me in opinion, and improved his acquaintance with the elder sister to that sort of friendship, which consists in sighing, in looking tenderly into each other's eyes, and pressing one's partner closely during the waltz. I was not so successful with my fair inamorata as to be allowed any such hapNo. 76. Vol. XIII. piness, for, after one or two tours of the room, she became exhausted, and so near fainting, that I was obliged to lead her from the ball-room to the marble-paved vestibule, to give her some fresh air: here, having provided her with a seat, no fan at hand, my scented handkerchief proved a substitute till she seemed somewhat recovered. But, like the adder in the fable, she stung me to the quick for my kindness. "Mon ami," said she, "je ne veur pas que l'ou me passe ces attentions là, quand ou ne vas pas m'épouser!” This was a poser. What, thought I, can't a gentleman display a little politeness towards a lady without being accused of marriage? I returned to my friend to tell him what an unfortunate fellow I was, that I could not look a lady in the face without being asked to marry! But he was too much occupied with his lovely Countess to heed any of my annoyances; she had just done him the favour to admire a beautiful emerald ring he wore on his finger, and he had done as much to one of infinitely less value on her's; so they had contrived to make an exchange. My friend exultingly triumphed in the delicacy with which he had overcome her scruples in inducing her to wear his little bijou. To dancing succeeded cards. My friend, somewhat of a dandy, must needs play écarté with his gloves on; as though, in the true English pride of wealth, he disdained to touch paltry gold with his delicate fingers. This excited the risibility of his adversaries at the game; a number of French officers, of the Garde du Corps, whispering and smiling amongst themselves at the affectation of my fellow countryman. No sooner, from a private intimation of mine, had he uncovered his hand, than the little French ring caught the eye of the officer with whom he had been playing— "Where got you that ring, Sir?” exclaimed he, in a loud and angry voice. Unused to interrogatories so put, he replied warmly; and in an angry conver 2 B |