After the death of Tyrconnel, the Duchess was -mitted to erect a house (still standing) in King-streDublin, as a nunnery for poor Clares; and in thes obscure retirement, burying all the attractions a graces which once so adorned the court of Englar i she died at the age of ninety-two, and was interred n St. Patrick's Cathedral, 9th of March, 1790. The granduncle of this incomparable beauty, Thomas Jezyzs Esq., of Hayes, was great-grandfather of the cele brated wit, SOAME JENYNS, whose character and Lat.s are thus described :—

"He came into your house at the very moment y had put upon your card; he dressed himself, to d your party honour, in all the colours of the jay; lace, indeed, had long since lost its lustre, but his ea had faithfully retained its cut since the days win gentlemen wore embroidered figured velvets, with sh sleeves, boot cuffs, and buckram skirts. As nature cast him in the exact mould of an ill-made pair of suf stays, he followed her so close in the fashion of Ls coat, that it was doubted if he did not wear them: be cause he had a protuberant wen just under his pole, be wore a wig that did not cover above half his head. His eyes were protruded like the eyes of the lobster, who wears them at the end of his feelers, and yet there was room between one of them and his nose for another wen, that added nothing to his beauty: yet this god man was heard very innocently to remark, when Gitt published his history, that he wondered any body so ugly could write a book.""

Such was the exterior of a man who was the char of the circle, and gave a zest to every company he came into. His pleasantry was of a sort peculiar to himself! it harmonized with everything: it was like the bread

to your dinner; you did not perhaps make it the whole or principal part of the meal, but it was an admirable and wholesome auxiliary to the other viands. Soame Jenyns told you no long stories, engrossed not much of your attention, and was not angry with those that did. His thoughts were original, and were apt to have a very whimsical affinity to the paradox in them. He wrote verses upon dancing, and prose upon the origin of evil; yet he was a very indifferent metaphysician, and a worse dancer.

ANCIENT FAMILIES.

CURIOSITY, says Saussure, led me to pay a visit to the blacksmith Macnab, to see the manuscript, of the Poems of Ossian, which, according to report, were long possessed by his family. I saw the old man, but not the manuscripts; they had long ago been sent to Edinburgh, for the use of the members of the Highland Society. He showed me the ancient armour of his ancestors, for he gloried in a long succession of them, all blacksmiths like himself. This family inhabited the same house upwards of four hundred years. In the ages of feudalism they handled successively the hammer and the sword. One of the ancestors of Macnab had been employed in building the Castle of Kilchurn, and many of them, no doubt, contributed to defend it against the attacks of the enemy's clans. What appalling vicissitudes in human affairs! The castle of that powerful lord, of that once formidable chief, is now deserted and

in ruins; whilst the hut of the humble vassal still exists and has never changed its masters. This long success. from father to son, who have followed without aterraption the same profession, and in the same place, is sidered as a high mark of respectability. If they ca.... boast, as other men in a more exalted sphere, of fim s names, and of illustrious warriors among their an- est 15, it is to be presumed that integrity, irreproachable ::duct, and hereditary adherence to the virtues and its of an obscure state, have insured to subsequent gra tions the protection of their chiefs and the laws. T examples of ancient families in an inferior rank of are by no means rare among the Highlanders. WAR I was walking in the park of Inverary, I met a H lander, who, with the natural curiosity of these re came to ask me what country I belonged to, and whiter I was going? After satisfying him, he replied, “I a going to that cottage which you see there between th trees, high above, on the hill; we have lived in it dung the three hundred years that we have been vassals of the Duke of Argyle."

THE HOWARDS, RUSSELLS, CAVENDISHES,
AND BENTINCKS.

THE illustrious house of Norfolk derives, in the male line, from William Howard, "a learned and reverend judge," of the reign of Edward I.; and with him the authentic pedigree commences. Dugdale sought in vain, amid the mists of remoter ages, for a clue to the family's earlier origin. The alliance of the judge's descendant, Sir Robert Howard, Knight, with Margaret, elder daughter of Thomas de Mowbray, Duke of Norfolk-was the source whence flowed to after-generations,

All the blood of all the Howards.

Margaret de Mowbray, was great grand-daughter and heiress of Thomas Plantagenet, surnamed de Brotherton, eldest son of King Edward I., by Margaret, his second wife, daughter of Philip the Hardy of France. This great alliance may be regarded as the foundation-stone on which was erected the subsequent grandeur of the house of Norfolk; but the brilliant halo which encircles the coronet of the Howards, owes its splendour to the beroic achievements of the successive chiefs, on whom its honours devolved. John Howard, Duke of Norfolk, fell at Bosworth, manfully adhering to Richard III.; his son, the Earl of Surrey, was the hero of Flodden,

and the latter's grandson is ever memorable as the £ poet of his age.

The gentle Surrey loved his lyre,

Who has not heard of Surrey's fame?

His was the hero's soul of fire

And his the Bard's immortal name.

In more recent times the hereditary gallantry of th race continued to shine conspicuously forth; and ta Howard was reserved the honour of overthrowing the mighty power of Spain, and crushing the "invine.le Armada. In point of mere antiquity, there are several nobles who far exceed the Howards; but what other family pervades all our national annals with such quent mention, and often involved in circumstances f such intense interest? As heroes, poets, politis. courtiers, patrons of literature, state victims to tyranny and feudal chiefs, they have been constantly before us for four centuries. In the drama of life, they have exhibited every variety of character, good and bad, a: i the tale of their vices, as well as of their virtues, is f of instruction and anxious sympathy or indignant sure. No story of romance, or tragic drama, can exh.b: more incidents to enhance attention or move the heart. than would a comprehensive account of this L.. written with eloquence and pathos.

JOHN RUSSELL, a plain Dorsetshire Squire, ress.g near Bridport, obtained a favourable introduction to court by a piece of good fortune. The Archduke Ph..r of Austria, having encountered a violent hurricane in his passage from Flanders to Spain, was driven into Weymouth, where he landed, and was hospitably re