MONTHLY REVIEW OF LITERATURE. 355 



two brutal ruffians, and conducting her in safety to her husband, returned, as 

 he had promised, to his former station. 



" On the death of his first wife, a Miss Frazer, in 1/20, he married the 

 celebrated and beautiful singer, Anastasia Robinson, whom he had pre- 

 viously, but unsuccessfully, attempted to seduce. Before he was united to 

 her, it is related, that at an opera rehearsal, he severely caned Senesino, a 

 musical performer, who had given her some offence. Although much at- 

 tached to her, his pride would not allow him to acknowledge her as his wife, 

 and she, consequently, declined to reside under his roof, until the period of 

 his last illness, when he consented to receive her publicly by her legitimate 

 title. 



" In the latter part of his life he ceased to figure as an important person, 

 and, from his retirement in the country, railed at the decline of public virtue, 

 and the mercenary spirit of the age. Having long suffered under a painful 

 complaint, he was, at length, compelled to undergo a lithotomical operation 

 at Bristol. The surgeon, as usual, wisfhed to have him bound, but after 

 much warm discussion on the subject, the earl positively declared, it should 

 never be said, that a Mordaunt was seen tied hand and foot. He then de- 

 sired to be placed iu a posture most advantageous for the operation, in which 

 he remained, without flinching, until it was over. 



" He was once mistaken by the mob for the Duke of Marlborough, at a 

 time when his Grace was very unpopular, but saved himself from rough 

 usage, with which he was threatened, by the following pithy address : ' Gen- 

 tlemen, I can convince you, by two reasons, that I am not the duke ; in the 

 first place, I have only five guineas in my pocket ; and, in the second, 

 (throwing his purse to the multitude as he spoke] they are heartily at your 

 service.' 



" The brilliancy of his exploits abroad was oddly contrasted with some of 

 eccentricities of his conduct at home. On one occasion, he leaped out of 

 his carriage for the purpose of driving, sword in hand, a dancing-master, 

 clad in pearl-coloured stockings, who was carefully crossing a dirty street, 

 into the mud. Cookery was as much his hobby as war. Tt appears to have 

 been far from unusual for him to assist at the preparation of a feast over 

 which he was about to preside ; and when at Bath, he was occasionally seen 

 about the streets in his blue ribbon and star, carrying a chicken in his hand, 

 and a cabbage, perhaps, under each arm." 



IT/TO lisrfrto sua'tf 



EDITH OF GRAYSTOCK A POEM. BY ELEANOR M . LONDON. 



HENRY LINDSELL. 1833, 



THIS is the production of a lady, gilt-edged, hot-pressed, &c. ; and we 

 must therefore deal with it tenderly. The story is told in a few words. A 

 knight, about to go to the Holy Wars, has been accused of high treason to 

 Richard Coeur-de-Lion. He privately marries Edith, who follows him in 

 the character of a page finds out the name of her husband's traducer to be 

 Delaval obtains permission from Richard to have the loyalty of her spouse 

 decided by single combat ; which accordingly takes place when Delaval, as 

 a matter of poetical course, is slain. These are the materials which Eleanor 



M has spun out into 1500 lines would we could say, poetry ! She has 



evidently sat down to this composition after a recent perusal, and with a vivid 

 remembrance, of the works of Byron, Moore, and Mrs. Hemans ; which is to 

 be lamented, as the authoress does here and there evince the capacity to be 

 original. Indeed enough will be found to convince the reader that Eleanor 

 M can write something better than " Edith of Graystock." 



