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were the most liberal patrons of literature and the fine arts, and it was to their 

 support and encouragement that George Vertue, the great engraver, owed so 

 much of his success. The. portraits exhibited were all engraved by him, also the 

 beautiful little souvenir of Lady Henrietta, recording the gift to her of a volume 

 of historical interest by "her lord." Dying in 1741 without male issue, the second 

 Earl, who was buried in Westminster Abbey, was succeeded by his cousin 

 Edward, son of the Auditor, who had represented this county in Parliament 

 from 1727, and was elected in 1745 by the Mayor and Corporation of Hereford 

 High Steward of the City. His son Edward, fourth Earl, dying also without 

 issue, was succeeded by his nephew Edward, son of John Harley, Bishop of 

 Hereford, who again was followed by his son Alfred the last Earl, at whose death 

 in 1853 the title became extinct, and the estates became the property of his eldest 

 sister, the late Lady Langdale, widow of Lord Langdale, Master of the Rolls, 

 who, outliving her only daughter, the Countess Teleki, a little more than two 

 years, died in 1872, and was followed shortly afterwards by her successor, Lady 

 Frances Harcourt, whose literary tastes were so well-known in this county. At 

 the death of Lady Frances the estates were divided, the Brampton Bryan 

 property falling to the present owner, Robert Dacre Harley, Esq., while Eywood 

 is enjoyed by the direct descendant of the line of the Earls of Oxford and 

 Mortimer, Edward Bacon, Esq., son of Lady Charlotte, second daughter of the 

 fifth Earl, and sister of Lady Langdale. These hasty and incomplete notes on a 

 family whose members have played an important part in the past history, not 

 only of our county, but of the country, may well be closed by quoting the words 

 of Byron in his dedication of ChUde Harold to the last-mentioned Lady Charlotte 

 Harley, when a girl of sixteen, whose parents the poet visited here and at their 

 neighbouring residence of Kinsham Court. Byron addresses her as " lanthe " 

 in the following strain :— 



" Not in those climes where I have late been straying, 



Though beauty there hath long been matchless deemed ; 

 Not in those visions, to the heart displaying 



Forms which it sighs but to have only dreamed, 



Hath ought like thee in truth or fancy seemed. 

 Nor, having seen thee, shall I vainly seek 



To paint those charms which varied as they beamed. 

 To such as see thee not my words were weak ; 

 To those who gaze on thee what language could they speak ? " 



" Ah ! may'st thou ever be what now thou art, 

 Nor unbeseem the promise of thy spring ; 



As fair in form, as warm, yet pure in heart, 

 Love's image upon earth without his wing ! " 



'"Tis well for me 

 My years already doubly number thine ; 



My loveless eye, unmoved, may gaze on thee, 

 And safely view thy ripening beauties shine : 



Happy, I ne'er shall see them in decline." 



