merous—"Corinne," "Delphine," "Germany," "Ten Tears of Exiles" and "Considerations on the French Revolution," are the most noted.
STANHOPE, LADY HESTER,
Was the oldest daughter of the Earl of Stanhope, well known for his eccentricities and democratic sentiments. Her mother was sister of the celebrated William Pitt. Lady Hester early lost her mother, and, under the nominal guidance of a young and gay step-mother, she received an ill-directed and inappropriate education. She was very precocious—the genius of the family, and the favourite of her father, with whom she took great liberties. She relates herself, that upon one occasion, when the earl, in a democratic fir, put down his carriage, she brought him round again by an amusing practical appeal. "I got myself a pair of stilts," she said, and out I stumped down a dirty lane, where my father, who was always spying about through a glass, could see me." The experiment had the desired effect; her father questioned her good-humouredly upon her new mode of locomotion, and the result was a new carriage. Unlike her father, Lady Hester was a violent aristocrat, boasting of her nobility, and priding herself upon those mental and physical peculiarities which she considered the marks of high birth. At an early age, she established herself in the family of her uncle, Mr. Pitt, for the purpose, she asserted, of guarding the interests of her family during a perilous political crisis. She resided with Mr. Pitt till his death, courted and flattered by the most distinguished people in England, and enjoying all the advantages which her position as mistress of his house afforded her. She represents herself as having possessed considerable influence with Mr. Pitt; sharing his confidence, and exercising a large amount of control over the patronage belonging to his post.
After the death of Mr. Pitt, she obtained from George the Third a pension of fifteen hundred pounds. On this she tried to maintain her former rank and style; but, finding it impossible, she removed to Wales, and finally, in 1810, to the East. In 1813, she settled near Sidon; and soon afterwards removed to Djoun, her celebrated Syrian residence. Here she erected extensive buildings for herself and suite, in the Oriental style, with several gardens laid out with good taste. Money goes very far in the East, and the munificence which she exhibited, added to her well-known rank, acquired for her an influence which her personal character soon established; and she exercised a degree of power and control over the neighbouring tribes and their chiefs, for which their ignorance and superstition can alone account. Lady Hester here promulgated those peculiar religious sentiments which she continued to hold to the last. The words of St. John, "But there is one who shall come after me, who is greater than I am," she with a most extraordinary carelessness attributes to Christ; and upon this promise she founded her belief in the coming of another Messiah, whose herald she professed to be. She kept in a luxurious stable, carefully attended to by slaves devoted solely to that purpose, two mares, one of which, possessing a natural defect in the back, she avowed was born ready saddled for the Messiah; the other, kept sacred for herself, she was to ride upon at his right hand, when the coming took place.
It is impossible to say what Lady Hester's faith really was. She professed to believe in astrology, magic, necromancy, demonology,
