chamber of her youngest daughter, then about thirteen years old, while she was dressing at her toilet; the countess observing the assiduity with which the young lady wanted to set off her person to the best advantage, asked her, " What she would give to be as handsome as her mamma?" To which Miss replied, " As much as your ladyshíp would give to be as young as me." This smart repartee, which was at once pungent and witty, very sensibly affected the countess; who, for the future, was less lavish of her own charms.
Upon the death of the Viscountess Stormont he wrote an elegy, entitled“ The Tears of the Muses," in compliment to her ladyship's taste, as a patroness of poets. Lord Stormont was so highly gratified with this mark of respect to the memory of his deceased lady, that he ordered a hand- some present to be made to the author, whom however it was no easy matter to find, as a radical meanness of character, and partiality for low pleasantry, together with an aversion to all decent society, had possessed him so entirely, that Boyse's person was known only among the lower orders; and the generous intention of Lord Stormont would have been frustrated, had not his agent put an advertisement into the papers, requesting the author of "The Tears of the Muses" to call upon him.
These substantial tokens of favour, on the part of his lordship, and of the Countess of Eglinton, served to procure for him the patronage of the Duchess of Gordon, who likewise was a person of literary taste and cultivated the correspondence of some of the most eminent poets of her time: and so desirous was she of raising Boyse from obscurity, and placing him above necessity, that she employed Her interest in procuring for him the promise of a place; and, accordingly, gave him a letter, which he was the next day to deliver to one of the commissioners of the customs at Edinburgh; but it unluckily happened that he was then some miles distant
