LA BELLE ASSEMBLÉE, FOR FEBRUARY, 1831. ILLUSTRATIVE MEMOIR OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE ELIZABETH JEMIMA, DOWAGER COUNTESS OF ERROL. cillor to Charles I.—and, in 1648, Speaker of the Supreme Council of Kilkenny. Lineally descended from Sir Richard, was THIS lady, relict of the Right Honour-1| shire for Galway, in 1639-a Privy Counable George, sixteenth Earl of Errol (uncle of the present peer) and now wife of the Right Honourable John Hookham Frere,|| is the second daughter of Joseph Blake, of Ardfrey, in the county of Galway, Esq., and sister of Joseph Henry, first Lord Wallscourt. Her Ladyship's family, which is of British extraction, and traditionally descended from Ap Lake, whose name appears as one of the knights of King Arthur's round table, is of ancient and honourable standing in Ireland. Its founder there was Richard Blake, a soldier of fortune, who accompanied Prince (afterwards King) John to that country, in the year 1185; and who, for his military services, ob- || tained large grants of land in the counties of Galway, Mayo, Clare, and the county of the town of Galway. From this gentleman descended John Blake, of Athenry, who had three sons: Nicholas, ancestor of John Blake, Esq., M.P. for Athenry, in 1639;-Valentine, ancestor of the Blakes, of Ardfrey, and of Sir Valentine Blake, created a Baronet in 1622; and Walter, Bishop of Clanmacnois, in 1487. Joseph Blake, of Ardfrey, Esq., the father of Elizabeth Jemima, Countess Dowager of Errol. Born in 1739, this gentleman married, in 1764, Honoria, only daughter of Dermot Daly, Esq. He died in 1806. By his lady, who died in 1794, he had a family of eight children, as follows: 1. Joseph Henry, first Baron Wallscourt;-2, Robert, died young ;-3. Igna Joseph Henry, first Lord Wallscourt, was born in 1765. He represented the county of Galway, in Parliament, and was advanced to the dignity of Baron Wallscourt, of Ardfrey, with remainder to the heirs male of his father, in 1800. His Lordship had married, in 1784, Louisa Catherine Mary, daughter and coheiress of Thomas Birmingham, Earl of Louth, and twentysecond Lord Athenry, premier baron of Ireland, by whom he had an only daughter, Anastasia, born in 1785-married, in 1803, Luke, second Lord Clonbrock—and died in 1816. Lord Wallscourt, dying in 1803, The Right Honourable Sir Richard without male issue, was succeeded, accordBlake, of Ardfrey, Knt. (son of Roberting to the limitation of the patent, by his Blake, by his wife, Anne, daughter of nephew, Richard Drury, Esq.) was Knight of the No. 15.-Vol. XIII. Joseph, second Baron Wallscourt. This ૧ guide, tradition, the origin of this house tius Charles, born in 1773, Captain in the eighteenth regiment of dragoons; married, in 1794, Helena, eldest daughter of William Cashell, of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Esq.; and, dying at Jamaica, a Major in the army, in 1797, left issue a son, Joseph, second Baron Wallscourt; and a daughter, Louisa Helena, born in 1796, and married, in 1816, to R. Bourne, of Lyniberry, in the county of Westmorland, Esq.;-4. Henry James, born in 1774; Colonel of the Galway militia; married, in 1796, Anne, second daughter of John French, of Galway, Esq., by whom he had a son, Joseph Henry, third and present Lord Wallscourt, and seven other children; || -5. Richard, died an infant;-6. Joanna || Harriet, married, first, in 1783, to Richard Burke, of Glinsk, in the county of Galway, Esq.; and, secondly, in 1792, to Dominick Daly, Esq.;-7. Elizabeth Jemima, Countess Dowager of Errol;-8. Agnes Maria, married, in 1807, to Charles Aldrich, Esq., fourth son of John Aldrich, of Stowmarket, The battle being won, the old in the county of Suffolk, Esq., and died in man, afterwards known by the name of 1808;-9. Margaret ;-10. Louisa Honoria, Hay, was brought to the King, who, asmarried, in 1810, to the Hon. George Cado-sembling a parliament at Scone, gave to gan, C.B., Captain R.N., only brother of the said Hay and his sons, as a just reCharles, Earl Cadogan. Elizabeth Jemima Blake was married, on the 25th of January, 1790, to the Right Honourable George Hay, sixteenth Earl of Errol; by whom she was left a widow, without issue, on the 14th of June, 1798. Her Ladyship was married, secondly, on the 12th of September, 1812, to the Right Honourable John Hookham Frere ;* with whom, we understand, she has been some time resident at Malta. A slight sketch of the noble family of Hay, Earls of Errol, may now be acceptable. If reliance might be placed upon that alluring, but too frequently false nobleman, born in 1797, died unmarried in 1816, and was succeeded by his cousin, Joseph Henry, third and present Baron Wallscourt. His Lordship was born in 1797; and he married, in 1822, Elizabeth, only daughter of William Lock, of Norbury, in the county of Surrey, Esq. Mr. Hookham Frere was the resident British minister in Spain. in 1803, and the early part of 1804, when he was succeeded by his brother, Mr. Bartholomew Frere. In 1807, he was sent on a special embassy to Prussia; and, in 1808, he was again diplomatically employed, under circumstances of extreme difficulty, in Spaini. ward for their valour, so much land on the river Fay, in the district of Gowrie, as a falcon from a man's hand flew over till it settled; which being six miles in length, was afterwards called Errol; and the King being desirous to elevate Hay and his sons from their humble rank in life, to the order of nobility, his Majesty assigned them a coat of arms, which was three escutcheons, gules, to intimate that the father and two sons had been the three fortunate shields of Scotland". The Earls of Errol also bear for their crest a falcon; and their armorial supporters are two men in country habits, holding the yokes of a plough on their shoulders; with the motto, Serva Jugum, in allusion to their origin. Leaving, however, the doubtfulness of tradition for the sounder evidence of history, it appears that the Earls of Errol and the Marquesses of Tweedale claim a common ancestor in the person of William de la Haya, who settled in Mid Lothian, in the twelfth century, and held the office of pincerna regis, or King's Butler, in the reigns of Malcolm IV. and William the Lion. From William, the elder son of this officer, descended the Errol branch of the family; from Robert, the younger, that of Tweedale. 4 Sir David de la Haya, son of the second William, had large possessions in Perthshire; and he obtained from King William the Lion a charter of the lands and barony of Errol in that county. From his younger son, William, is descended the house of Kinnoul.† Many individuals of the Errol branch distinguished themselves in the military service of their country, and were in high estimation with their respective sovereigns. Sir Thomas Hay, Lord High Constable in the Parliament of 1371, married Lady Elizabeth Stewart, daughter of King Robert II. His son, Sir William, was created a Lord of Parliament in 1427, and appointed one of the wardens of the marches in 1430. However, the sixth in lineal descent from Sir David de la Haya, was William Hay, who, in recompense of Errol is at this time a parish and village, three miles in breadth, and in length about that of the falcon's flight mentioned in the traditional account above quoted. Bounded on the south by the Tay, the village is pleasantly seated on a rising ground near the banks of that river, and commands an extensive and delightful prospect. + The Kinnoul family of Hay branched off about the year 1237. Sir Peter Hay was father of Sir Peter Hay, of Melginsshie, and Sir James Hay, of Fingask,, who, being a great favourite with James I. of England, was created Lord Sawley, Viscount Doncaster, and Earl of Carlisle, and married the beautiful Lady Lucy Percy, celebrated by Waller the poet; but the titles expired with his son, in 1660.-Sir Peter Hay, of Melginsshie, had a second son, Sir George Hay, of Kinfauns, whom his uncle introduced at court, and who was engaged in rescuing King James from Gowrie's conspiracy. He enjoyed the full confidence and favour of his royal master. Previously to this, however, he had been appointed a gentleman of the bedchamber to Queen Elizabeth, honoured with the dignity of Knighthood, and granted the dissolved Carthusian Priory of Perth. In 1660, he was nominated Clerk Register of Scotland; and, in 1662, Lord Chancellor of that kingdom. He was advanced to the peerage by King Charles I., in 1627, by the titles of Baron Hay, of Kinfauns, and Viscount Dupplin, with reversion to his heirs general whatsoever; and created, in 1633, Earl of Kinnoul, with the same reversionary clause in the patent. No. 75.-Vol. XIII. his faithful services, was, by King James II., in 1452, created Earl of Errol. Passing through a succession of eleven Earls, Gilbert (or George) the twelfth, died without male issue, in 1674. The earldom then devolved upon his cousin, Sir John Hay, of Killour, grandson of his great uncle, Sir George Hay, of Killour, younger son of Andrew, the eighth Earl. Charles, son of John, the thirteenth Earl, died unmarried in 1717; on which his eldest sister, Lady Mary, wife of Alexander, son of Sir David Falconer, Lord President of Session, became Countess of Errol. Her Ladyship dying without issue, in 1758, the title went to her grand nephew, James, Lord Boyd, eldest son of the unfortunate William, Earl of Kilmarnock, beheaded and attainted in 1746, by Lady Anne Livingstone, sole daughter and heir of James, Earl of Linlithgow and Calendar, by Lady Margaret Hay, youngest sister of Charles, fourteenth Earl of Errol. Had it not been for the attainder of his father and grandfather, this James, Lord Boyd, fifteenth Earl of Errol, would have united in himself the four Earldoms of Errol, Linlithgow, Calendar, and Kilmarnock. He was succeeded by his eldest son, George, the sixteenth Earl; who married, on the 25th of January, 1790, Elizabeth Jemima, second daughter of Joseph Blake, of Ardfrey, Esq., the lady whose portrait is here given. Dying without * It was in the time of this nobleman, in 1773, that Dr. Johnson, while making the tour of the Hebrides, visited, by invitation, Slanes Castle, the seat of the Errol family. Approaching, from Aberdeen, he says"We came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, built upon the margin of the sea, so that the walls of one of the towers seem only a continuation of a perpendicular rock, the foot of which is beaten by the waves. To walk round the house seemed impracticable. From the windows the eye wanders over the sea that separates Scotland from Norway, and when the winds beat with violence, must enjoy all the terrific grandeur of the tempestuous ocean. I would not for my amusement wish for a storm; but as storms, whether wished or not, will sometimes happen, I may say, without violation of humanity, that I should willingly look out upon them from Slanes Castle." R 104 MEMOIR OF ELIZABETH JEMIMA, DOWAGER COUNTESS Of Errol. issue, on the 14th of June, 1798, he was succeeded by his next brother, His William, the seventeenth Earl. Lordship was born on the 12th of March, 1772. On the 28th of March, 1795, he assumed, by royal permission, the name and arms of Carr, in obedience to the testamentary injunction of his maternal grandfather Sir William Carr, of Etall, in the county of Northumberland, Bart. In 1805, his Lordship was appointed Knight Mareschal of Scotland; and, in 1806, he was elected one of the sixteen representative peers. He was, for several years, Lord High Commissioner to the Church of Scotland, and Colonel of the Aberdeen Militia. His Lordship married thrice: first, in 1792, to Jane, daughter of Matthew Bell, Esq. (Lieutenant-Colonel of the Northumberland militia) who died in the following year; secondly, in 1796, to Alice, youngest daughter of Samuel Eliot, Esq., of the island of Antigua, who died in 1812; thirdly, on the 14th of October, 1816, to Harriet, sister of Lord Somerville. By his first lady, he had an only daughter, Dulcibella Jane, married to the Rev. C. W. Wodehouse. By his second lady the Earl had a family of eight children : 1. James, Lord Hay, Ensign of the first regiment of foot-guards, who was killed at the battle of Waterloo ;-2. Alicia, born December 10, 1798;-3, Isabella, born July 22, 1800, married to Lieutenant Colonel Wemyss ;-4. William George Hay Carr, the present Earl;-5. Harriet Jemima, born in January, 1803, married, December 12, 1822, to Daniel Gurney, of North Runeton, in the county of Norfolk, Esq. :-6. Caroline Augusta, born in May, 1805, married, September 18, 1823, to John Morant, of Brocklehurst, in the county of Hants., Esq.;7. Samuel, born on the 9th of January, 1807;-8. Emma, born on the 29th of January, 1809, married, in 1826, to Captain J. Wemyss, R.N. By his last Countess, the Earl of Errol had two children: a son, born on the 20th of July, 1817; and a daughter, born on the 18th of August, 1818. His Lordship died on the 26th of January, 1819, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William George Hay Carr, Earl of Errol, Baron Hay, Hereditary Lord High Constable of Scotland,* a Lord of the Bed-chamber, and one of the sixteen representative peers of Scotland. His Lordship was born on the 21st of February, 1801; and he married, on the 4th of December, 1820, Elizabeth Fitzclarence, third daughter of his present Majesty, King William the Fourth. By this union, the Earl has a son, William, Lord Hay, born on the 3d of May, 1823; and a daughter, Adelaide Augusta. As High Constable (so created, November 12, 1314) the Earl of Errol is, by birth, the first subject in the kingdom of Scotland; and, as such, has a right to take place of every hereditary honour. NOTES OF THREE DAYS IN THE ALP S. "Above me are the Alps, The palaces of nature."-BYRON. Reader of La Belle Assemblée.-Another trip, I suppose, to the Mer-de-Glace! What in the name of nature, can you possibly have to say about the Alps, that has not been said a hundred times over in magazines, journals, tours, travels, sketches, novels, tales, romances, &c. &c., without end or number? Is Switzerland like America, that thousands and tens of thousands of you tourists can explore it, without lighting on the same beauties, or traverse it without jostling on the road? An avalanche is an avalanche; a glacier is a glacier; can there be sufficient difference between the phenomena of 1829 and of 1830 to warrant every traveller, who is gifted with a portable pen and a pocket-book, to expect that ladies and gentlemen, who have something else to do with their time, will peruse his ramblings and descriptions, merely because they happen to be the last? Alpine Tourist.-Patience, fair reader! A little patience. Reader.-No! no! It is too much; indeed, Mr. Tourist, it is too much. I have never crossed the English Channel; yet I know the valley of Chamouni, as well as Kensington Gardens. I can tell you all about it. There are the Alps, the Mer-de-Glace, a wild beast called the chamois, and a mountain called Mont Blanc, twice as high as the Peak of Derby. Tourist.-Pardon, fair reader! the chamois is not, properly speaking, a wild beast; and Mont Blanc Reader.-Oh! do not mention that odious name. I am tired to death of descriptions of Mont Blanc. Though few have been on him, every one has been at him. One speaks of his "mountain majesty ;" another calls him "giant of the Alps;" a third addresses him with the title of hoary monarch," or "patriarch of hills;" a fourth actually goes through the ceremony of coronation, crowns him with a diadem of snow, and puts an avalanche in his hand for a sceptre; I wonder he does not give him a civil list, and appoint him lords of the bed-chamber. Then there is no end to the terms sublime, wondrous, august, awful, stupendous, and every adjective of bulk and sound in the language, showered upon him as thick as the flakes of his own snow, and conveying just as accurate an idea of Atlas, or Chimborazo as of Mont Blanc-being equally applicable to all mountains that rise to a certain number of thousand feet above the level of the sea. No, no! positively I will skip over your excursion, it would kill me to read it. Tourist. I shall die if you refuse. Reader.-Well! one writer of Swiss sketches could be spared. Tourist.-Let not me be that one. Reader.-Positively you shall, if your life depends on my reading your tour. Tourist.—Well! I promise to say nothing of Mont Blanc. Reader.-There is certainly novelty in that, but Tourist.-Nor a syllable about the chamois. Reader.-New again! You are the first Alpine traveller who has had so much consideration for his readers. I believe I must peep at your excursion after all. You promise me not to mention Mont Blanc or the chamois ? Tourist.-I do most solemnly. Reader.-Well then, I shall have to answer for the sin of reading one more excursion in the Alps. Via, via, Signore! in Tourist.-Grazia, Signora ! It was long after sunset on a September evening, when we arrived-myself and two companions-at the inn which is at once the principal edifice and principal part of the village of St. Martin. On our route from Geneva, which we performed a "char-à-banc," we had met with no adventure, but we had escaped one of a very perilous description. A thunderstorm of unusual violence, even in the Alps, had forced us to fly for shelter into the wooden hut of a Savoyard peasant, situated on the way-side, about two leagues beyond Bonneville. The scenery of the spot, which, however, was only to |