Wednesday. M. NICHOLSON.
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LADY ARCHER, Formerly Miss West, lived to a good age--a proof that
cosmetics are not so fatal as has been supposed. Nature had given her a
fine aquiline nose, like, the princesses of the house of Austria, and
she did not fail to give herself a complexion. She resembled a fine old
wainscotted painting with the face and features shining through a thick
incrustation of copal varnish.
Her ladyship was for many years the wonder of the fashionable world,
envied by all the ladies that frequented the court. She had a splendid
house in Portland-place, with _et caetera_ equal in brilliancy and
beauty to, or rather surpassing those of any of her contemporaries.
Magnificent appendages were a sort of scenery. She gloried in milk-white
horses to her carriage--the coachman and footman in grand shewy
liveries--the carriage lined with a silk calculated to exhibit the
complexion, &c. &c.
I recollect, however, to have seen the late Mrs. Robinson go far beyond
all this in the rich exuberance of her genius; a yellow lining to her
landau, with a black footman, to contrast with her beautiful countenance
and fascinating figure, and thus render both more lovely. Lady Archer's
house at Barnes Elms Terrace, had an elegance of ornaments and drapery
to strike the senses, and yet powerfully addressed to the imagination.
She could give an insinuating interest to the scenes about her; which
other eyes were viewing. Her kitchen garden and pleasure ground of five
acres--the Thames running in front as if appertaining to the
grounds--the apartments most tastefully decorated in the Chinese
style--a fine conservatory opening, into the principal apartment with
grapes, slow peaches, &c. at the end a magnificent sofa, with a superb
curtain all displayed with a peculiar grace and to the greatest
advantage. Much praise was due to her arrangement of green and hot-house
plants, the appellations of which she was well acquainted with, as also
everything relating to their history.--_from the Papers of the late
Alexander Stephens, Esq._
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