Sarah Smith, of Stratford, wife of a brick

layer.

MISS MELLON, OTHERWISE MRS. COUTTS.

THE name of this lady must necessarily be connected with dramatic history ;—she played, for several years, on the London boards, with effect and considerable talent, in such lines of parts as Miss Sterling, in the "Clandestine Marriage," Mrs. Ford and Mrs. Page, in “The Merry Wives of Windsor," and was much esteemed by the connoisseurs in dramatic beauty, while her figure was among the best.

It was her good fortune to excite friendly feelings in Mr. Thomas Coutts, the richest banker and greatest ready-money Commoner in England. It would be gratifying prurient curiosity to pretend to detail the circumstances of the courtship of January and May; but as Mrs. Coutts had long been bedridden, a marriage was anticipated as the probable result. The lady's friend, Mr. Raymond, was understood to have the preliminary securities; and as delays are dangerous, that gentleman lost no time, on the demise of Mrs. Coutts, in bringing about the nuptials between the widower

and Miss Mellon-in truth, it took place within three days, and was even so hastened, that the clergyman, for some irregularity, was suspended, and the ceremony was obliged to be repeated.

In all this, there was much of romance, for the lady, from the salary of a few guineas a week, suddenly found herself the heiress of at least a million sterling, besides the property in the most wealthy and most lucrative bank in Europe. To her credit it deserves to be emphatically recorded, that she did not abuse her fortune; she proved herself a most affectionate and anxious wife, and appeared to be qualified to entertain, at her husband's table, the princes of the blood, and the proudest of the nobility. Her affluence, too, has been liberally dispensed among the poor of the neighbourhoods in which she resides, by whom she is hailed as the harbinger of their comforts; at the same time, it is to be confessed, that she has been unable to satisfy all with whom, in her dramatic intercourse, she has been in contact, and some of whom unwisely calculated on becoming partners in her wealth. In such cases, it is difficult to distin

guish between the alleged caprice of one party and the obtrusiveness of the other.

From all that we have heard, on good authority, we have reason to believe, that this lady has proved, in her example, that dramatic heroines are, sometimes, qualified to fill the higher stations in society with distinction, as well as the fictitious ones with eclat on the stage.

SHERIDAN.

SUCH were the talents and influence of this great dramatist, that when the Princes of the Blood Royal met at Carlton House, in 1811, to arrange the conduct and policy of the Regency, no subject was present but Sheridan ;-he was the chief speaker, and he advised a system which excluded his own party from power, and himself from place, though he was then living on the bounty of friends. Such was his disinterested loyalty; yet, within seven years, he died under execution for debt; and declined his protection, a seat in Parliament, rather than hold one to support a system which he had recommended, and which, though essential to the Prince, was not good for the people.

On another occasion, this magnanimous man,

having rendered the publicans of England a service, by getting them released from the billetting of soldiers, they offered, as a body, to subscribe two guineas each, or as much as would amount to £60,000; but when addressed, by a deputation, with the proposal in due form, he thanked them, and said, "Gentlemen, I have done my duty, and the consciousness of that shall be my sole reward."

On another occasion, Sir Richard Phillips, in consideration of his great talent and services, moved an annuity subscription, offering to give, himself, £100 per annum; and some friends seconding the design, it was believed easy to get thirty names for the like sum; but, on the design being named, Sheridan exclaimed, “No,-I'll keep my independence, and not fall, like Grattan and Fox, into the hands of subscribers. Secure my return for Westminster ;-make me independent of a Carlton-House Borough, and then I'll shew the people of England what I am. But it never shall be said, that I am the agent of a body of subscribers. However well disposed or honourable, I could not avoid being gratefuland I should not then be independent."

NEW PLACE;

The Residence of Shakspeare.

WE are informed by Dugdale, in his History of Warwickshire, that New Place was originally erected by Sir Hugh Clopton, Knt. temp. Henry the Seventh. It was, says that antiquarian, "a fair house, built of brick and timber;" and was probably the best in the town, being called the Great House, in Sir Hugh's will, in which it was devised to his great nephew, William Clopton, Esq. who died in 1521. In the year 1563, the Great House was sold out of the Clopton family to William Bott, who, before the year 1570, sold it to William Underhill, Esq. From the Underhill family it was purchased, in 1527, by Shakspeare, who, having repaired and modelled it to his own mind, changed the name to New Place, which appellation it retained till its demolition.

Shakspeare, by his will, dated the 25th of March, 1616, gave New Place, and the lands in this parish, (which he had purchased of William and John Combe, in 1602,) to his daughter, Mrs. Hall, for her life, and then to her daughter Elizabeth, afterwards Lady Barnard. On the 20th