to her, it only served to render her more forbearing to the errors of
others. I have often thought, that, with a little more youth, Lady M.
might have turned my head, at all events she often turned my heart, by
bringing me back to mild feelings, when the demon passion was strong
within me. Her mind and heart were as fresh as if only sixteen summers
had flown over her, instead of four times that number."]


[Footnote 4: Peter, fifth Earl Cowper (1778-1837), married, in 1805
Emily Mary Lamb, daughter of Lord Melbourne; she married, secondly, in
1839, Lord Palmerston.]


[Footnote 5: Francis Rawdon, second Earl of Moira (1754-1826), created
Lord Rawdon (1783), and Marquis of Hastings (1817), married, in 1804,
the Countess of Loudoun.]


[Footnote 6: Edward Harley (1773-1848) succeeded his uncle as fifth Earl
of Oxford in 1790, and married, in 1794, Jane Elizabeth, daughter of the
Rev. James Scott, Vicar of Itchin, Hants. It is probably of Lady Oxford,
whose picture was painted by Hoppner, that Byron spoke to Lady
Blessington ('Conversations', p. 255),

"Even now the autumnal charms of Lady----are remembered by me with
more than admiration. She resembled a landscape by Claude Lorraine,
with a setting sun, her beauties enhanced by the knowledge that they
were shedding their last dying beams, which threw a radiance around. A
woman... is only grateful for her 'first' and 'last' conquest. The
first of poor dear Lady----'s was achieved before I entered on this