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The first of these is Mary Woffin « gton , sister of the celebrated Margaret ; a name by which Horace ' s own pride was injured . 66 I have been unfortunate
in my own family , " says he , in another letter to the friend above-mentioned ; " my nephew , Captain Cholmondeley ,
has married a player's sister ; and I fear Lord Malpas ( his brother ) is on the brink of marriage with another girl of no fortune . Here is a ruined
family ! their father totally undone , and all he has seized for debt . " * Lavinia Fenton and Mary Woffington appear to have been married in the same year . Mary was a player herself , as well as a " player ' s sister : " at least , she is mentioned by a contemporary as having made her debut . f Like her sister , she was handsome . The annoyance of the marriage to the husband's connexions must
have been aggravated by Margaret ' s character , who , notwithstanding her talents and good qualities , had little delicacy ; was accustomed to preside at the Beef-steak Club in man's clothes ; and had been Garrick's mistress . And to crown all , her father had kept a huckster ' s
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shop . Captain Cholmondeley ' s fortunes , however , were mended after the usual fashion of « ruined" families in
high life , by his " preferring an ecclesiastical to a military life , " and his contriving" to add to two church-livings the lay office of Auditor-General of the
Revenues in America . ^ He had a numerous progeny by his wife , and we hear no more of her . But there appears to have been much amiableness in the family , from whomsoever derived , perhaps from both . One
of the daughters was the Miss Cholmondeley , who was killed by the overturning of the Princess Charlotte's carriage in 1806 ; and another was Lady Bellingham , wife of Sir William , the late Baronet , who has left their sisterly
attachment on record . § There is no saying how much good and happiness a real bit of love may have put into the family blood , from whatever source . Horace Walpole , with his fastidious celibacy ( or whatever word might apply to it ) left no children , merry or sad .
But we now come to the first unhappy marriage of this sort ^ known to have existed , and against which Horace had
? * Letters to Sir Horace Mann . ' Vol . ii . p . 263 . f ' Apology for the Life of George Anne Bellamy . ' Vol . i . p . 44 . Collins ' s « Peerage , ' as above . Vol . iv . p . 34 . § " Here ( in Leatherhead church ) lies Miss Cholmondeley , another old maid , but merry withal , and the delight of all that knew her , who , by one of those frightful accidents that suddenly knock people ' s souls out , and seem more frightful when they cut short the career of the good-natured , was killed on the spot at the entrance of this village , by the overturning of the Princess Charlotte's coach , whom she was accompanying on a visit to Norbury Park . A most affectionate epitaph , honourable to all parties , and recording her special attachment to her married sister , is inscribed to her memory by her brother-in-law , Sir William Bellingham . " —Indicator and Companion , VoL ii . p . 344 .
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Marriages from the Stage * 16 T
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 1, 1837, page 167, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1835/page/23/
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