rita de l'Epine, a native of Tuscany. This
celebrated singer performed in many of the earlier Italian operas
represented in England. She and Mrs. Tofts were rivals for the public
favour, and it seems they divided pretty equally the applause of the
town. She sung on the stage, at public entertainments, in concerts at
York Buildings and Stationers' Hall, and once in the hall of the Middle
Temple, in a musical performance at the Christmas revels of that
society. One Greber, a German musician, who studied some few years in
Italy, brought this Italian with him to England, whence she was known by
the name of Greber's Peg. It is said that she had afterwards a criminal
connection with Daniel Earl of Nottingham. In a shrewd epigram written
by Lord Halifax, she is styled "The Tawny Tuscan," and he is called
"Tall Nottingham." Margarita continued a singer till about the year
1718, when, having, as Downes relates, scraped together above ten
thousand guineas, she retired, and was afterwards married to Dr.
Pepusch. The epithet "tawny" was very characteristic of her, for she was
remarkably swarthy, and in general so destitute of personal charms, that
her husband seldom called her by any other name than Hecate, to which
she answered very readily. She died about 1740. See Sir J. Hawkin's
"History of Music," vol. v. p. 153 (Nichols).--The statement that she
had an improper connection with the Earl of Nottingham appears to rest
solely on statements in party poems of the time.]

[Footnote 169: Ladies wore "commodes" as head-dresses, sometimes backed
by dark-coloured ribbons. The prevailing fashion about 1712 was cherry
colour; see _Spectator_, No. 271.]

[Footnote 170: In a song in D'Urfey's "Wit and Mirth"--"The Young Maid's
Portion"--the lady speaks of her laced shoes of Spanish leather. Malcolm
says that Spanish leather shoes laced with gold were common about this
time (Planche's "Cyclopaedia of Costume").]

No. 151. [STEELE.[171]

From _Saturday, March 25_, to _Tuesday, March 28, 1710_.

----Ni vis boni
In ipsa inesset forma, haec formam extinguerent.
TER., Phorm. I. ii. 58.

* * * * *

_From my own Apartment, March 27._

When artists would expose their diamonds to an advantage, they usually
set them to show in little cases of black velvet. By this means the
jewels appear in the