g-rooms and
studios. Her duties as a domestic agreed not with the drama, so her
next position was as barmaid in a tavern much frequented by actors and
artists. She formed the acquaintance of a Welsh youth, on whose being
impressed into the navy, she went to the captain to intercede for him.
The boy was liberated, but the comely intercessor was impressed into
the service of the captain. From him she went to live with a man of
wealth; but her extravagance and wilfulness induced him to forego her
company. Then followed a period of the lowest street degradation. From
this state she was taken by a Dr. Graham, who was a lecturer upon
health, and exhibited the finely-formed Emma as a perfect specimen of
female symmetry. She became the topic of the town. Painters,
sculptors, and others came to admire the shapely limbs shown under but
a thin veil of gauze. The young bloods of the time worshipped,--some
not afar off; and one of them, Charles Greville, of the Warwick
family, who had essayed to educate her to become a fit companion for
his elevated existence, maintained her for about four years. It is
recorded, that when he took her to Ranelagh's the sensation was
greater than had ever been produced by any other beauty there. Not the
winsome and witty Mrs. Crewe, nor her friend Mrs. Bouverie; not that
first flame of the amorous Prince of Wales, Mrs. Robinson, nor Anne
Luttrell, also beloved of royalty; not the Marchioness of Tavistock,
whose loveliness has been preserved to us by Sir Joshua, nor the
delightful Duchess of Buccleugh; not Lady Cadogan, and not even the
dashing Duchess of Devonshire herself,--caused the comment and
admiration this low-born unprincipled young woman now excited. Mr.
Greville would have married her had not his uncle, Sir William
Hamilton, interfered. It is variously stated that Sir William agreed
to pay his nephew's debts if he would yield up his mistress; and also
that, in endeavoring to free the young man, the old gentleman himself
fell into the snare of her charms. "She is better than anything in
Nature. In her own particular way she is finer than anything that is
to be found in Greek art," exclaimed this _savant_ on first seeing
her. She was a most enchanting deceiver, and a finished actress in the
parts of candor and simplicity, so succeeded in marrying Sir William,
in 1791. He was over sixty years of age, a man of much classical and
scientific erudition, and had been for many years ambassador at the