te of
well-dressed blasphemers, of Franciscans of Medmenham Abbey, devoting,
not his money only, but his very time to this mere child, leaving town
in the height of the season for dull Matson, that she might have fresh
air; quitting his hot club-rooms, his nights spent at the piquet-table,
and the rattle of the dice, for the quiet, pleasant terraces of his
country-house, where he would hold the little innocent Mie-Mie by her
tiny hand, as she looked up into his shrivelled dissipated face;
quitting the interchange of wit, the society of the Townshends, the
Walpoles, the Williamses, the Edgecumbes; all the jovial, keen wisdom of
Gilly, and Dick, and Horace, and Charles, as they called one another,
for the meaningless prattle, the merry laughter of this half-English,
half-Italian child, It redeems Selwyn in our eyes, and it may have done
him real good: nay, he must have felt a keen refreshment in this change
from vice to innocence; and we understand the misery he expressed, when
the old bachelor's one little companion and only pure friend was taken
away from him. His love for the child was well known in London society;
and of it did Sheridan's friends take advantage, when they wanted to get
Selwyn out of Brookes', to prevent his black-balling the dramatist. The
anecdote is given in the next memoir.

In his later days Selwyn still haunted the clubs, hanging about, sleepy,
shrivelled, dilapidated in face and figure, yet still respected and
dreaded by the youngsters, as the 'celebrated Mr. Selwyn.' The wit's
disease--gout--carried him off at last, in 1791, at the age of
seventy-two.

He left a fortune which was not contemptible: L33,000 of it were to go
to Mie-Mie--by this time a young lady--and as the Duke of Queensberry,
at his death, left her no less than L150,000, Miss was by no means a bad
match for Lord Yarmouth.[6] See what a good thing it is to have three
papas, when two of them are rich! The duke made Lord Yarmouth his
residuary legatee, and between him and his wife divided nearly
half-a-million.

[6: Afterwards the well-known and dissolute Marquis of Hertford.]

Let us not forget in closing this sketch of George Selwyn's life, that,
gambler and reprobate as he was, he possessed some good traits, among
which his love of children appears in shining colours.

RICHARD BRINSLEY SHERIDAN.

Sheridan a Dunce.--Boyish Dreams of Literary Fame.--Sheridan in Love.--A
Nest of Nightingales.--The 'Maid of Bath.'--Captiv