tombs hewn in the rock--small chambers
imitating the architectural forms of houses, with beams and rafters
represented in relief. See G. Dennis, _Cities and Cemeteries of
Etruria_, i. 207. There was another Blera in Apulia, on the road from
Venusia to Tarentum.

BLESSINGTON, MARGUERITE, COUNTESS OF (1789-1849), Irish novelist and
miscellaneous writer, daughter of Edmund Power, a small landowner, was
born near Clonmel, Co. Tipperary, Ireland, on the 1st of September 1789.
Her childhood was made unhappy by her father's character and
poverty,--and her early womanhood wretched by her compulsory marriage at
the age of fifteen to a Captain Maurice St Leger Farmer, whose drunken
habits brought him at last as a debtor to the king's bench prison,
where, in October 1817, he died. His wife had left him some time before,
and in February 1818 she married Charles John Gardiner, earl of
Blessington. Of rare beauty, charm and wit, she was no less
distinguished for her generosity and for the extravagant tastes which
she shared with her husband, which resulted in encumbering his estates
with a load of debt. In the autumn of 1822 they went abroad, spent four
months of the next year at Genoa in close intimacy with Byron, and
remained on the continent till Lord Blessington's death in May 1829.
Some time before this they had been joined by Count D'Orsay, who in 1827
married Lady Harriet Gardiner, Lord Blessington's only daughter by a
former wife. D'Orsay, who had soon separated from his wife, now
accompanied Lady Blessington to England and lived with her till her
death. Their home, first at Seamore Place, and afterwards Gore House,
Kensington, became a centre of attraction for whatever was distinguished
in literature, learning, art, science and fashion. After her husband's
death she supplemented her diminished income by contributing to various
periodicals as well as by writing novels. She was for some years editor
of _The Book of Beauty_ and _The Keepsake_, popular annuals of the day.
In 1834 she published her _Conversations with Lord Byron_. Her _Idler in
Italy_ (1839-1840), and _Idler in France_ (1841) were popular for their
personal gossip and anecdote, descriptions of nature and sentiment.
Early in 1849, Count D'Orsay left Gore House to escape his creditors;
the furniture and decorations were sold, and Lady Blessington joined the
count in Paris, where she died on the 4th of June 1849.

Her _Literary Life and Correspondence_ (3