BLESSINGTON, Margaret Power, Countess of, novelist and miscellaneous writer, was born near Clonmel, Tipperary, Ireland, September 1, 1790. Her childhood was made unhappy by the bad temper, improvidence, and loose living of her father, and by the reduced circumstances of the family. Her early womanhood was made unhappier still by her compulsory marriage at fifteen to one Captain Farmer, whose drunkenness involved him in debt, and whose debts brought him to the King’s Bench prison, where he was killed by a fall in one of his drunken fits, in October 1817. His wife had some time before left his house, and in February 1818 she was married a second time to the earl of Blessington. Celebrated for her wit, her literary accomplishments, her generosity, and her social attractions, she was no less distinguished by her passion for pleasure and her craving for show and a high style of living. In the gratification of these tastes debts were accumulated, and the estates of the earl soon became burdened with “incumbrances.” In the autumn of 1822 they set out on a Continental tour, and remained abroad till the death of the earl, which took place at Paris in May 1829. Some years earlier they had become acquainted with Count Alfred d’Orsay, a man of fashion and seeker of pleasure, who was then serving in the army, but quitted it for the sake of joining them. In 1827 he had connected himself with the family by his marriage with the only daughter of the earl by a former wife. After Lord Blessington’s death Count d’Orsay, who had separated from his wife, came to England with the countess, and they lived together in London till her death. The home of the beautiful and brilliant countess (first Seamore Place, and afterwards Gore House, Kensington) became a centre of attraction for ...