THE DISPENSER OF CHARITY. appearance, she gives us a description at once simple and arch. " I was very happy in my first constitution, both in mind and body, both for inter- nal and external endowments ; for never was there child more equally resembling both father and mother than myself. The colour of mine eyes was black, like my father's ; and the form and aspect of them was quick and lively, like my mother's ;" she had unusually long, thick brown hair, and " full cheeks and round face, like my mother, and an ex- quisite shape of body," resembling the Earl. Anne was ten years old when, in 1599, her father, the Earl of Clifford, died. In his last moments, repenting of his base conduct to his wife and child, he desired to see them. The amiable Countess, with true Christian meekness, went with her little girl to grant her unworthy husband pardon for his behaviour towards herself ; and not only forgave, but comforted and consoled him in his dying hour. She survived him seventeen years, dying in 1616. In her twentieth year, Anne Clifford chose, from among many suitors, the young and handsome Richard, Lord Buckhurst, to whom she was united in February, 1609. Two days after her marriage, the sudden death of her husband's father made her Countess of Dorset. Like her mother, she was destined to be unhappy in her matrimonial life, and to endure, as she herself observes, "many crosses and contradictions." The Earl of Dorset was prodigal and wasteful, though a man of letters, an 35
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