Mary Tighe

I must not conclude my letter without observing, that, on my second visit to the fairy palace [Llangollen Vale], a lovely Being cast around its apartments the soft lunar rays of her congenial beauty. — Mrs. Tighe, the wife of one of my friend's nephews, an elegant and intelligent young woman, whom I should have observed more had his wife's beauty been less. I used the word "lunar" as characteristic of that beauty, for it is not resplendent and sunny, like Mrs. Plummer's, but, as it were, shaded, though exquisite. She is scarce two-and-twenty. Is it not too much that Aonian inspiration should be added to the cestus of Venus? She left an elegant and accurate sonnet, addressed to Lady E. Butler and her friend, on leaving their enchanting bowers.