“psyche”

born, october 9th, 1772. died, march 24th, 1810.

BORN in 1772, the daughter of the Rev. William Blachford and of Theodosia, only daughter of Lady Mary Tighe, daughter of Lord Darnley. Mary Blachford, the subject of this memoir, was scarcely in her twentieth year when she appeared in the brilliant and cultivated Dublin Society of that period. There are two original portraits of her extant; one, a miniature by Comerford, now in the possession of the Right Hon. William Tighe, of Woodstock: the other is an oil painting by Romney, the property of Lady Laura Grattan. She is depicted with rich flowing, dark-brown hair, a few tendrils of which stray upon her smooth, intellectual forehead. The eyes are of a deep blue: large and pellucid, with a wondering wistful look in them: the lower part of the face is exquisitely formed, the chiselled round chin and rather small, full, soft mouth indicating, in a remarkable degree, sensitiveness and sensuousness—the latter an essential of the poetic temperament—without the slightest trace of sensuality. The general expression of the countenance is sweet, innocent, and lofty but tinged with a look of inexpressible sadness.

Young, beautiful, and gifted, she was the centre of attraction in the brilliant vice-regal Court of Dublin before the Union. They were Dublin's palmiest days; when the Ranelagh Gardens were the resort of the beaux and belles, when the Parliament was held in College Green, and the members had their town residences in Dublin, and when the Lord-Lieutenant danced with the mysterious shamrock-dressed lady at Saint Patrick's Ball, who vanished as the clock struck twelve, and kissed the knocker of Dublin Castle on her way out.