A LOCKET-STORY.
[TO THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR,"]
SIR,—The annexed seems not unworthy to go alongside of your ring-stories. It is from "Recollections of an Octo- genarian," privately printed by the late John Carrick-Moore of Corsewall, F.R.S. To any one doubting its accuracy, I may say that Mr. Moore was a man of trained scientific mind.—,I am, Sir, &c.,
"Lady Hester Stanhope had a warm friendship for my uncle, Sir John Moore. She sent me a sword and a drum when I was four years old, with a note saying, When you are a man, come to me, and I will give you a real sword for your dear uncle's sake.' The physician who travelled with her in the East recorded
' that she said to him she had never known but three really great men. They were her uncle. William Pitt ; her brother, Charles Stanhope ; and Sir John Moore. The two last were both killed in the battle of Corunna. She got a lock of the hair of each, and set them in a gold locket, with the coat-of-arms and name of each respectively. In 1814 Lady Hester determined to live permanently in Syria, and sent for her possessions, this locket being among them. The ship containing her valuables sailed, and was heard of at Cyprus ; soon after one of th e Mediterranean squalls came on, and nothing more was ever heal of the ship, crew, or cargo. Thirty years elapsed, Lady Hester had long been dead, when a letter came to the Admiralty from the Consul at Jaffa, saying that an Arab had picked up on the beach a gold ornament with Frank characters. This was the long-lost locket ; and Lord Stanhope kindly giving up his claim to it, it became the property of my brother, Sir Graham Morris, and is now in my possession."
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