. 

 
 Ex Libris 
 C. K. OGDEN
 
 
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 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 or 
 
 RACHAEL WRIOTHESLEY 
 LADY RUSSELL. 
 
 WITH
 
 Printed by A. and R. Spottiswoode, 
 Printers-Street, London,
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 or 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 OF 
 
 RACHAEL WRIOTHESLEY 
 
 LADY RUSSELL, 
 
 BT 
 
 THE EDITOR OF MADAME DU DEFFAND's LETTERS. 
 
 FOLLOWED BY 
 
 A SERIES OF LETTERS 
 
 FROM 
 
 LADY RUSSELL TO HER HUSBAND, 
 
 WILLIAM LORD RUSSELL; 
 
 FROM 1672 TO 1682; 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 SOME MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 
 
 TO AND FROM LADY RUSSELL. 
 
 TO WHICH ARE ADDED, ELEVEN LETTERS 
 
 FROM DOROTHY SIDNEY COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND, 
 TO GEORGE SAVILLE MARQUIS OF HALLIFAX, 
 
 IN THE YEAR 1680. 
 
 PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS 
 
 IN THE POSSESSION OF 
 
 HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE 
 
 &&e Irirt> ffisition, 
 LONDON : 
 
 PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW ; 
 AND JAMES R1DGWAY, PICCADILLY. 
 
 1820.
 
 Stack 
 Annex 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 1 HESE Letters were sorted and arranged for the 
 Duke of Devonshire, by a friend, to whom he 
 had permitted the examination of a considerable 
 mass of family papers. They were returned to 
 the Duke with the following letter. When he 
 was solicited by several persons, to whom he had 
 communicated Lady Russell's correspondence 
 in its present state, to allow of its publication, 
 the same friend was applied to, for some account 
 of her life. It is here prefixed to the letters. 
 
 Those of Lady Russell will be found devoid 
 of every ornament of style, and deficient in al- 
 most every particular that constitutes, what are 
 generally called, entertaining letters. Their 
 merit must arise entirely from a previous know- 
 ledge of the character and habits of their writer, 
 and from the interest which the subsequent cir- 
 cumstances, in which she was placed, inspire. 
 They are sometimes overcharged, sometimes 
 confused with a repetition of trifling details j 
 
 A S
 
 VI 
 
 and sometimes the use of words antiquated in 
 the signification here given to them, adds to this 
 confusion. Very inconsiderable alterations might 
 have removed many of these difficulties, but 
 from every alteration the Editor has carefully 
 abstained. The value of the letters depends, 
 not on their intrinsic excellence, but on the 
 reader's previous acquaintance with that of their 
 author. 
 
 On Lady Russell's death, these letters, to- 
 gether with other papers, fell into the hands of 
 the Duchess of Devonshire, her only surviving 
 child. That the letters of Lord Russell should 
 not have been preserved by his wife, is hardly 
 credible ; yet none of his letters addressed to 
 her are extant, either in the Cavendish or 
 Russell families, except the two or three frag- 
 ments found among Lady Russell's papers, which 
 are given in the following pages. 
 
 The Editor has to regret the very insufficient 
 materials from which the following account has 
 been attempted. Such as it is, it pretends to 
 little more than the merit of a biographical no- 
 tice, in which the omission of all supposed and 
 doubtful facts must compensate for the paucity, 
 and sometimes the insignificance, of those re- 
 corded. 
 
 MAY 29th, 1819.
 
 TO 
 WILLIAM SPENCER CAVENDISH, 
 
 SIXTH 
 
 DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE, 
 
 GREAT, GREAT, GRANDSON 
 
 OF 
 
 RACHAEL WRIOTHESLEY LADY RUSSELL. 
 
 MY DEAR DUKE, 
 
 HERE are, at last, the Russell Letters 
 sorted and catalogued, as I promised. The 
 pleasure I have had, in thus cultivating an in- 
 timate acquaintance with the admirable charac- 
 ters of Lord and Lady Russell, would have en- 
 abled me soon to have finished my business with 
 their letters, had not my wretched health, for 
 this last twelvemonth, so often interdicted all 
 powers of employment, as even to have made 
 the necessary references, to settle dates, &c. &c., 
 a work of labour to me. Nor am I yet certain 
 that all the dates are right. The day of the
 
 Vlll 
 
 month, where any post-mark existed, is generally 
 to be made out ; but many of the letters having 
 been sent in covers, or by private hands, are 
 without this guide, and the year, seldom men- 
 tioned, can only be guessed by the contents of 
 the letters, and the public events mentioned in 
 them. I have added such notes as I thought 
 necessary to their elucidation. 
 
 They are followed by eleven letters from Do- 
 rothy Sidney, Countess of Stmderland, (the Sac- 
 carissa of Waller), to the Marquis of Hallifax, 
 written in the year 1680. These letters belong 
 immediately to the same period : they throw 
 light on Lady Russell's correspondence ; and 
 are the more interesting, because the views and 
 principles of the writers are in direct opposition 
 to each other. 
 
 Lady Sunderland's letters are entertaining., 
 because they detail the news and politics of the 
 day ; but those of Lady Russell have an interest 
 and a charm peculiar to their admirable writer. 
 
 The volume of her Letters published have al- 
 ready shown her in the exalted characters of 
 an Heroine and a Saint. In the present Letters, 
 where we are admitted into the inmost recesses 
 of her heart, she appears in the captivating form 
 of the most tender and attached of women. The 
 strain of artless passion, of love exalted by every 
 sentiment of the heart, and of the understanding,.
 
 IX 
 
 which breathes through all those addressed to 
 her lord, make them, certainly, the most touch- 
 ing Love-Letters I ever read ; while the almost 
 prophetic exhortations they contain, both to 
 him and herself j to be prepared for the loss of 
 a happiness she appreciated so justly, give them 
 a singular interest, when combined with her 
 subsequent misfortune, and the deep and lasting 
 manner in which she felt it. In short, diving so 
 much into her history, by reading so many of 
 her letters, and observing her conduct in every 
 relation of her life, I am become such an enthu- 
 siast for her character, that I feel proud of 
 being of the same sex and country with her ; 
 and among the many honourable distinctions 
 that you inherit from your ancestors, none ap- 
 pear to me more enviable than your near alliance 
 to her blood, her virtues, and her fame. 
 
 DECEMBER 28th, 1815.
 
 SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF 
 
 THE LIFE 
 
 Of 
 
 RACHAEL WRIOTHESLEY 
 
 LADY RUSSELL. 
 
 THE biographers of those who have been distin- 
 guished in the active paths of life, who have 
 directed the councils or fought the battles of 
 nations, have, perhaps, an easier task than those 
 who engage to satisfy the curiosity sometimes 
 excited by persons whose situation, circum- 
 stances, or sex, have confined them to private 
 life. To the biographers of public characters, 
 the pages of history, and the archives of the 
 state, furnish many of Jthe documents required; 
 while those of private individuals have to col- 
 lect every particular from accidental materials, 
 from combining and comparing letters and, 
 otherwise insignificant, papers, never intended
 
 to convey any part of the information sought in 
 them. 
 
 In this predicament is placed the author of 
 the following pages. The veil which covered 
 the unassuming virtues of Lady Russell in early 
 life, naturally increases a desire, in intelligent 
 minds, to become acquainted with her senti- 
 ments and situation before she was called to the 
 exercise of the most difficult virtues, and the 
 display of the most heroic courage. 
 
 Few of her sex have been placed in such a 
 distinguished situation. Still fewer, after hav- 
 ing so conducted themselves, have, like her, 
 shrunk from all public notice, and returned to 
 the unobtrusive performance of accustomed 
 duties, and the unostentatious consolations of 
 accustomed piety. 
 
 The incidents in the life of Lady Russell will 
 be found so few, and her superior merits remain 
 so much confined within the pale of private life 
 and female duties, that, unlike most heroines, 
 her character deserves to be held up yet more 
 to the example than to the admiration of her 
 country-women. 
 
 Lady Rachael Wriothesley was the second 
 daughter of Thomas Wriothesley, Earl of South- 
 ampton, by his first wife, Rachael de Ruvigny, 
 of an ancient Hugonot family in France : she 
 7
 
 was born about the year 1636 : her mother died 
 in her infancy ; and her father married for his 
 second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Francis 
 Leigh, afterwards created Earl of Chichester, 
 by whom he had four other daughters, one of 
 whom only survived him. 
 
 As Lady Rachael was born at the beginning 
 of those political disturbances which so long 
 agitated England, her early education was pro- 
 bably less sedulously attended to, and fewer 
 means of accomplishment afforded her, than 
 would have been the case in more peaceable 
 times. This may be conjectured from the 
 many grammatical errors, and the often de- 
 fective orthography in all her unpremeditated 
 letters in early life ; until the practice of writ- 
 ing much on her own and her children's affairs, 
 had given her greater habits of correctness. 
 
 Lord Southampton, during the first period of 
 the disputes between Charles and his Parlia- 
 ments, (as his illustrious friend Lord Clarendon 
 informs us,) disapproved of the measures of the 
 court, and conceiving himself also to have been 
 individually oppressed, kept so much aloof from 
 all intercourse with it, that he was considered 
 as one of the peers the most attached to the 
 cause of the people. Lord Strafford's govern- 
 ment he also greatly disliked 5 and it was not 
 till after he had seen the course of justice per- 
 
 B 2
 
 verted on his trial, and the popular tide setting 
 so violently against all monarchical government, 
 that Lord Southampton reluctantly allowed 
 himself to be attached to the court first, by 
 being made a privy councillor, and soon after 
 gentleman of the bedchamber to the King. As 
 he had previously refused to sign the protest- 
 ation of the two Houses of Parliament, for dis- 
 abling their members from holding any place, 
 either in Church or State, he was believed to 
 have accepted these offices, expressly to show 
 how little he regarded the framers and advisers 
 of such measures. 
 
 He afterwards accompanied the King to York 
 and to Nottingham ; was present at Edgehill : 
 and went from thence to Oxford, where he re- 
 mained with the court during the rest of the 
 war ; a war, of whose success he despaired 
 from the beginning, and during the whole 
 course of which, he was the unvarying and in- 
 defatigable advocate of peace. During the con- 
 ferences at Uxbridge, which lasted twenty days, 
 and which, together with Sir Edward Nicholas, 
 the Secretary of State, he conducted on the 
 part of the King, Lord Clarendon remarks of 
 him, that " although a person naturally loving 
 " his ease, and allowing himself never less than 
 " ten hours' repose, he was then never more 
 " than four hours in bed ;" bending his whole
 
 soul towards effecting an union which he never 
 ceased to consider as the greatest blessing 
 which could befall his afflicted country. 
 
 After this attempt, which violence on the 
 one side and obstinacy on the other rendered 
 abortive, Lord Southampton faithfully perse- 
 vered in his attendance on the daily-diminishing 
 court of the misguided Charles, whilst he was 
 yet a free agent. Afterwards, when he was a 
 prisoner, in the power of his own provoked 
 subjects, now become enraged persecutors, 
 Lord Southampton made every possible attempt 
 to deliver him from their hands (1) ; and when 
 at length the sacrifice of his life expiated the 
 culpable weaknesses of his character, and 
 eventually secured the permanent liberty of his 
 people, Lord Southampton was one of the four 
 faithful servants who asked and obtained per- 
 mission to pay the last sad duty to his remains, 
 divested of all accustomed ceremonial. After 
 this event Lord Southampton retired to his seat 
 at Tichfield, in Hampshire, obstinately reject- 
 ing every subsequent advance from Cromwell 
 to court his friendship or engage his com- 
 
 (1) The King was for some time at Lord Southampton's 
 house at Tichfield, in Hampshire, as the visitor, and under 
 the protection of the old Countess of Southampton, his 
 mother, after he left Hampton Court, and before he was 
 conducted by Colonel Hammond to the Isle of Wight.
 
 pliance. (1) His second wife having died, he 
 married for the third time, a daughter of 
 Francis Duke of Somerset, widow of Viscount 
 Molyneux. By this marriage he had no children. 
 
 During his retirement, which lasted from 
 1648 to the Restoration, his daughter, Lady 
 Rachael, born about 1636, must have been 
 exactly at the age dedicated to those occupa- 
 tions which it has been agreed to call the edu- 
 cation of females. 
 
 Under such circumstances, though her oppor- 
 tunities of acquiring the usual accomplishments 
 of her sex and station might be few and insuf- 
 ficient, yet the cultivation of her mind and 
 heart was probably not neglected ; and the 
 same integrity of character, the same piety and 
 purity of conduct which distinguished her fa- 
 ther, must have been instilled, both by pre- 
 cept and example, into the minds of his children. 
 In Lady Rachael, they were implanted in a soil 
 congenial with every noble sentiment, both of 
 the heart and of the intellect. 
 
 (1) " When Cromwell was near his house in the country, 
 " upon the marriage of his son in those parts*, and had a 
 " purpose to have made him a visit ; upon a private notice 
 " thereof, he immediately removed to' another house at a 
 " greater distance." Clarendon's Life, p. 414. fol. edition. 
 
 * Richard Cromwell was married to a daughter and co-heiress of 
 Richard Major, Esq. of Hursley, in Hampshire,
 
 Her first ideas on the subject of government 
 we must suppose to have been all favourable to 
 royalty, and to the unfortunate family who had 
 been deprived of its honours. In religion, she 
 was educated a strict Protestant, with every 
 predilection for its doctrines, which her mother's 
 family, professing a faith persecuted in the 
 country to which they belonged, were likely to 
 encourage. 
 
 Lord Southampton's liberality of sentiment 
 on matters of religion is thus commemorated by 
 Clarendon, who, in speaking of his toleration to- 
 wards Dissenters, thinks it proper to make, what 
 must now be considered a very unnecessary 
 apology for his friend's opinions. " He was a 
 " man of exemplary virtue and piety, a'nd very 
 " regular in his devotions ; yet was not gene- 
 " rally believed by the bishops to have an 
 " affection keen enough for the government of 
 " the Church ; because he was willing and 
 " desirous that something more might have 
 " been done to gratify the Presbyterians than 
 " they thought just." (1) 
 
 To her father's liberal way of thinking on 
 these subjects, she probably owed the pure 
 strain of truly Christian charity as well as piety 
 
 (i) Continuation of the Life of Clarendon, p. 415. folio 
 edition. 
 
 B 4"
 
 which runs through her letters, and on all occa- 
 sions animated her conduct. 
 
 Her maternal uncle, the Marquis de Ruvigny, 
 was long at the head of the Protestant interests 
 in France, as Deputy-General of the reformed 
 churches ; which, before the revocation of the 
 Edict of Nantes, was no other than a minister 
 plenipotentiary from the Protestant subjects of 
 France, at the court of their Roman Catholic 
 Sovereign. He is described as having been a 
 very accomplished person, possessing consider- 
 able ability, courage, and conduct ; and was so 
 much in the favour of Lewis XIV. and Cardinal 
 Mazarin, that he often . obtained from them a 
 hearing for those of his persuasion, which they 
 refused to other applicants. 
 
 At the synod, which, after the death of Crom- 
 well, in 1659, Lewis XIV. allowed to assemble, 
 he named Ruvigny Deputy-General, subject to 
 the approbation of the meeting, while Cardinal 
 Mazarin gave them at the same time to under- 
 stand, that no other choice would be acceptable 
 to or accepted by the King. (1) Ruvigny at the 
 
 (1) Ruvigny afterwards, for form-sake, laid his commission 
 on the table of the synod, that their choice might be supposed 
 free ; when, with that neglect of truth so common in the 
 conduct of all public affairs in France, " on remercia le Roi 
 " du choix qu'il avoit fait, et de ce qu'il n'avoitpas voulu im- 
 " poser la necessitc de fa suivre" Bench's Histoire de 
 1'Edit de Nantes, vol. iii. p. 312.
 
 9 
 
 same time received permission to be present at 
 the deliberations of the synod, and to deliver 
 his opinion there, a liberty refused to former 
 deputies-general, because nothing political was 
 allowed or supposed to be touched on in these 
 assemblies. 
 
 Ruvigny had early obtained the favour, and 
 entitled himself to the support of Cardinal Ma- 
 zarin. During the occasional banishments 
 from the court to which the Frondeurs had 
 compelled that artful minister, Ruvigny had 
 been one of the persons of the reformed reli- 
 gion on whose attachments to his interests, and 
 on whose activity for his return, he had the 
 most counted. On the Cardinal's establishment 
 in permanent power, he considered the above 
 appointments as a reward for Ruvigny's services. 
 Ruvigny, however, had other pretensions, but 
 was given to understand, that any military em- 
 ployment, or any further advancement, must be 
 purchased by a change of his religion. To his 
 religion he was sincerely and steadily attached, 
 although it would seem, that, in his character of 
 Deputy- General of the Reformed Church, he 
 was sometimes suspected (by its zealous adherents 
 in the distant provinces) of sacrificing its inte- 
 rests to compliances with the views of the court ; 
 while, in fact, his favour with the King and the 
 Cardinal often obtained for his church both a
 
 10 
 
 knowledge of the designs of their enemies, and 
 a patient hearing of their grievances. (1) 
 
 That he was afterwards employed diplomati- 
 cally in England by Lewis XIV., was indeed an 
 instance of very extraordinary favour to one of 
 his persuasion. His connections in England, 
 from his sister's alliance there, contributed pro- 
 bably to his first appointment. He was sent 
 with some message of compliment to Charles 
 soon after his restoration, and during the em- 
 bassy of the Count de Soissons. We afterwards 
 find him accredited in England, and much in 
 the confidence of both courts, in the year 1668, 
 from whence he returned to Paris in July of the 
 same year, and was again in London in 1669, 
 while M. de Comminges was still ambassador to 
 the court at Whitehall. The services or the 
 manners of Ruvigny, seem, however, to have 
 been much more agreeable to Charles than those 
 of Comminges ; for in a letter to the Duchess 
 of Orleans, his sister, at the beginning of his 
 disgraceful money transactions with France in 
 June, 1669, he desires to avoid telling Comminges 
 (of whose abilities,he expresses no good opinion) 
 
 (1) " Les ministres d'etat etoient inaccessibles pour 
 " tout autre que pour lui (Ruvigny) on, s'ils faisoient a 
 " quelqu'autre la grace de 1'ecouter, ils lui faisoient toujours 
 " des reponses desobligeantes." Benoit, Hist, de 1'Edit de 
 Nantes, vol. iv. p. 330.
 
 11 
 
 any thing about the intended treaty, while, in a 
 former letter to the same person, he mentions 
 having " said to Ruvigny every thing that was 
 upon his harte ;" and after Colbert had suc- 
 ceeded Comminges as ambassador, regrets, in 
 another letter of the 2d September, 1669, " that 
 " France had not been as forward in their in- 
 " tentions towards us, when Ruvigny was here." 
 On the recall of Colbert in 1674, he was himself 
 made minister-plenipotentiary, and remained so 
 till the appointment of Courtin in 1676. Within 
 ten years afterwards, Ruvigny was indebted to 
 the same especial favour with Lewis XIV. for 
 permission to emigrate to England with his 
 family from his attachment to his religion, on the 
 revocation of the Edict of Nantes ; a permission 
 at that time granted to no other protestant 
 noble. (1) 
 
 In the intermediate time he had exerted him- 
 self actively but ineffectually to save the life of 
 Lord Russell, the husband of his niece. It is 
 
 (1) He had previously secured to himself and sons letters 
 of naturalisation. In a letter of his to Lady Russell, of 
 January, 1680, which accompanied some family papers rela- 
 tive to pecuniary concerns, he says, " Je vous envoie aussi 
 " nos lettres de naturalite qui seront mieux entre vos mains 
 " qu'entre les miennes. Je vous prie, et Madame votre 
 " soeur aussi, (Lady Elizabeth Noel, ) de les cohserver. Elles 
 " peuvent servir, puisque il n'y est rien de plus incertain 
 " que les eve"ne"mens.'' Devonshire MSS.
 
 even said by Dalrymple, on the authority of a 
 letter of Bari lion's, of 'the 19th of 'July, 1683, in 
 the Depot des Affaires Etrangeres, at Paris, 
 which he does not give, that the younger Ru- 
 vigny had prevailed on Lewis to write to Charles 
 in favour of Lord Russell, and was himself to 
 be the bearer of the letter. That his journey 
 was only prevented by Charles having antici- 
 pated the event of every application, civilly 
 telling Barillon " Je ne veux'pas empecher 
 " que M. de Ruvigny ne vienne ici, mais 
 " Milord Russel aura le col coupe avant qu'il 
 " arrive." (1) 
 
 The fact, however, of this letter having been 
 ever promised, is more than doubtful, from the 
 following note of the elder Ruvigny to Lady 
 Russell, after Lord Russell's arrest. It makes 
 no mention of any such interference, which he 
 would surely have announced with eagerness to 
 his unhappy niece. 
 
 " A Paris, le 14 Juillet, 1683. 
 
 " J'ay une grande impatience ma chere niece 
 
 " d'etre pres de vous, il y a trois jours que le 
 
 " Roi est arrive il a eu la bonte de consentir a 
 
 " mon voyage. Si je pourrois courir la poste, je 
 
 ( 1 ) In the octavo edition of Sir John Dalrymple, he sup- 
 presses the extract from the letter of Barillon, but still leaves 
 the anecdote on his authority.
 
 " serois bientot a Londres, j'achette des che- 
 " veaux et je feral toute la diligence que mon 
 " age me permet. Dieu vous console et vous 
 " fortifie." 
 
 " RUVIGNY." (1) 
 
 Of Ruvigny's t.wo sons, the elder (as is known) 
 was killed at the battle of the Boyne, and the 
 second, in defiance of the confiscation of his 
 paternal estate (2), entered into the service of 
 King William, was by him created Earl of Gal- 
 way, and died unmarried in 1729- 
 
 How or when Lord Southampton became ac- 
 quainted and formed his connection with the 
 Ruvigny family is not known. Such was the 
 total neglect which began to be shown to the 
 Protestants in France at this period, and so 
 much did their religion exclude them from every 
 public record, that the author of these pages, 
 after much enquiry at Paris some months ago, in 
 the King's and other libraries, assisted by those 
 most capable of such researches, has not been 
 able to discover to what district of France the 
 
 (1) Bedford MSS. 
 
 (2) " Le Roi donna il y a quelques jours, k 1'Abbe de 
 " Polignac la confiscation des biens de M. de Ruvigny, qui 
 ' s'appelle en Angleterre Milord Galway. 10 Mai, 1711." 
 Nouveau Mem. de Dangeau par M. de Monterey, p. 213.
 
 family of Ruvigny belonged. (1) Neither is any 
 mention made of it, nor any record of its armo- 
 rial bearing in any of the genealogical works of 
 France that the author has met with. (2) 
 
 Lord Southampton died in 1667. His thought- 
 less and unfeeling master had, for some time, 
 been desirous to snatch from his dying hand the 
 
 (1) It is surmised that they were of Brittany, from the 
 circumstance of the Marquis de Ruvigny having been the 
 counsellor and confidant of Marguerite de Rohan, the daugh- 
 ter and heiress of the last Protestant Due de Rohan, on the 
 subject of a supposed brother, whose birth, her mother, the 
 Duchesse de Rohan, declared she had concealed only to 
 avoid the violence and the artifices of the Roman Catholics, 
 to get possession of the heir to his father's power and in- 
 fluence with the Protestants of France. But as the birth and 
 existence of this son had been concealed even from her hus- 
 band himself, many doubts were entertained of his legitimacy, 
 which people seem to have believed or disbelieved according 
 to their religious persuasion. His early death in one of the 
 sorties from Paris, during the wars of the Fronde, put an end 
 to the process, which, had it not been for the prudent coun- 
 sels of Ruvigny, would already have taken place between the 
 brother and sister. 
 
 See some curious details on this subject worthy to figure 
 among the Causes Ce"lebres, in Benoit's Hist, de FEdit de 
 Nantes, vol. iii. p. 54-. 
 
 (2) The Author has since found their names and arms thus 
 collaterally noted in the Dictionaire Heraldigue, Genealo- 
 gigue, Chronologique, et Historique, par M.D.L. C. D. B. 
 (M. de la Chesnaye des Bois) " Massue" Seigneur de Ray^- 
 " nevel en Picardie, clont les Marquis de Ruvigni et Milord 
 " Galoway, d'azur au cor enguiche d'or." Vol. ii. p. 487-
 
 15 
 
 treasurer's staff which he still held, that he might 
 place it with those, to whom he could with less 
 shame and less fear of remonstrance confide the 
 opprobrious secret of his political dishonour. The 
 disgrace of Clarendon, which happened within a 
 few months after the death of his friend, seems 
 to have formed a melancholy era in the avowed 
 venality and profligacy of the court of Charles. 
 Lord Southampton having no children by 
 his third marriage, and of his second, one 
 only out of four daughters surviving him, who 
 inherited her mother's fortune (1), left entire 
 possession of his estates to the two surviving 
 children of his first marriage, Elizabeth and 
 Rachael, who thus became considerable heir- 
 esses. The Lady Elizabeth married Edward 
 Noel, son of Viscount Campden, created after- 
 wards Earl of Gainsborough. The subsequent 
 marriage x of the Lady Rachael with Francis 
 Lord Vaughan, eldest son of the Earl of Car- 
 berry, about the year 1653, was settled accord- 
 ing to the fashion of that day, by the inter- 
 vention of parents, and at so early a period of 
 life, that, to use the words in which on a subse- 
 quent occasion Lady Russell herself expresses 
 an opinion of early marriages, (founded, per- 
 
 (1) Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Sir Francis Leigh 
 afterwards created Earl of Chichester. 
 
 -W ^-Vfc~ ,-
 
 16 
 
 haps, on her own experience,) in such unions 
 " it is acceptance rather than choosing on either 
 " side." 
 
 But, however little her choice might have 
 been consulted in this connection, her conduct 
 so long as it lasted, was not only blameless, but 
 such as entitled her to the love of all around 
 her, and to the lasting attachment of her hus- 
 band's family. We have a letter written so early 
 as the year 1655, when she was living with Lord 
 Vaughan, at his father's house in Wales (1), in 
 which she is thus addressed : 
 
 " Dear Madam, 
 
 " There is not in the world so great a charm 
 " as goodness ; and Your Ladyship is the 
 et greatest argument to prove it. All that know 
 " you are thereby forced to honour you, neither 
 ' are you to thank them, because they cannot 
 " do otherwise. Madam, I am among that 
 " number, gladly, and heartily I declare it, 
 " and I shall die in that number, because my 
 " observance of your virtue is inseparably an- 
 " nexed to it. 1 beseech you, Madam, to par- 
 
 (1) Golden Grove in Carmarthenshire At a fire which 
 
 happened there in 1729, many family papers were destroyed, 
 among which we have probably to regret the means of be- 
 coming acquainted with many details of Lady Russell's early 
 life.
 
 17 
 
 " tlon this scribbling, and present your noble 
 " husband with mv most affectionate service; 
 
 v 7 
 
 " and I shall in my prayers present you both to 
 " God, begging of him daily to increase your 
 " piety to Him, and your love to each other." 
 
 Of Lord Vaughan's character, habits, or par- 
 ticular disposition, nothing is to be traced in 
 the materials to which the author of these pages 
 has had access, except we may infer, from a 
 message sent to him in a subsequent letter to 
 his wife from the same correspondent already 
 quoted, that he disliked writing, and was dila- 
 tory in all sorts of business, as Lady Vaughan is 
 besought (evidently in raillery) " not hereafter 
 " to hinder my Lord Vaughan from writing to 
 " me ; I am confident, whatsoever excuse you 
 " make for him, he had a most eager desire to 
 " write this week. I know his Lordship so 
 " well, that he cannot delay to make returns of 
 " civility. If it had been his custom to defer 
 " and put off to the last hour, I might believe 
 " your Ladyship : but in this particular, I must 
 " beg your Ladyship's pardon. I was at Abs- 
 " court the last week, and found Mr. Estcourt 
 " courting your aunt. (1) She received his al- 
 
 ( 1 ) Elizabeth, sister to the Lord Treasurer Southampton, 
 married Mr., afterwards Sir Thomas Estcourt, Knt. a Mas- 
 ter in Chancery. 
 
 c o V
 
 18 
 
 ** dresses with great satisfaction and content. 
 " I think, Madam, under favour, you were not 
 " so kind to my Lord Vaughan." 
 
 In the year 1665, she became a mother, but 
 her child lived only to be baptized, and she had 
 no other children by Lord Vaughan. In the 
 autumn of the same year, while the plague was 
 raging in London, we find her again with Lord 
 Carberry's family in Wales. A letter from her 
 half-sister Lady Percy (1), after expressing her 
 great desire to have Lady Vaughan with her at 
 Petworth, and how much her company was 
 desired by all the family, says " I am glad for 
 ** nobody's sake but Lady Frances's (2), that 
 ' you are there," (at Litd/ow,*) " for I am sure 
 " she is sensible of her happiness in enjoying 
 " you." 
 
 In the year 1667, we find Lady Vaughan a 
 widow, living with her beloved sister, Lady 
 Elizabeth Noel, at Titchfield, in Hampshire, the 
 seat of their father Lord Southampton, which 
 Lady Elizabeth Noel, as the eldest of the two 
 daughters by his first marriage, had recently 
 
 ( 1 ) The only surviving child of Lord Southampton by his 
 second marriage. She was the wife of Jocelin Percy, the 
 last Earl of Northumberland, whose father, at the date of 
 this letter, was still alive- 
 
 (2) Lady Frances Vaughan, eldest daughter of Lord 
 Carberry.
 
 19 
 
 inherited. His property at Stratton at the same 
 time falling to the lot of Lady Vaughan. 
 
 Of the commencement of her acquaintance 
 with Mr. Russell we are ignorant. That it ex- 
 isted more than two years before it terminated 
 in their union, we know from a letter of Lady 
 Percy's to Lady Vaughan, in the summer of 
 1667, where she mentions Mr. Russell in a 
 manner to leave no doubt of his having mani- 
 fested his sentiments for her sister. " For his 
 ** (Mr. Russell's) concern, I can say nothing 
 " more than that he professes a great desire, 
 " which I do not at all doubt, he, and every 
 " body else has, to gain one who is so desirable 
 *' in all respects." 
 
 Mr. Russell was then only a younger brother, 
 and Lady Vaughan a very considerable heiress, 
 without children by her first marriage. The 
 advantages of such a connection must have 
 been considered, in the eye of the world, as 
 entirely on his side, and the diffidence inspired 
 by this idea, as well as the feelings of doubt 
 which always accompany strong attachment, 
 seem to have made him very backward in in- 
 terpreting Lady Vaughan's sentiments in his 
 favour. 
 
 As the inequality between them existed only 
 in matters of interest, their mutual feelings 
 could not long be mistaken by each other.
 
 Lady Vaughan was entirely her own mistress, 
 and they were married about the end of the year 
 1669, she retaining the name of Vaughan, till 
 Mr. Russell, having by the death of his elder 
 brother Francis Lord Russell (1) succeeded to 
 his title, she assumed that of Lady Russell. 
 
 The first letters in the following series are 
 addressed by Lady Vaughan to her husband, 
 Mr. Russell, in the spring of the year 1672. 
 They are continued at distant intervals, to 
 within a twelvemonth of his death. They are 
 few ; for during the fourteen happy years of 
 their union, they were little apart. Their only 
 moments of separation seem to have been some 
 visits of duty to his father, when living entirely 
 at Woburn, or during his elections for two suc- 
 cessive parliaments ; some short absences in 
 London, on private or political business, and his 
 attendance at Oxford during the only session 
 of the parliament so suddenly dismissed by 
 Charles. 
 
 These letters are written with such a neglect 
 of style, and often of grammar, as may disgust 
 the admirers of well-turned periods, and they 
 contain such frequent repetitions of homely ten- 
 derness, as may shock the sentimental readers 
 of the present day. But they evince the enjoy- 
 
 (1) In 1678.
 
 21 
 
 ment of. a happiness, built on such rational 
 foundations, and so truly appreciated by its pos- 
 sessors, as too seldom occurs in the history of 
 the human heart. They are impressed too with 
 the marks of a cheerful mind, a social spirit, and 
 every indication of a character prepared, as well 
 to enjoy the sunshine, as to meet the storms of 
 life. 
 
 Thus gifted, and thus situated, her tender 
 and prophetic exhortations both to her Lord 
 and herself, to merit the continuance of such 
 happiness, and to secure its perfect enjoyment 
 by being prepared for its loss, are not less 
 striking than his entire and absolute confidence 
 in her character, and attachment to her society. 
 It was thus, surely, that intellectual beings of 
 different sexes were intended by their great 
 Creator to go through the world together; 
 thus united, not only in hand and heart, but in 
 principles, in intellect, in views, and in dispo- 
 sitions ; each pursuing one common and noble 
 end, their own improvement, and the happiness 
 of those around them, by the different means 
 appropriate to their sex and situation ; mutu- 
 ally correcting, sustaining, and strengthening 
 each other ; undegraded by all practices of 
 tyranny on the one part, and of deceit on the 
 other ; each finding a candid but severe judge 
 
 c 3
 
 in the understanding, and a warm and partial 
 advocate in the heart of their companion : 
 secure of 'a refuge from the vexations, the follies, 
 the misunderstandings and the evils of the 
 world, in the arms of each other, and in the 
 inestimable enjoyments of unlimited confidence, 
 and unrestrained intimacy. 
 
 In the death of her beloved sister, Lady Eli- 
 zabeth Noel, in 1679, Lady Russell experienced 
 a severe affliction. Although happy, and con- 
 sciously happy in an husband and children, who- 
 called forth every feeling that either could in- 
 spire to the warmest heart, hers was not one in 
 which such feelings were exclusive. 
 
 There seems, indeed, to be as great a variety 
 in the powers of human hearts, as of human 
 intellects. Some are found hardly equal to the 
 modified selfishness which produces attachment 
 to their most immediate connections ; some have 
 naturally strong feelings concentrated on a few 
 objects, but which diffuse no warmth out of 
 their own narrow focus ; while others appear 
 endowed with an almost boundless capacity for 
 every virtuous affection, which contracts undi- 
 minished to all the minute duties of social life, 
 and expands unexhausted to all the great in- 
 terests of humanity. 
 
 Such was the heart of Lady Russell, in which 
 her friends, her country, her religion, all found
 
 a place. (1) She recurs to the character of her 
 sister, under the name of a " delicious Friend?* 
 and uniting a fond remembrance of her feelings 
 for her, in all those of her happiness with an 
 adored husband, gratefully exclaims, " Sure, 
 " nobody has ever enjoyed more pleasure in the 
 " conversations and tender kindness of a hus- 
 " band and a sister, than myself." (2) 
 
 Repeated acknowledgments and returns of 
 this " tender kindness" form the striking fea- 
 ture of all the letters addressed to her husband ; 
 but they bear marks at the same time of a 
 lively interest in his pursuits, and of a mind 
 open to all great public objects. Her account 
 of the debate in the House of Commons, on the 
 King's message in April, 1677> is remarkably 
 clear and well given, and we meet with several 
 passages which intimate her acquaintance with 
 political affairs, as well as her anxiety about 
 Lord Russell's participation in them. Whether 
 the note she sent to him in the House of Com- 
 mons succeeded in persuading him to the post- 
 
 ( 1 ) In a letter to Dr. Fitzwilliam, in the eventful year 
 1683, when her first and great interest in all public affairs 
 no longer existed, she says, " My thoughts are too much 
 " crowded to get a passage to express what I feel. My 
 " religion and my country are dear to me, and my own 
 " hard fate will ever be a green wound." 
 
 (2) See letter to Dr. Fitzwilliam, of July 17th, 1685, 
 p. 62. of Published Letters. 
 
 c 4
 
 ponement of some intended measure, which it 
 so strongly urged, we cannot now ascertain ; but 
 his having preserved and indorsed this note as 
 being received while the House of Commons 
 was sitting, shows the impression which, from 
 its relation to the subject of debate, it must have 
 made on him. 
 
 The birth of her eldest daughter, in 1674, 
 was followed by that of another daughter, in 
 1676, and her domestic happiness seemed to be 
 completed by the birth of a son, in November, 
 1680. 
 
 The frequent mention made of these children 
 in the following letters of their health, their 
 progress, and their amusements, prove how 
 much every thing that concerned them occu- 
 pied as well as interested their parents. Such 
 details would be tedious, were it not consoling 
 to trace the minute features of tenderness in 
 characters, capable at the same time of the 
 sternest exertions of human fortitude. 
 
 Although Lady Russell felt all the soul- 
 sufficing enjoyments of perfect affection in the 
 society of her husband, she allowed no exclusive 
 sentiment to withdraw either him or herself 
 from the world, in which they were born to live, 
 nor from the society which made that of each 
 other more dear to them. Their summers at 
 Stratton, to which she always adverts with plea-
 
 25 
 
 sure, were diversified by their winters spent at 
 Southampton House (1), from whence, if busi- 
 ness, or country sports, called her companion, 
 she sought society, and collected for him in her 
 letters, all the little anecdotes, public or private, 
 that could serve to amuse his absence ; proving 
 how compatible she deemed cheerfulness to be 
 with devotion, and the reasonable enjoyment of 
 trifles in this world, with an attentive regard to 
 the great interests of the next. 
 
 From devotion, and devoted resignation to 
 the will of Heaven, who ever required or ob- 
 tained more than Lady Russell? Whose im- 
 plicit faith in the inscrutable ways of the Al- 
 mighty was ever exposed to severer trials ? 
 And where, and when, were the consoling doc- 
 trines of Christianity ever applied to more poig- 
 nant distress, or productive of more admirable 
 effects, than on her life, her conduct, and her 
 character ? Yet her devotion separated her in 
 no degree either from the affections, the inter- 
 ests, or the amusements of the world. She 
 appeared at a court, in the profligacy of which 
 
 (1) It was situated on the north side of Bloomsbury- 
 Square. On Lady Russell's death, in 1723, Southampton 
 House descended to her grandson, Wriothesly Duke of 
 Bedford, and received the name of Bedford House. It was 
 pulled down by Francis Duke of Bedford, in 1800.
 
 26 
 
 she did not participate ; and amused herself in a 
 society, whose frivolity she avoided. 
 
 The tenor of her faith degraded not the social 
 affections of the heart, by placing them in con- 
 tradistinction to the dirties she owed to a Supe- 
 rior Being. She drew not up in terrible array 
 the Divine will against her enjoyments, but en- 
 deavoured gratefully to partake of all the inno- 
 cent pleasures offered both to our animal and 
 intellectual existence by its benevolent Creator, 
 She lowered not the spirituality of her nature, 
 by clogging it with the language of worldly 
 passion, nor the performance of minute observ- 
 ances. But, with a mind at once exalted and 
 purified by her faith, she looked up from the 
 depths of human suffering, with trembling hope y 
 to the immense mercies, and with unshaken 
 confidence to the consoling promises of an 
 Almighty Being, 
 
 " Who must delight in virtue; 
 
 " And that, which He delights in, must be happy." 
 
 Such was Lady Russell's intimate acquaint- 
 ance with the sentiments and character of her 
 husband, and such her confidence in the purity 
 of his intentions and conduct, that when she 
 found herself in the dreadful predicament of
 
 27 
 
 separation, by means which even the anxiety of 
 affection could never have deemed possible, the 
 *' amazement" on which she dwells so often, 
 and with such peculiar anguish in her subse- 
 quent letters, doubled a blow for which nothing 
 could have ever prepared her. 
 
 But her mind, instead of being overwhelmed, 
 rises equal to a situation in which she could 
 never have conceived herself liable to be placed. 
 Her quiet domestic spirit immediately assumes 
 an activity, which probably afterwards as much 
 surprised herself, as it called forth the admira- 
 tion of those who witnessed it. 
 
 We have no record from herself of these cruel 
 moments. She was otherwise employed than in 
 giving an account of her feelings ; they must 
 have been such as were hardly defined to her- 
 self. And when we recollect her previous 
 habits of life, and those of most of her sex and 
 country at that time, we shall appreciate her 
 character and conduct in a very different man- 
 ner from that of any lively Frenchwoman of the 
 same period, already in the habits of political 
 intrigue, who might, in Lady Russell's circum- 
 stances, have found almost as much to gratify 
 her vanity, as to alarm her feelings. 
 
 From the manner in which Lord Russell was 
 taken up, there is little doubt that the court, 
 with the dastardly policy which their crooked
 
 measures made necessary, would willingly have 
 connived at his escape. It would have saved 
 them from the odium of his death, and would 
 have allowed them, by vilifying his character, 
 more easily to get rid of others, whose greater 
 activity as well as fewer scruples, made them, in 
 fact, much more dangerous enemies. 
 
 Burnet tells us, that the day before Lord 
 Russell was arrested, a messenger was observed 
 waiting for many hours at, or near, his door 
 " A measure that was taken in so open and 
 ' careless a manner, (the back door of his 
 " house not being watched,) as led to the sus- 
 " picion that it was intended to frighten him 
 " away." This insidious measure was not un- 
 observed by those whom it was meant to entrap. 
 Lady Russell was sent to consult with their 
 friends, whether or not Lord Russell should 
 withdraw himself. 
 
 With what an anxious mind such consult- 
 ations must have been made, we may easily con- 
 ceive, but no unworthy weakness, no exagge- 
 rated fears for his safety, suggested a wish on 
 her part, contrary to the conduct which his 
 friends, as well as himself, thought consonant 
 with his innocence and his honour. 
 
 From this moment, till after her husband's 
 death, we know little of Lady Russell, but what 
 is recorded in the history of her country, where
 
 29 
 
 her name will be embalmed with her lord's 
 while passive courage, devoted tenderness, and 
 unblemished purity, are honoured in the one 
 sex, or public patriotism, private virtues, and 
 unshaken principles revered in the other. 
 
 Lord Russell was so well aware of the viru- 
 lence of his enemies, and of the character of his 
 real offences towards them, that his innocence 
 of those alleged, was ineffectual in producing in 
 his mind any hope of escape, when once within 
 their power. From the first instant of his 
 arrest, he gave himself up as lost. Such feel- 
 ings (however little expressed) could not have 
 been concealed from the anxious mind of the 
 being who shared his every thought. But as in 
 him they produced no despondency, so in her 
 they caused no relaxation from every honourable 
 endeavour to rescue him from such mortal dan- 
 ger. During the fortnight that elapsed between 
 his commitment to the Tower, and his (1) trial 
 she was continually employed in procuring in- 
 formation as to what was likely to be urged 
 against him, and in adopting every measure of 
 precaution. Such was her known intelligence 
 on this occasion, that we find in the report of 
 the trial, the Chief-Justice and Attorney-Gene- 
 
 (1) Lord Russell was committed to the Tower on the 
 26th June; tried on the 13th July; and executed in Lin- 
 coln's Inn Fields on the 21st July 1683.
 
 30 
 
 ral(l) seem to think themselves vindicated 
 from every suspicion of neglect, in not pre- 
 viously communicating the pannel of the jury 
 to Lord Russell, by endeavouring to prove that 
 a list of names had been given to his (2) wife. 
 Her appearance in court, at his trial, has been 
 said to have caused a thrill of anguish through 
 the numerous audience. (3) The Attorney- 
 General, to avoid allowing Lord Russell the aid 
 of a legal adviser, anticipated the answer of the 
 Chief-Justice to his request to have a person to 
 take notes for him, by saying he would be 
 allowed to employ a servant, to which the Chief- 
 Justice immediately added : " Any of your 
 " servants shall assist you in writing any thing 
 " you please." 
 
 When Lady Russell rose from her husband's 
 side, on his replying, " My wife is here to do 
 " it," the interesting situation in which she 
 stood, must have recalled with peculiar force to 
 the minds of the spectators, all her father's ser- 
 vices, her husband's unsuspected patriotism, the 
 excellence of his private life, and their known 
 
 (1) Sir Francis Pemberton was Chief-Justice, and Sir 
 Robert Sawyer, Attorney-General. 
 
 (2) See Howell's State Trials, vol. ix. p. 583. 
 
 (3) The crowd was so great, that the Counsel complained 
 of not having room to stand. See Howell's State Trials, 
 vol. ix. p. 594.
 
 31 
 
 domestic happiness. It would seem, indeed, to 
 have made some impression even on the minds 
 of his prosecutors, as a milder tone is imme- 
 diately assumed by the Chief-Justice acquiescing 
 in the employment of Lady Russell, " if my 
 " Lady will give herself that trouble ;" and the 
 Attorney-General follows by offering him " two 
 " persons to write for" him, if he please. 
 
 Whatever effort such services might require 
 on the part of Lady Russell, let it not be sup- 
 posed that these were the greatest exertions of 
 her reason, nor the greatest triumph of her ad- 
 mirable character over the severest calamities, 
 to which a nature like hers could be exposed. 
 She was here supported by hope, however feeble, 
 by active and urgent occupation, by the pre- 
 sence of the object of her cares. It must be 
 regretted, that we know not how she supported 
 herself through that fatal day, nor how she re- 
 ceived the unlooked-for intelligence of the death 
 of Lord Essex, her relation and friend, whose 
 suicide in the Tower was supposed materially to 
 have influenced the issue of the trial in the 
 midst of which it was announced. (1) We only 
 
 (1) In a letter to Dr. Fitzwilliam, of the llth July, 1686, 
 she says, " If the Duchess of Portsmouth told me true, 
 " that they said the jury could not have condemned my 
 " Lord, if my Lord Essex had not died as he did." See 
 Published Letters, p. 100.
 
 32 
 
 know that she had sufficient power over her 
 feelings, neither to disturb the court, nor dis- 
 tract the attention of her husband. 
 
 From the moment of his condemnation, she 
 was unceasingly occupied in various attempts to 
 obtain a mitigation of the sentence. All were 
 unavailing against the fears, and the malice of 
 the unforgiving James. The King, in spite of 
 the general facility of his temper, resisted the 
 daughter of his oldest and most faithful servant, 
 kneeling before him for the life of her husband ; 
 and the Duchess of Portsmouth, in spite of her 
 venality, resisted an offer of a hundred thousand 
 pounds to procure his pardon. (1) The same 
 cause stifled even an attempt at delivering the 
 letter which Ruvigny is said to have obtained 
 from Lewis in favour of his relation. Every 
 means had been previously attempted, every 
 resource tried, except that of a desertion of 
 those principles, which formed his sole crime in 
 the. eyes of his relentless enemy. (2) 
 
 (1) This offer is mentioned in the notes to Lord Russell's 
 trial, vol. ix. p. 684. of Howell's State Trials, as having 
 been said to be made by the Earl of Bedford to the Duchess 
 of Portsmouth, without giving the authority on which it rests. 
 
 (2) All particulars of Lord Russell's trial and behaviour 
 are here purposely avoided, as they have been so lately 
 detailed to the public, with every additional interest that 
 can be given to such a narrative, by an author, who is
 
 While indefatigably pursuing the slightest 
 hope of mercy, while offering to accompany 
 him into perpetual exile, never did his heroic 
 wife, for a moment, propose to him the pur- 
 chase of his life by any base compliance, or 
 by the abjuration of the noble truths for which 
 he was persecuted. When pressed by Tillot- 
 son and Burnet to leave such an abjuration 
 behind him, she shared in his steady adherence 
 to his principles, as she shared in his sufferings 
 for them. (1) 
 
 On a subsequent occasion (of much honour 
 to Tillotson) she had the unsought and quiet 
 triumph of recommending to him the practice 
 of that submission which he had " so power- 
 fully tried himself, and instructed others to. 
 
 heir to all the patriotism as well as all the talents of his an- 
 cestor. 
 
 (1 ) " Tillotson was so apprehensive of Lady Russell's 
 " displeasure at his pressing his Lordship, although with 
 " the best intentions, upon that subject, that when he was 
 " first admitted to her after her Lord's death, he is said to 
 " have addressed her in this manner, that he thanked God, 
 " and then her Ladyship, for that opportunity of justifying 
 " himself; and they soon returned to the terms of a cordial 
 " and unreserved friendship." Birch's Life of Tillotson, 
 p. 124. 
 
 (2) See Published Letters, p. 259. Tillotson consults 
 her, if he must absolutely accept of the Archbishopric 
 of Canterbury, repeatedly offered him by King William. 
 
 D
 
 34 
 
 Lord Russell's gratitude for the exalted ten- 
 derness of his wife's conduct, his sense of her 
 magnanimity, and his opinion of her character, 
 prove him to have been worthy of a blessing he 
 appreciated so justly. His whole mention of 
 her, in his last interviews with Burnet, is per- 
 haps the noblest eulogy ever pronounced on the 
 difficult virtues of a woman. It can be given 
 in no words so impressive as those of the person 
 to whom it was addressed. 
 
 Burnet, it is known, not only saw Lord Rus- 
 sell every day in prison, but accompanied him 
 to the scaffold, and wrote a detailed account of 
 every thing that passed between them, and of 
 all that occurred during the last hours of his 
 life. He tells us, that, three days before his 
 execution, on Lady Russell's retiring, " he 
 " (Lord Russell) expressed great joy in that 
 " magnanimity of spirit he saw in her, and said 
 " the parting with her was the hardest thing he 
 " had to do ; for he was afraid she would be 
 " hardly able to bear it: the concern about 
 " preserving him filled her mind so now, that 
 " it, in some measure, supported her ; but when 
 " that would be over, he feared the quickness 
 41 of her spirits would work all within her." 
 
 The morning before he suffered, he tells Bur- 
 net, " he wished his wife would give over beat- 
 " ing every bush, and running so about for his 
 
 3
 
 35 
 
 * preservation ; but, when he considered that it 
 c< would be some mitigation of her sorrow, af- 
 " terwards, that she had left nothing undone, 
 " that could have given any probable hope, he 
 " acquiesced, and indeed I never saw his heart 
 " so near failing, as when he spake of her. 
 " Sometimes I saw a tear in his eye, and 
 " he would turn about and presently change 
 " the discourse." * * * 
 
 " At eleven o'clock (on Friday evening) my 
 " Lady left him ; he kissed her four or five 
 " times, and she kept her sorrow so within her- 
 " self, that she gave him no disturbance at their 
 " parting. After she was gone, he said, now 
 " the bitterness of death was passed, and ran 
 " out into a long discourse concerning her, how 
 " great a blessing she had been to him, and 
 " said, what a misery it would have been, if she 
 " had not had that magnanimity of spirit joined 
 " to her tenderness, as never to have desired 
 " him to do a base thing for the saving of his 
 " life. Whereas otherwise what a week I 
 " should have passed, if she had been still cry- 
 " ing on me to turn informer, and be a Lord 
 " Howard; though he then repeated what he had 
 " often before said, that he knew of nothing by 
 " which the peace of the nation was in danger." 
 * * * * * * # 
 
 " But he left that discourse, and returned to
 
 36 
 
 " speak of my Lady. He said there was a sig- 
 " nal providence of God in giving him such a 
 " wife, where there was birth, fortune, great 
 " understanding, great religion, and a great 
 " kindness to him. But her carriage in this 
 " extremity went beyond all. He said he was 
 " glad that she and her children were to lose 
 " nothing by his death ; and it was a great com- 
 " fort to him, that he left his children in such a 
 " mother's hands, and that she had promised to 
 " him to take care of herself for their sakes, 
 " which I heard her do." (1) 
 
 After having made an ineffectual attempt to 
 obtain a respite from Saturday to Monday ; on 
 Friday, the morning previous to his execution, 
 Lady Russell conducted her children, for the 
 last time, to the presence of their father. Bur- 
 net, the only witness on this occasion, says, " I 
 " saw him receive them with his ordinary sere- 
 " nity." He retired before their father had 
 bestowed on them his last benediction and 
 embrace. 
 
 Lady Russell returned alone in the evening. 
 She found her husband in a composure of mind, 
 which had already excited the admiration of 
 those who had witnessed it, and which had now 
 
 (1) Extracted from Burnet's MS. "Relation of what 
 passed during Lord Russell's confinement." Transcribed in 
 the hand-writing of Lady Russell. Dev. MSS.
 
 37 
 
 endured seeing for the last time every thing that 
 made life most desirable to him. But she too 
 well knew that his severest trial yet remained ; 
 and by a noble sacrifice of self-indulgence, a 
 suppression of every selfish feeling, which no- 
 thing but the purest tenderness could dictate to 
 the most exalted mind, she parted from his last 
 embrace, without allowing a single sob of pas- 
 sion to awaken corresponding feelings in him, 
 which must have banished his heavenly com- 
 posure. 
 
 She retired in silent anguish to that melan- 
 choly home, to which she was never again to 
 welcome him ; she retired to count the 
 wretched minutes of those hours which were to 
 elapse before the fatal stroke was given, which 
 left no restraint on her unbounded grief. 
 
 In this dreadful predicament, we look anxi- 
 ously round for some sympathetic mind, capable 
 of rallying her fainting spirit, and of soothing 
 her sorrows, by entering into their poignancy. 
 Public pity, and public praise, could as yet be 
 but c the whistling of a name," which must 
 rather have excited, than quieted her feelings. 
 Her children were almost infants ; her beloved 
 and favourite sister was no more; Lady Northum- 
 berland was not in England ; and although they 
 had always lived on terms of sisterly affection 
 and amity, hers was a mind too inferior to 
 
 D 3
 
 38 
 
 that of Lady Russell, to have afforded her much 
 support. 
 
 Lady Shaftesbury, her cousin, was merely a 
 good and pious soul, sensible of her inability to 
 offer more than her pity and her prayers. She 
 was left then in these cruel moments to the 
 powers of her own mind, to her solemn en- 
 gagement to live for her children, to her 
 strong, pure, unsophisticated piety, and to the 
 magnanimous sense she entertained of the cause 
 in which she was suffering, which dictated many 
 years afterwards an avowal, that " there was 
 " something so glorious in the object of my 
 " greatest sorrow, I believe that in some degree 
 " kept me from being then overwhelmed." (1) 
 
 She was roused, during the first days of her 
 despondency, by an attempt to attack the me- 
 mory of her Lord in denying the authenticity of 
 the paper he had delivered to the sheriffs on the 
 scaffold. This paper, already printed, was im- 
 mediately in the hands of the public, and pro- 
 duced that effect on the sober understandings 
 of Englishmen, which might have been antici- 
 pated from it. Such an effect was anticipated 
 by the court. Burnet and Tillotson were, the 
 day after Lord Russell's execution, summoned 
 
 (1) Lady Russell to the Bishop of Salisbury (Burnet), 
 16th Oct. 1690. See Published Letters, p. 274.
 
 39 
 
 before the King, and the Duke of York, in 
 council, and taxed with being the advisers and 
 authors of that paper. The innocence of Til- 
 lotson was proved, by his last attempt to enforce 
 very contrary doctrines on Lord Russell in a 
 letter to him, which it is but justice to Tillot- 
 son's subsequent conduct to believe he heartily 
 regretted. The heavier suspicion fell on 
 Burnet. 
 
 Lady Russell's letter to the King on this 
 occasion (1), is that of a person roused by a 
 sense of duty and of innocence to repel injuries, 
 of which they are almost reckless of the conse- 
 quences. She neglected not, however, to do 
 justice to Burnet's conduct and sentiments, 
 which was the means of allowing him time and 
 opportunity to withdraw himself from the power 
 of a government, to which he had then the 
 honour of being obnoxious. 
 
 It is said that the Duke of York had proposed 
 that the execution of Lord Russell should have 
 taken place in Bloomsbury Square, before the 
 windows of his own house. Christian charity 
 forbids our believing this story merely on report, 
 even of James the Second. (2) But it is certain 
 
 ( 1 ) See Published Letters, p. 7. 
 
 (2) Lord Russell was executed in Lincoln's Inn Fields. 
 Burnet, who was in the carriage with him, mentions in the 
 account already quoted of his conduct, during his last mo- 
 
 D 4
 
 40 
 
 that the effect produced on the public mind by 
 the death of Lord Russell, had much exasper- 
 ated the court ; and as those who injure are the 
 last to forgive, they were angry at every attempt 
 to honour his memory, and opposed the least 
 mark of respect to his remains. Permission to 
 put an escutcheon over his door had however 
 been obtained by Lord Halifax. This, and an 
 intimation from the King, that he did not mean 
 to profit by the forfeiture of Lord Russell's per- 
 sonal estate, are thus acknowledged in a letter 
 from Lady Russell to Lord Halifax. 
 
 " 'Tis so much my interest, my Lord, (rely- 
 " ing as I do upon your Lordship's judgment. 
 " and favour to me,) to be careful in humbly 
 " acknowledging those I do receive, that unless 
 " you will be strictly just to me, you will ima- 
 " gine this is sent your Lordship from other 
 " ends than upon my word it is, since I could 
 " never in expectance of a future advantage by 
 " it constrain myself to do uneasy things, (as 
 " doing this is, to so discomposed a mind as 
 " mine) ; but to be kindly used, and not any 
 
 ments, that " As we came to turn to Little Queen-street, 
 he said, " I have often turned to the other hand with great 
 comfort, but now I turn to this with greater," and looked 
 towards his own house, and then, as the Dean ( Tillotson ) 
 that sat over-againsthim told me, he saw a tear or two 
 fall from him."
 
 41 
 
 " way appear I have a sense of it, would, if it 
 " be possible, add to that intolerable pressure 
 " my sad heart mourns under. All other con- 
 " siderations would permit me to excuse myself 
 " from, or at least to defer an exercise I am 
 " rendered so utterly unfit for ; especially unless 
 " I might complain in such sad words as my 
 " raging griefs fill my amazed mind with, and 
 " indeed offers me no other without putting a 
 " force upon myself, which being unfit to do 
 " at this time, I ask your Lordship's pardon for 
 " what I have said, and in real compassion as 
 " to one very miserable, you must give it to, 
 " my Lord, 
 
 " Yours, &c. &c." 
 
 " I think fit to acquaint your Lordship that 
 " I have written to my uncle Russell (1), to 
 
 (1) The Honourable John Russell, then Colonel of the 
 1st Regiment of Foot Guards. The Letter is in these 
 words : 
 
 " Apology, dear Uncle, is not necessary to you for any 
 " thing I do, nor is my discomposed mind fit to make any; 
 " but I want your assistance, so I ask it freely. You may 
 " remember, Sir, that a very few days after my great and 
 " terrible calamity, the King sent me word, he meant to 
 " take no advantage of any thing forfeited to him ; but terms 
 " of law must be observed, so now the grant for the per- 
 " sonal estate is done, and in my hands, I esteem it fit to 
 " make some compliment of acknowledgment to his Ma- 
 " jesty. To do this for me, is the favour I beg of you ; but
 
 42 
 
 " present my thanks to the King, but have in- 
 " timated in another paper that he may, if he 
 " sees fit, read it to the King, having written it 
 " with that design : if this be enough, I like it 
 " better than doing more, but if your Lordship 
 " is of another mind, tell but my Lord Vaughan 
 " so, and I shall know it before the letter be 
 " given. If it be seasonable to move in the 
 " other, I presume your Lordship will not for- 
 " get me. 
 
 " I hear the serjeant has been troublesome 
 " to your Lordship ; it would be impertinent to 
 6 trouble you with all that has passed, but I 
 " think I have not been to blame, for he de- 
 " manded it only upon the account that I was 
 
 " I have written the enclosed paper in such a manner, that if 
 " you judge it fit, you may, as you see cause, show it to the 
 " King, to let him see what thanks I desire should be made 
 " him ; but this is left to you to do as you approve. . Truly, 
 " Uncle, 'tis not without reluctancy I write to you myself, 
 " since nothing that is not very sad can come from me, and 
 " I do not love to trouble such as I am sure wish me none. 
 " I ask after your health, and when I hear you are well, 'tis 
 " part of the only satisfaction I can have in this wretched 
 " world, where the love and company of the friends and 
 " dearest relations of that dear and blessed person must give 
 ' me all I can find in it now. 'Tis a great change, from as 
 " much happiness as I believe this world can give, to know 
 " no more, as never must, 
 
 " Yours," &c. * 
 Der. MSS.
 
 43 
 
 " to have the personal estate, and I promised 
 " him satisfaction when I had the grant." 
 
 Lord Halifax's answer is as follows : 
 " Madam, 
 
 " It is enough that my zeal to serve you is 
 " favourably received ; but it doth not deserve 
 " so much notice as your Ladyship is pleased to 
 " take of it. I am ready to give myself a bet- 
 " ter title than yet I have to such obliging ac- 
 " knowledgments whenever you will give me 
 " the opportunity, by laying your commands 
 " on me. In the mean time, I will not offer 
 " any thing to your Ladyship's thoughts, to 
 " soften or allay the violence of your affliction, 
 " since your own excellent temper, and the 
 " great measure of reason you are blessed with, 
 " will best furnish you with the means of doing 
 " it. I have not seen Colonel Russell, to speak 
 " with him, concerning the letter your Lady- 
 " ship mentioned ; but, according to my present 
 " thoughts, if he delivereth a compliment from 
 " you to his Majesty, by your order, it may be 
 " less liable to inconvenience, or exception, 
 " than any thing that is put on paper. I must 
 " tell your Ladyship, there has been such a stir 
 " kept about setting up the scutcheon, and so 
 " much weight laid upon it by some, who might
 
 44 
 
 " have been more sparing for your sake, though 
 " they would not be it for mine, that I am 
 " clearly of opinion, it is adviseable to stay yet, 
 " for a considerable time, before any thing is 
 " moved in the other business. There are some 
 " other particulars which confirm me in this 
 " opinion, that I shall give you an account of 
 " when I have the honour to wait on you : for 
 " I would by no means have your Ladyship 
 " exposed to the danger of a refusal ; which 
 '" is best prevented by taking a seasonable 
 " time, and letting the wrong impressions wear 
 " out that may have been given for the pre- 
 " sent. 
 
 " In pursuance of the liberty I had from your 
 " Ladyship, I left it to my Lord Keeper to set 
 " down what was to be given to the serjeant (1) ; 
 " and he hath ordered 201. which I have de- 
 " sired your servant to pay, that you may re- 
 " ceive no further trouble in it. 
 
 " I am, Madam, 
 " Your Ladyship's most humble, 
 " and most obedient Servant, 
 
 " HALIFAX." (2) 
 
 London, October 16th, 1683. 
 
 ( 1 ) Probably the Serjeant at Arms, who had the charge 
 of Lord Russell in the Tower. 
 2 Der. MSS.
 
 The earliest account \ve have of the state of 
 Lady Russell's mind at this juncture, is in a letter 
 from herself to Doctor Fitzwilliam, of the 30th 
 Septemher,two months after the fatal catastrophe. 
 It is written from Woburn, whither she had re- 
 tired with her children, from her desolate home 
 in London, early in the month of August. 
 
 Doctor Fitzwilliam was a clergyman, whom she 
 had known, from her infancy, as chaplain to her 
 father, Lord Southampton, and who seems to have 
 retained a devoted attachment to his children.(l) 
 He had written to endeavour to assist her in 
 lifting up her mind to Heaven, when all other 
 consolation must have been useless. She replies, 
 " I need not tell you, good Doctor, how little 
 " capable I have been of such an exercise as 
 " this. You will soon find how unfit 1 am still 
 " for it ; since my yet disordered thoughts can 
 " offer me no other than such words as express 
 " the deepest sorrow, and confused as my yet 
 " amazed mind is. But such men as you, and 
 " particularly one so much my friend, will, I 
 " know, bear with my weakness, and compas- 
 
 (1) Doctor Fitzwilliam, after the death of Lord Southamp- 
 ton, had been for some time Chaplain to the Duke of York. 
 He was now rector of Cotenham, in Cambridgeshire, and a 
 Canon of Windsor, both which preferments he lost at the 
 Revolution, on refusal of the oaths to William and Mary.
 
 46 
 
 " sionate my distress, as you have already 
 " done, by your good letter, and excellent 
 " prayer. ***** 
 
 * * " You, that knew us both, and how 
 " we lived, must allow I have just cause to bewail 
 " my loss. I know it is common to others to lose 
 " a friend ; but to have lived with such a one, it 
 " may be questioned how few can glory in the 
 " like happiness, so, consequently, lament the like 
 
 " loss. Who can but shrink from such a blow! 
 
 ********* 
 
 " Lord, let me understand the reason of these 
 " dark and wounding providences, that I sink 
 " not under the discouragement of my own 
 " thoughts ! I know I have deserved my 
 " punishment, and will be silent under it ; but 
 ** yet secretly my heart mourns, too sadly, I 
 " fear, and cannot be comforted, because I have 
 " not the dear companion and sharer of all my 
 " joys and sorrows. I want him to talk with, 
 " to walk with, to eat, and sleep with. All 
 " these things are irksome to me. The day un- 
 " welcome, and the night so too ; all company 
 " and meals I would avoid, if it might be : yet 
 " all this is, that I enjoy not the world in my 
 " own way ; and this sure hinders my comfort. 
 " When I see my children before me, I remem- 
 " ber the pleasure he took in them : this makes 
 my heart shrink. Can I regret his quitting a
 
 " lesser good for a greater ? Oh ! if I did but 
 " steadfastly believe, I could not be dejected ; 
 " for I will not injure myself to say, I offer 
 " my mind any inferior consolation to supply 
 " this loss. No ; I most willingly forsake this 
 " world, this vexatious, troublesome world, in 
 " which I have no other business, but to rid 
 " my soul of sin, secure by faith and a good con- 
 " science my eternal interests, with patience 
 " and courage bear my eminent misfortune, and 
 " ever hereafter be above the smiles and frowns 
 " of fortune." 
 
 This affecting picture of the struggles of a 
 virtuous mind, under one of the severest trials 
 imposed on our imperfect nature, is rendered 
 doubly interesting by the noble exertions made 
 by Lady Russell, even at this time, to neglect 
 no immediate duty, either to the memory of her 
 lord, or to her children, or to those of her be- 
 loved sister. 
 
 In letters of this date, addressed to her by Mr. 
 Hoskins, we find her availing herself of his ad- 
 vice and assistance, in the necessary arrangement 
 of her affairs, and of the trust for her sister Lady 
 Elizabeth Noel's children, which, by Lord Rus- 
 sell's condemnation for treason, had devolved 
 on the King. 
 
 Mr. Hoskins, whose acquaintance Lady 
 Russell mentions having first made at Lord
 
 48 
 
 Shaftesbury's(l), seems, by his letters, to have 
 been a person of such excellent good sense, as 
 well as good feeling, that he deserved all the 
 confidence Lady Russell placed in his advice, 
 and all the gratitude she expresses for his ser- 
 vices, in matters to which her own mind must 
 have been then peculiarly indisposed. Of the 
 state of that mind his letters are a melancholy 
 record. In the beginning of August of this 
 year, he writes to heron having been obliged, by 
 the sudden illness of a relation, to leave London, 
 * * * " I was very sorry to leave your 
 " Ladyship, when you thought my stay could be 
 " any way useful to you, and when 1 saw your 
 " grief rather increase than abate. I can use 
 " no arguments to you to mitigate your sorrows, 
 " that your Ladyship is not well acquainted with 
 " already. All I can do is, to beg you to em- 
 " ploy them, and give them all advantages in 
 " working their proper effects on you." * * 
 * * * * " Great persons 
 
 (1) In a letter of June, 1684, speaking of going to her 
 
 house at Stratton, she says, " I depend on the conveniency 
 
 ' of a gentleman who has most kindly and helpfully assisted 
 
 ' me, by following my business for me, and whom I have 
 
 ' engaged, as finding it almost necessary to my affairs, one 
 
 ' Mr. Hoskins ; I grew first acquainted with him at Lord 
 
 ' Shaftesbury's, who used to call him cousin." Published 
 
 Letters, p. 40.
 
 " are liable to great trials, and have better oppor- 
 " tunities than common people to fit their minds 
 " to encounter them. Now, Madam, summon 
 " up all your strength, and acquit yourself as 
 " becomes you in this utmost assault ; and I pray 
 " God assist you, for I must confess your loss is 
 " very great, of a very good man, for whom of 
 " all men I have known, one would have been 
 " the most willing to have died." 
 
 In December of the same year, after giving 
 her details about the measures to be taken for 
 the resettlement of her sister's trust, he says, 
 " I cannot but very much approve the great 
 " care you have of my Lady Elizabeth Noel's 
 " children, answerable to your near relation and 
 " great friendship." As Mr. Hoskins had been 
 bred to the law, and had practised at the 
 Chancery bar, his advice on this subject, and on 
 many other points of business, was particularly 
 useful to Lady Russell, whose landed possessions 
 required such legal intelligence. Mr. Hoskins' 
 anxiety at this time to save her all unnecessary 
 trouble, and yet to lead her by degrees to inform 
 herself) and take some interest in her affairs as a 
 duty, as well as a means of drawing off her mind 
 from the perpetual contemplation of her sorrows, 
 proves the just estimate they had both formed 
 of each other's character. 
 
 In the beginning of the following year, Lady
 
 50 
 
 Russell had intimated to him her intention of 
 parting with a house-steward, who had been 
 long in her service, but of whose conduct, in 
 some matters relative to her Lord, she seems 
 to have had doubts. Mr. Hoskins' advice to 
 her on this subject is so rational, that it is best 
 given in his own words : " I shall not dis- 
 " course to any, the resolution your Ladyship 
 " is taking concerning Mr. Watkins, but I heard 
 " before that he was apprehensive of it ; I un- 
 ' derstood formerly from your Ladyship that it 
 " would be an uneasy thing to you, to part with 
 " any of your servants, but intending frugality, 
 " it will be necessary to lessen your family, espe- 
 " cially your officers, and those that are most 
 
 " chargeable." 
 
 * # * * * * * 
 
 " I don't know all your Ladyship's ser- 
 " vants, nor the qualifications of any of them ; 
 " but if Mr. Watkins' business be only the 
 " expence of your household, surely it is not 
 " so difficult, and frequent reckonings will 
 " make it easier and secure your Ladyship. It 
 " requires a man of much honesty, rather than 
 " parts. My meaning hereby is, not to advise 
 " your Ladyship to live beneath your quality, 
 " but methinks it is beneath nobody to keep 
 " no more than they have business for: 'Tis 
 '*. the way to save trouble as well as charge, and
 
 51 
 
 " to have business better done. I am of your 
 " Ladyship's opinion, that he never dared say 
 " that to his Lord you have been told, how 
 " vainly soever he might pretend it. I have 
 " heard indeed, that he kept such company as 
 " no man in common discretion in his place 
 " would have done, whatever his inclinations 
 " were ; but I know not how truly I was in- 
 " formed. Your Ladyship need not mention 
 " all the reasons that move you to part with 
 " him, especially those that will bring on 
 " you the trouble of fending and proving, and 
 " make an angry parting ; but since your Lady- 
 " ship does so charitably fore-cast for him the 
 " opportunity of getting into Lord Gains- 
 " borough's service, you can, for that end, but 
 " for a little while delay giving him warning." 
 
 In the close of the same letter, he says, " I 
 " am much pleased to hear your Ladyship so 
 " resolved to follow your business. Your Lady- 
 " ship will require less help than most others, 
 " and are so much valued, that there is no- 
 " body of worth but will be glad to serve you. 
 " Nothing but your sorrows can hinder you doing 
 " all that is to be done ; and give me leave, 
 " Madam, as often as it comes in my way, to 
 " mind your Ladyship, that the hopes your dear 
 " Lord had, that you would bear his loss with 
 " magnanimity, and nothing would be wanting 
 E 2
 
 52 
 
 '** to his children, loosened all the hold this world 
 "had of him." 
 
 " I am, with sincerity, 
 
 " Your Ladyship's, &c. &c." 
 
 Having been some time at Woburn with her, 
 in March, 1684, he says, (after treating of busi- 
 ness,) " I wish 1 could find your Ladyship had 
 " a little more overcome your mighty grief; to 
 " see how it had wasted your body, how heavy 
 " it lay upon your mind, and how hardly you 
 " struggled with it, made me melancholy all the 
 " time I was at Woburn." * * * * 
 " At all times and places, I shall sadly reflect 
 " on your Ladyship, and pray that God would 
 " comfort you, and lift up your drooping spirit." 
 
 In the April following, after some details and 
 arrangements about a new legal manager of her 
 affairs, as steward of her Bloomsbury property, 
 whom Mr. Hoskins had sought out for her, he 
 continues : " I do indeed wish Well to your 
 " Ladyship's affairs, but what most concerns me 
 " is, to see you so overwhelmed with grief. I 
 " should not doubt their good success were you 
 " not so much oppressed with that : it pities me 
 " to see how hard you struggle with it, and how 
 " doubtful it is which will overcome. Continue, 
 " good Madam, to do your utmost, the more 
 " you strive the more God will help. All the
 
 53 
 
 " little services that I have done, or can do, 
 " your Ladyship, are not worth half the notice 
 " you take of them. I am troubled when I 
 " consider how little I could do for you in that 
 " great occasion, and any confidence you have 
 " in me, or opportunity you give me of serving 
 " you, lays the obligation on my side. There 
 " cannot be a greater pleasure in the world than 
 " to serve a person I so much value, both on 
 " your own account, and upon his of whom you 
 " were so deplorably bereft.*' (1) 
 
 These and other letters inform us, that from 
 the time she left London, in August, 1683, she 
 remained at Woburn till the following Spring, 
 struggling in the midst of a sorrowing family, 
 with her own deeper and more peculiar affliction. 
 Her children, at the time of their father's death, 
 were hardly of an age to feel their loss, still less 
 to appreciate the blessing remaining to them in 
 their mother. Her son was an infant not three 
 years old, and her daughters, at the age of nine, 
 and of seven, rather made her " heart shrink," 
 (as she herself owns,) from the recollection of 
 the pleasure their father took in their society, 
 
 (1 ) Mr. Hoskins died several years before Lady Russell. 
 He left one only child, a daughter and heiress, who married, 
 in 1718, William, Marquis of Hartington, Lady Russell' 
 grandson. 
 
 E 3
 
 54 
 
 than that it could afford much relief to herself. 
 But in her children her duties to her husband 
 were now concentrated, and from her children 
 she looked for the only motives which could- at 
 present reconcile her to live, or in future interest 
 her in life. 
 
 During this winter we find she had determined 
 to occupy herself much with their early educa- 
 tion. In a letter addressed to her from Burnet, 
 in February, 1684, he says, " I am very glad you 
 " mean to employ so much of your time in the 
 " education of your children that they shall need 
 " no other governess ; for, as it is the greatest 
 " part of your duty, so it will be a noble enter- 
 " tairiment to you, and the best diversion and 
 " cure of your wounded and wasted spirit/' 
 
 This counsel she seems to have pursued j for 
 there is no indication of her daughters having 
 ever been separated from her, or ever having 
 had any other instructress. To Dr. Fitzwilliam 
 she particularly indulges herself at this time, in 
 dwelling on the oppressed state of her mind ; 
 because, without reproving her grief, he was 
 always guarding her against the offence to Hea- 
 ven of over-indulgence in it. She tells him, " If, 
 " in the multitude of those sorrows that possess 
 " my soul, I find any refreshments, though, alas ! 
 " such are but momentary, it is by casting off 
 " some of my crowded thoughts to compas-
 
 55 
 
 " sionate friends, such as deny not to weep with 
 " those that weep.'* And she afterwards says, 
 " The liberty I take when I write to you, grati- 
 " fies much more my weary mind than the 
 " matter one fills up paper with to others." At 
 the same time she invites, and encourages him 
 to continue the same habit of exhortation and 
 reproof to her. " I am glad I have so expressed 
 " myself to you, as to fix you in resolving to 
 " continue the course you have begun with me, 
 " which is, to set before me plainly, my duty on 
 " all hands." And adds : " I will say for my- 
 " selfi I am very confident I shall ever so take 
 " either reproof, caution, or advice of a friend, 
 " in such a manner as I shall never lose a friend 
 " for acting the part of one to me." 
 
 She thus valiantly combats her ever-recurring 
 sorrow by every rational means in her power, 
 and appears indeed to have had a jealousy that 
 it should be relieved by any of the ordinary 
 applications to ordinary ills, or that she should 
 owe the cure of such distinguished affliction, 
 to any lesser means than those of reason and 
 religion. 
 
 " It is possible I grasp at too much of this 
 " kind for a spirit so broke by affliction ; for I 
 " am so jealous that time, or necessity, the 
 " ordinary abaters of all violent passions, (nay, 
 " even employment or company of such friends 
 
 E 4
 
 56 
 
 " as I have left,) should do that, my religion or 
 " reason ought to do, as makes me covet the 
 " best advices, and use all methods to obtain 
 " such a relief as I can ever hope for : a silent 
 " submission to this severe and terrible pro- 
 " vidence, without any ineffective unwillingness 
 " to bear what I must suffer j and such a victory 
 " over myself, that when once allayed, immo- 
 " derate passions may not be apt to break out 
 " again upon fresh occasions and accidents, 
 " offering to my memory that dear object of my 
 " desires which must happen every day, I may 
 " say every hour, of the longest life I can live, 
 " that so, when I must return into the world, so 
 " far as to act that part is incumbent upon me 
 " in faithfulness to him I owe as much as can 
 " be due to man, it may be with greater strength 
 " of spirits, and grace to live a stricter life of 
 " holiness to my God." 
 
 In spite of her excellent resolutions, her duties, 
 and her occupations, her wound was of a nature 
 to mock all consolations but those applied by the 
 lenient hand of time, assisted by the quieting as- 
 surances of her own conscience. Even these we 
 find in this first period of her sufferings, were some- 
 times unavailing in defending her from dreadful 
 and disturbing doubts as to the past. She says 
 
 to Dr. Fitzwilliam, in April, 1681- : " Then 
 
 " I find reflections troubling me as omissions
 
 57 
 
 " of one sort or other, that if either greater 
 " persuasions had been used, he had gone away ; 
 " or some errors at the trial amended, or other 
 " applications made, he might have been ac- 
 " quitted, and so yet have been in the land of 
 " the living ; (though I discharge not these 
 " things as faults upon myself, yet as aggrava- 
 " tions to my sorrows ;) so that not being certain 
 " of our time being appointed, beyond which 
 " we cannot pass, my heart shrinks to think his 
 " time possibly was shortened by unwise ma- 
 " nagement. I believe I do ill to torment my- 
 " self with such unprofitable thoughts." (1) 
 
 " Such unprofitable thoughts," however, she 
 never allowed to distract her mind from the per- 
 formance of any obvious or immediate duty. 
 
 In the spring of 1684, she had proposed going 
 to Stratton, for the purpose of examining some 
 papers, and finally settling the trust already men- 
 
 (1) The author considers it unnecessary to apologize 
 for these frequent citations from the Published Letters, as 
 no account of the feelings of another's mind can be so inter- 
 esting as that given by themselves. And most readers, it is 
 believed, will agree with what Burnet, in his own uncouth 
 style, says of that of Lady Russell. " You have so strange 
 " a way of expressing yourself, that I sincerely acknowledge 
 " my pen is apt to drop from my hand when I begin writing 
 " to you, for I am very sensible I cannot rise up to your 
 " strain." Published Letters, p. 17.
 
 58 
 
 tioned for her sister Lady Elizabeth Noel's 
 children. 
 
 Her feelings on the prospect of revisiting this 
 scene of her lost happiness are best expressed 
 by herself. " I am entertaining some thoughts of 
 " going to that now desolate place, Stratton, for 
 " a few days, where I must expect new amazing 
 " reflections at first, it being a place where I 
 " have lived in sweet and full content, considered 
 " the condition of others, and thought none 
 deserved my envy. But I must pass no more 
 " such days on earth ; however, places are in- 
 " deed nothing. Where can I dwell, that his 
 " figure is not present to me ? Nor would I 
 " have it otherwise ; so I resolve that shall be no 
 " bar, if it proves requisite for the better ac- 
 " quitting any obligation on me." 
 
 This " obligation" was delayed for the present, 
 by the sickness and death of the Countess of 
 Bedford (1), which took place on the 10th of 
 May, at Woburn, and by the subsequent illness 
 of her own infant son. The dreadful anxiety 
 she suffered on this last occasion was of use to 
 her mind, by proving to her that she had yet 
 something to lose. With her usual reason, as 
 
 (I) Anne Carr, daughter of Robert Carr, Earl of Somerset, 
 by Frances, daughter of the Earl of Suffolk, the divorced 
 wife of the Earl of Essex.
 
 well as piety, she thanks Heaven for having 
 " removed a threatened blow, which must have 
 " quickened my sorrows, if not added to them, 
 " the loss of my poor boy. He has been ill, and 
 " God has let me see the folly of my imagi- 
 " nations, which made me apt to conclude I had 
 " nothing left, the deprivation of which could 
 " be matter of much anguish, or its possession 
 " of any considerable refreshment. I have felt 
 " the falseness of the first notion, for I know 
 " not how to part with tolerable ease from the 
 " little creature j I desire to do so of the second, 
 " and that my thankfulness for the real blessing 
 " of these children may refresh my labouring, 
 " weary mind with some joy and satisfaction, at 
 " least in my endeavours to do that part towards 
 " them, their most dear and tender father would 
 " not have omitted." 
 
 In this same letter to Dr. Fitzwilliam,we learn, 
 that she had indulged herself at this time in 
 visiting the vault which contained the remains 
 of her Lord. (1) The manner in which she 
 mentions this circumstance, and apologises for 
 it, makes it as impossible for us to blame her, as 
 it was for her pious correspondent. She tells 
 him " I had considered, I went not to seek 
 
 (1) At Chenies in Buckinghamshire.
 
 60 
 
 " the living among the dead. 1 knew I should 
 " not see him any more, wherever I went, and 
 " had made a covenant with myself, not to break 
 " out in unreasonable fruitless passion, but 
 " quicken my contemplation, whether the nobler 
 " part was fled, to a country afar off, where no 
 " earthly power bears any sway, nor can put an 
 " end to a happy society." (1) 
 
 Instead of her intended journey to Stratton, 
 which she meant to have made alone, she re- 
 moved from Woburn in the end of June, to 
 Totteridge in Hertfordshire, for change of air for 
 her boy, and for the nearer neighbourhood of a 
 London physician. She carries with her her 
 eldest girl, leaving the younger at Woburn with 
 her grandfather. A letter of his to Lady Rus- 
 sell at this period, from its lively and pious ex- 
 pression of anxiety and affection both for the 
 child and herself, must have been gratifying to 
 her warmly affectionate heart. 
 
 " Woburn, this 7th July, 1684." 
 " Dearest Daughter, 
 
 " There is nothing in this world can come so 
 " welcome to me, as to hear of increase of hopes, 
 " that God Almighty will be so infinitely good 
 " and gracious unto me, as to give unto my 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 39.
 
 61 
 
 ** fervent prayers that dear child, which if it be 
 " his good and pleasure to grant to so unworthy 
 " a creature as I am, I shall look upon it all 
 " the days of my life as the greatest temporal 
 " blessing can be bestowed upon me, and that 
 " will supply and make up in a great measure 
 " the other great afflictions and crosses he has 
 " been pleased to lay upon me. Dear daughter, 
 " I look upon it as a good sign the holding up 
 " of his head, that the humour is gone, which I 
 " believe was the cause of the hanging down of 
 " his head. I pray Christ Jesus to give such a 
 " blessing unto the means, that I may have 
 " every day more and more hopes of seeing that 
 " day of rejoicing, in enjoying your company 
 " and his here again, which is the constant and 
 " fervent prayer of my soul unto my gracious 
 
 " God." 
 
 * * * i # * * 
 
 " So, hoping to hear of some comfortable tidings 
 '* by the bearer of that dear little one, being full 
 " of prayers and fears for him and you, I rest 
 " with all the kindness in the world, which I am 
 " sure I shall do to my last breath, 
 " Your most affectionate 
 
 " Father and Friend 
 
 " to command, 
 
 " BEDFORD."
 
 " My dear love and blessing to my dear boy 
 " and Mrs. Rachael. I am much cheered with 
 " Mrs. Karterine's company : she is often with 
 " me, and looks very well." (1) 
 
 Their prayers were granted, and during the 
 course of the summer the boy was restored to 
 health. A project of going from Totteridge to 
 Stratton, in September, is again put off* by the 
 proposed removal of the Court to Winchester, 
 where Charles occasionally resided in autumn, 
 for the convenience of field sports. The near 
 neighbourhood of Stratton would probably at 
 this time have made the presence of its melan- 
 choly inhabitant as offensive to the court, as an 
 intercourse with the court could have been to 
 Lady Russell herself. She therefore returned 
 from Totteridge to Woburn, in September, and 
 soon after announces to Dr. Fitzwilliam her re- 
 solve " to try that desolate habitation of mine 
 " in London this winter. The doctors agree it 
 " is the best place for my boy, and I have no 
 " argument to balance that, nor could take the 
 " resolution to see London till that was urged ; 
 " but by God's permission I will try how I can 
 " endure that place j in thought, a place of 
 " terror to me : but I know, if sorrow had not 
 
 (1) Devonshire MSS.
 
 63 
 
 " another root, that will vanish in a few days." 
 Of her feelings on the nearer approach of her 
 intended return to London, she must be again 
 her own interpreter. She writes to Dr. Fitz- 
 william, in November, from Woburn "I 
 " have, you find, Sir, lingered out my time, and 
 " I think none will wonder at it, that will reflect 
 " the place I am going to remove to, was the 
 " scene of so much lasting sorrow to me, and 
 " where I acted so unsuccessful a part for the 
 " preservation of a life, I could sure have laid 
 " down mine to have continued. 'Twas, Doctor, 
 " an inestimable treasure I did lose, and with 
 " whom I had lived in the highest pitch "of 
 " this world's felicity. But having so many 
 " months mourned the substance, I think 
 " (by God's assistance) the shadows will not 
 " sink me." 
 
 She removed to London soon after the date of 
 this letter. The death of Charles the Second, 
 and the accession of James, in the February fol- 
 lowing, were events by no means indifferent to 
 Lady Russell. Almost every previous and sub- 
 sequent measure of government was in some 
 manner connected with her own misfortune, or 
 had served to recall it. In the bitterness of her 
 heart, during the second anniversary of her 
 Lord's suffering, she says, " Sure never any poor 
 " creature, for two whole years together, has
 
 G4 
 
 " had more awakers to quicken and revive the 
 " anguish of its soul, than I have had." 
 
 The death of Algernon Sydney ; the trial of 
 Mr. Hampden ; the enormous fine consequent 
 upon it, and the lesser fines levied upon those 
 who had attempted to justify Lord Russell's 
 memory ; all these circumstances, in addition to 
 the recent failure and execution of Monmouth, 
 powerfully conspired to destroy her resolution 
 of not " breaking off that bandage, which," as 
 she expresses herself, " time would lay over my 
 " wound." 
 
 The reflections suggested to her by Mon- 
 mouth's attempt are so rational, and probably 
 give so true a picture of the character of her 
 Lord as well as that of the circumstances in 
 which he was involved, that they are as well en- 
 titled to form a part of the history of her coun- 
 try, as that of her mind. " I take this late wild 
 " attempt to be a new project, not depending on, 
 " or being linked in the least to, any former 
 " design ; if there was then any real one, which 
 " I am satisfied was not, no more than (my own 
 " Lord confessed) talk, and it is possible that 
 " talk going so far as to consider if a remedy to 
 " supposed evils might be sought, how it could 
 " be found. But as I was saying, if all this late 
 " attempt was entirely new, yet the suspicion 
 " my Lord must have lain under would have
 
 99 
 
 been great ; and some circumstances, I do 
 " confess, must have made his part a hard one. 
 " So that from the deceitfulness of the heart, or 
 " want of true sight in the directive faculty, 
 " what would have followed, God only knows. 
 " From the frailty of the will I should have 
 " feared but little evil ; for he had so just a soul, 
 " so firm, so good, he could not warp from such 
 " principles that were so, unless misguided by 
 " his understanding, and that his own, not 
 * another's ; for I dare say, as he could discern, 
 " he never went into any thing considerable upon 
 " the mere submission to any one's particular 
 " judgment. Now his own, I know, he could 
 " never have framed to have thought well of the 
 " late actings, and therefore most probably must 
 " have sat loose from them. But I am afraid 
 " his excellent heart, had he lived, would have 
 " been often pierced, from the time his life was 
 " taken away to this." (1) 
 
 After the suppression of this " wild attempt" 
 of Monmouth's, the rapid strides of James to- 
 wards the subversion of the religion and govern- 
 ment of his country, were not unmarked by Lady 
 Russell. We find her reading all the principal 
 political works of the clay, convinced of the 
 
 '[} ) Published Letters, p. 6.5. 
 F
 
 66 
 
 mischief and confusion likely to ensue ; and re- 
 ferring every thing, with a melancholy constancy 
 of feelings to their master-key, reproaching her- 
 self with still mourning the absence of one, whose 
 virtues would. have led to nothing but suffering 
 in such depraved and melancholy times. 
 
 " The new scenes of each day make me often 
 " conclude myself very void of temper and rea- 
 " son, that 1 still shed tears of sorrow, and not 
 " of joy, that so good a man is safe landed on 
 " the happy shore of a blessed eternity. Doubt- 
 " less he is at rest j though I find none without 
 ** him, so true a partner he was in all my joys 
 " and griefs. I trust the Almighty will pass 
 " by this my infirmity. I speak it in respect to 
 " the world, from whose enticing delights I can 
 " now be better weaned. I was too ricli in 
 " possessions whilst I possessed him. All re- 
 " lish now is gone." * * 
 
 " In the mean time, I endeavour to suppress 
 " all wild imaginations a melancholy fancy is 
 " apt to let in, and say with the man in the 
 " Gospel, I believe, help thou my unbelief.' ' 
 
 She was this year detained unwillingly in 
 London till the beginning of August, by the 
 expected arrival of her uncle, M. de Ruvigny, 
 his wife, and a niece, Mademoiselle de Cire", 
 who accompanied them from France. This 
 young lady was unfortunately seized by the
 
 I 
 
 small-pox in London, and died in Lady Russell's 
 house. 
 
 After removing her own children first to their 
 grandfather's in London (1), and then carrying 
 them down to Woburn, she returned to comfort 
 her afflicted uncle, and to take, what she con- 
 ceived would be, a last leave of " as kind a rela- 
 " tion, and as zealous, tender a friend as ever 
 " any body had." (2) M. de Ruvigny must be 
 said to have well deserved these epithets on the 
 part of Lady Russell, as his principal and only 
 business in England seems to have been, the 
 solicitation of James the Second for the re- 
 moval of the attainder of Lord Russell from his 
 children. 
 
 Among the MSS. at Woburn are preserved 
 copies, in Lady Russell's hand-writing, of two 
 letters of Ruvigny to the King, and notes of 
 several conversations with his ministers, Hyde 
 and Godolphin, on the subject of this favour, 
 which seems to have always been promised in 
 a very illusory manner. Among these papers is 
 one endorsed by Lady Russell " Some dis- 
 course upon a visit from the Lord Treasurer 
 (Hyde}, to me." 
 
 She tells him how much M. de Ruvigny had 
 
 ( 1 ) Bedford House, in the Strand. 
 (2) Published Letters, p. 69.
 
 08 
 
 praised the Lord Treasurer's kind assistance to 
 him : that after her misfortunes and what she 
 has felt, she shall certainly complain of no other 
 disappointment : that however she seconded her 
 uncle's endeavours, except he had moved. in this 
 matter, she had certainly let it rest. 
 
 The Lord Treasurer tells her that Ruvigny 
 " had seemed to have set the effecting it much 
 " on his heart, and with the greatest kindness 
 *' to me imaginable. I told my Lord I believed 
 " it, and indeed the friendship was so surprising, 
 " his Lordship knew very well the world im- 
 " puted his coming to England to some other 
 " cause, or at least thought he had been ear- 
 " nestly invited to it : for the last I positively 
 " affirmed he had not been, but as to the first, 
 " it was too deep for me to judge of." * * 
 " At the same time, I am sure nothing can be 
 " donejbr me now, that can diminish, or to me, 
 " that can augment what I feel." * * 
 
 " I do assure your Lordship I have much more 
 " care to make my children worthy to be great, 
 " than to see them so. I will do what I can 
 " they may deserve to be so, and then quietly 
 " wait what will follow. That I am very soli- 
 " citous, I confess, to do my duty in such a 
 " manner to the children of one I owe as much 
 " as can be due to man, that if my son lives, he 
 " may not justly say hereafter, that if he had
 
 69 
 
 " had a mother less ignorant, or less negligent, 
 " he had not then been to seek for what, per- 
 " haps, he may then have a mind to have." (1) 
 
 On M. de Ruvigny's return to France, she 
 rejoined her children at Woburn, where she con- 
 tinued till the Christmas following, professing to 
 remain with Lord Bedford as long as he shall 
 desire their company. " So whether I will 
 " come before him, or make one company, I 
 " know not : he shall please himself: for J have 
 " no will in these matters, nor can like one 
 " thing or way better than another, if the use 
 " and conveniences be alike to the young crea- 
 " tures ; whose service i& all the business I have 
 " in this world." 
 
 The trial and acquittal of Lord Delamere, in 
 January, 1686, is a new cause of recurrence to 
 her own harder fate : for the feelings suggested 
 by it, she in vain reproaches herself. 
 
 " When I should rejoice with them that do 
 " rejoice, I seek a corner to weep in. I find I 
 " am capable of no more gladness; but every 
 " new circumstance, the very comparing my 
 " night of sorrow after such a day, with theirs 
 " of joy, does, from a reflection of one kind or 
 " other, rack my uneasy mind. Though I am 
 * far from wishing the close of theirs like mine, 
 
 (1) Bedford MSiS. 
 
 F 3
 
 70 
 
 " yet I cannot refrain giving some time to 
 " lament mine was not like theirs." 
 
 The revocation of the edict of Nantes by 
 Lewis XIV., the number of Protestants, fugi- 
 tives for conscience-sake, who arrived in Eng- 
 land, the cruelties exercised against those who 
 were not lucky enough to get away, and the 
 severe regulations made to prevent their escape, 
 produced, this year, the liveliest sensation in 
 England. The effects which these events had 
 on the general feeling of the country have not, 
 perhaps, been allowed their due weight among 
 the causes which led directly to the Revolution : 
 a revolution which, profiting by the experience 
 of the Rebellion, correcting the negligence and 
 omissions of the Restoration, preserving all that 
 was good in our previous government, and dis- 
 carding much of the evil, finally established a 
 system of institutions the least dependent on the 
 individual characters of men that had then been 
 witnessed, and, consequently, a scheme of polity, 
 which more than a century's experience in try- 
 ing and difficult times, has proved to be the best 
 ever yet imagined for the government of men in 
 an advanced period of civilisation. 
 
 Nothing could be more unlucky for the views 
 of James, nor more unfavourable to his zealous 
 ardour for the propagation of his religion, than 
 this striking example, brought so near home, of 
 
 7
 
 71 
 
 what might be its persecuting spirit' under a 
 despotic Prince, nursed in its exclusive principles. 
 James had been obliged, however unwillingly, to 
 consent that a brief should be read in all the 
 Protestant congregations of England in behalf 
 of their suffering brethren from France. (1) To 
 this brief his Chancellor, Jeffries, true, as keeper 
 of the King's conscience, to what he knew were 
 its real feelings, twice delayed to put the seal, 
 and afterwards made the qualifications necessary 
 to partake of the charity so many, and their 
 observance so strict, that few could avail them- 
 selves of it. 
 
 The effect of these transactions on the truly 
 Christian mind of Lady .Russell may be easily 
 guessed, and are confirmed to us by the manner 
 in which she had previously expressed herself 
 to Dr. Fitzwilliam, as to the qualities she re- 
 quired in a domestic chaplain. " I approve 
 " with you the Church of England, the best 
 " Church and best offices and services in it 
 " upon the face of the earth that we know of. 
 " But, Sir, I shall covet one so moderate, as not 
 " to be impatient and passionate against all 
 " such as cannot think so too: but of such a 
 
 (1) It was on this occasion that Tillotson, then Dean of 
 Canterbury, said to Dr. Beveridge, who refused to read the 
 brief in the cathedral, as contrary to the Rubric, " Doctor., 
 Doctor, charity is above Rubrics." 
 
 F 4
 
 72 
 
 " temper as to be able to converse peaceably 
 " with such as may have freedom in my family, 
 " though not of it, without giving offence, and 
 " I take it to be the best way of gaining good 
 " people to our opinions." (1) 
 
 Her letters, at this period, are full of horror 
 at the accounts which every post brought from 
 France, of the persevering folly of Lewis XIV., 
 in attempting to dragoon his subjects into his 
 own faith. The contemptuous pity with which 
 she speaks of his conduct and sentiments (2), 
 forms a singular contrast to the language of ex- 
 cessive and inflated panegyric, with which he 
 was addressed on this infatuated measure, not 
 only by his dependent courtiers, but even by 
 those whose genius and talents illustrated his 
 reign, and by some, on whose pure mind and 
 sound judgment the prejudices of the times and 
 of their religion, seem alone to have cast a 
 cloud. (3) 
 
 Lady Russell now saw the uncle, from whom 
 she had so lately parted as for the last time, once 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 21. 
 
 (2) Published Letters, p. 78. 
 
 (3) The rational and profound La Bruyere, speaking of all 
 that had been done by Cardinal Richelieu, says, " II y a eu 
 " du terns de reste pour entamer un ouvrage, continu en- 
 " suite, et achevd par 1'un de nos plus grands et meilleurs 
 " Princes, I' Extinction de I'Here'sie." Characteres de la 
 Bruyere, vol. ii. p. 54.
 
 73 
 
 again in England. The great age of M. de Ru- 
 vigny did not prevent him from availing himself 
 of the especial permission he had obtained from 
 the favour of Lewis XIV., to remove himself and 
 family to England. Early in this year, Lady 
 Russell talks of going to see him at Greenwich, 
 where he had established himself, and where his 
 residence probably attracted that of many poorer 
 fugitives. Mr. Evelyn, in his Diary, mentions, 
 that he assisted at a French sermon, in Greenwich 
 church, " to a congregation of above a hundred 
 " French refugees, of which M. de Ruvigny 
 " was the chief," and for whom he had obtained 
 the use of the Parish Church, after the English 
 service was over. 
 
 Among these refugees, Lady Russell, with 
 her usual good sense, is disposed to look for 
 some one to place about her son, now between 
 five and six years old, to secure to him an early 
 knowledge of the French language. His grand- 
 father, it seems, thought the boy too young 
 " to be put to learn in earnest," which would 
 be the case with a tutor ; but Lady Russell, al- 
 though professing her intention " ever to take 
 " Lord Bedford along in all concerns of the 
 " child," yet says, " I think perhaps to over- 
 " come my Lord in that, and assure him he 
 " shall not be pressed. But I am much advised, 
 " and indeed inclined, if I could be fitted to my
 
 74 
 
 " mind, to take a Frenchman ; so I shall do a 
 " charity, and profit the child also, who should 
 " learn French. Here are many scholars come 
 " over, as are of all kinds, God knows." (1) 
 With this anxious and rational attention to his 
 education, his character, and his conduct, we 
 shall find her following her son through life, 
 regardless of her own fears, anxieties, or in- 
 dulgence. 
 
 The confidence as well as respect inspired by 
 the character of Lady Russell, was such, that all 
 who had any claim on her, either of friendship or 
 connection, were anxious to avail themselves of 
 her advice, support, and intervention. 
 
 On occasion of a marriage, which she is re- 
 quested at this time to propose to Lord Gains- 
 borough for one of his daughters, she expresses 
 the very natural reluctance she feels at being 
 drawn again, for the first time, into the affairs 
 of the world. " I have just dated my letter to 
 " my Lady Digby, of Coleshill, written in an- 
 " swer to hers, by which she desires me, in pur- 
 " suance of a dying brother's advice, and her 
 " son's (2) inclination, to propose to Lord Gains- 
 " borough a marriage between the present Lord, 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 90. 
 
 (2) Afterwards distinguished by the honourable appella- 
 tions of the Good Lord Digby.
 
 75 
 
 " and Lady Jane. 1 have done it, though 1 
 " wished she had made choice of any other per- 
 " son than myself, who, desiring to know the 
 " world no more, am utterly unfit for the ma- 
 " nagement of any thing in it ; but must as I 
 " can, engage in such necessary offices to my 
 " children, as I cannot be dispensed from, nor 
 " desire to be, since it is an eternal obligation 
 " upon me, to the memory of a husband, to 
 " whom and to his, I have dedicated the few 
 " and sad remainder of my days." (1) 
 
 Among the letters in this collection, will be 
 found one addressed to her by Mr. Howe (2), 
 stating to her the probability of an advantageous 
 marriage for the Earl of Bedford's (then) eldest 
 son, Mr. Edward Russell. By the manner in 
 which Mr. Howe expresses himself, we learn the 
 great weight Lady Russell's opinion was likely 
 to [have with the Lady, although personally a 
 stranger to her, and the entire confidence re- 
 posed in her judgment by all the friends of the 
 Bedford family. Her answer proves how much 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 90. 
 
 (2) The Rev. John Howe was a dissenting minister. He 
 had been Chaplain to Cromwell, and was afterwards a great 
 friend of Tillotson's. He was a good orientalist, understood 
 several modern languages, and was one of the most learned 
 writers among the Dissenters. See Granger's Biographical 
 History, vol. iii. p. 219.
 
 76 
 
 she deserved it. The marriage in question took 
 place soon afterwards with much happiness to 
 both parties. 
 
 Lady Russell's active friendship as well as 
 patient courage, were within two years after this 
 date rewarded by a proposal of marriage for her 
 own daughter, which must have been singularly 
 gratifying to every feeling of her heart, which 
 she herself calls " a glimmering of light 1 did 
 " not look for in my dark day." 
 
 Lord Cavendish, the generous and active 
 friend of Lord Russell, who had shared his pri- 
 vate friendship, as well as political sentiments, 
 who had gallantly proposed taking his place in 
 the Tower, and favouring his escape by a change 
 of clothes, Lord Cavendish, now become Earl 
 of Devonshire (1), faithful to the memory, and 
 
 (1) This is the same person who, not long before, had been 
 fined by the Court of King's Bench in the sum of thirty 
 thousand pounds, for having given a blow to Colonel Cul- 
 peper, in the King's presence-chamber at Whitehall. Al- 
 though a peer, the time-serving judges of James's Court of 
 King's Bench had committed him to prison, until the pay- 
 ment of this enormous fine. He contrived to escape from a 
 confinement, which we may suppose was not very strictly 
 guarded, and retired to Chatsworth, from whence he ad- 
 dressed the following spirited letter, explanatory of his con- 
 duct, toLordMiddleton, then Secretary of State. 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " About three weeks since, I was obliged to make a. jour- 
 ney into the country, as well for my health, as to look after my
 
 77 
 
 attached to the remains of his friend, proposed 
 to unite their children by the marriage of his 
 son with Lord Russell's eldest daughter. 
 
 The extreme youth of the parties (1) made it 
 an affair to be first treated between their parents, 
 which indeed was generally the case in the mar- 
 
 own private affairs, still retaining and paying for a lodging in 
 the prison, which I hope may free me from the imputation of 
 an escape. Since that, the Lord Chancellor (Jeffries) ( who I 
 conceive has, regularly, nothing to do in this matter, it being 
 foreign to his jurisdiction) has not only reviled the Marshal of 
 the King's Bench with the most opprobrious language, and 
 threatened to hang him, but likewise procured a warrant to be 
 sent after me, signed by a puny (puisne) Judge, which your 
 Lordship very well knows is not of force all over England. 
 But had it been signed by my Lord Chief Justice himself, I 
 cannot but insist upon that, which I take to be the right of 
 all the peers of England, not to be imprisoned for debt. I 
 think I have pretty well showed my readiness to submit to 
 His Majesty's pleasure in all things that concern myself, 
 alone ; but hope His Majesty in his justice will allow the 
 great sums which my father lent, and was bound in for the 
 King, his father, (not to mention the loss of his estate for 
 many years,) to be at least as just a debt as any that may 
 arise from the late scandalous judgment given against me by 
 the Court of King's Bench. I am yet to learn in what I have 
 given His Majesty any just cause of offence, and must not 
 forget that I was very moderate, at a time, when a certain 
 bawling lawyer I could name was very violent. My Lord, I 
 beg the favour of your Lordship to acquaint His Majesty 
 with the contents of this letter, and to excuse this trouble 
 from, &c. &c." Dev. MSS. 
 
 (1) She was 14., and he not 16 years old.
 
 78 
 
 riages of the young nobility at the times of which 
 we are speaking. In the present instance, when 
 much property was to be settled on both sides, and 
 where the parties were too young to live toge- 
 ther, the delays in the final arrangement of their 
 union were only troublesome to their parents. 
 Lady Russell mentions, more than once, her per- 
 petual occupation with lawyers, and the slow- 
 ness with which the treaty of marriage creeps on. 
 " I have," she says, " a well-bred Lord to deal 
 " with, yet inflexible, if the point is not to his 
 " advantage." And excuses her delays in an- 
 swering letters, by saying : C( But in earnest I 
 " am in a great and constant hurry to do my 
 " duty to my child, and to my friend, sister 
 " Margaret Russell ; which, by God's grace, I 
 " design to do as cordially as to my children. I 
 " meet with many difficulties in both, yet in 
 " my girl's there is no stop, but such as the 
 " former settlements cause, which (from any 
 " thing we can learn of yet) will hinder a con- 
 " elusion till he is sixteen." (1) 
 
 (1) The marriage here alluded to, was between Lady 
 Margaret Russell and Lord Strafford. It did not take place, 
 from some insurmountable difficulties about the settlement of 
 his affairs. But in a letter from him to Lord Halifax on the 
 subject, he expresses himself " particularly obliged to Lady 
 Russell on the matter we have written of."
 
 79 
 
 While Lady Russell was experiencing all the 
 delays of the law in the settlement of the affairs 
 of her family, James II. seemed determined to 
 abridge their tedious operations in the conduct 
 of the affairs of the public, by substituting the 
 more expeditious process of prerogative. It is 
 unnecessary to dwell here on the political 
 measures of this eventful and never-to-be-for- 
 gotten period. Lady Russell, we see by her 
 letters (1), marked with an anxious and sor- 
 rowing eye, the progress of those principles from 
 which she had herself so cruelly suffered. 
 
 When Dykevelt arrived in England, at the be- 
 ginning of this year, as Minister Plenipotentiary 
 from the States of Holland, he was particularly 
 charged to wait on Lady Russell. She has her- 
 self preserved notes of an interview which must 
 have been so grateful to her feelings. 
 
 He told her he came by express order ,of the 
 Prince and Princess of Orange to condole with 
 her on her loss, and assure her of the lively in- 
 terest they took in it, both as having a great and 
 just regard for the two families to which she be- 
 longed, and as considering her Lord's death as 
 a great blow to the interests of the Protestant 
 religion ; assuring her, at the same time, there 
 
 (1) Published Letters, passim.
 
 80 
 
 was nothing in their power they were not ready 
 to do, either for herself or her son. Mr. Dykevelt 
 declared that he did not deliver this message in 
 his private capacity, but that he was charged 
 with it as a public minister. He afterwards added 
 much of the high value and esteem the Prince 
 and Princess had ever had of the private cha- 
 racter of Lord Russell ; and as a mark of what 
 every body must have thought of his suffering, 
 told her, that when it was mentioned at the table 
 of King James's minister at the Hague, Skelton 
 himself had said : " The King indeed has taken 
 " the life of one man, but has lost that of thou- 
 " sands by it." It is to be regretted that Lady 
 Russell's letter of thanks to the Princess of 
 Orange for this distinguished attention, is not to 
 be found, as it produced from the Princess an 
 answer in wanner expressions of friendship and 
 attachment than she was accustomed to use. (1) 
 
 In June of this year Lady Russell makes her 
 long-intended visit to Stratton. Her anticipation 
 of the feelings she was likely to experience on 
 returning, for the first time, to that place, seem 
 to have lessened none of their poignancy. She 
 describes herself as " indeed brimful I with the 
 " memory of that unfortunate and miserable 
 " change in my own condition, since I lived re- 
 
 (1) See Published Letters, p. 132.
 
 81 
 
 " gularly here before. The poor children are 
 " well pleased to be a little while in a new place, 
 " ignorant how much better it has been both to 
 " me and them ; yet I thought I found Rachel 
 " not insensible ; and I could not but be con- 
 " tent with it in my own mind. Those whose age 
 " can afford them any remembrance, should, 
 " methinks, have some solemn thdughts for -so 
 " irreparable a loss to themselves and family ; 
 " though after that, I would cherish a cheerful 
 " temper in them, with all the industry I can ; 
 " for sure we please our Maker best, when we 
 " take all his providences with a cheerful 
 " spirit." (1) 
 
 We have here again a striking instance of the 
 admirable temper of Lady Russell's mind, anxious 
 to prevent her own unhappy fate from influencing 
 the character and happiness of those who were 
 farther removed from its effects ; and justly con- 
 ceiving that the sorrows of human life are in- 
 tended to purify and elevate the mind, not to 
 depress and weaken it. These principles she not 
 only professed, but practised. In a letter from 
 Stratton, written at this time, and the day before 
 the anniversary of her Lord's arrest, she says, 
 " To-morrow, being Sunday, I purpose to sanc- 
 " tify it, if my griefs unhallow it not by unpro- 
 " fitable passion." And how does she purpose 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 129. 
 G
 
 82 
 
 to sanctify it ? Not by Pharisaical observances 
 not by excessive indulgence in sorrow ; but by a 
 new exertion over her own feelings, by resolving, 
 " After having given some hours to privacy in the 
 " morning, to live in my house as on other days, 
 " doing my best to be tolerably composed. It is 
 " my first trial ; for all these sad years, I have dis- 
 " pensed with seeing any body, or till late at 
 " night. Sometimes I could not avoid that,\vit\\out 
 " a singularity I do not affect. There are three 
 " days I like to give up to reflection ; the day 
 " in which my Lord was parted from his family, 
 " that of his trial, and the day he was released 
 " from all the evils of this perishing world." 
 
 Lady Russell remained at Stratton with her 
 children till the end of this year. On her removal 
 to town, she expresses herself in the same strain, 
 of the occupation now given her by her daugh- 
 ter's proposed marriage, of her business with 
 lawyers, and many other worldly engagements. 
 " I would fain be delivered from them, con- 
 " elude my affairs, and so put some period to 
 " that inroad methinks I make in my intended 
 " manner of living the rest of rny days on earth. 
 " But I hope my duty will always prevail over 
 " the strongest inclination I have. I believe 
 " to assist my yet helpless children is my busi- 
 " ness, which makes me take many dinners 
 " abroad, and do of that nature many things, 
 " the performance of which is hard enough to
 
 83 
 
 " a heavy and weary mind, but yet I bless God 
 " for it." 
 
 After all the impediments of the law were re- 
 moved, the marriage was still farther delayed by 
 the illness of the intended bride, who caught 
 the measles in the Spring of this year. At last 
 the celebration took place on the 21st June; a 
 season, of all others, that which Lady Russell 
 would least have chosen for such a purpose j but 
 she tells us, " My Lord Devon hurried it oft', 
 being in great haste to go to the Bath ;" and her 
 own feelings immediately yielded to the conve- 
 nience of those of others. 
 
 The chastened joy with which she saw the 
 completion of her wishes on this subject, and the 
 feelings it excited, are expressed by herself in an 
 affecting manner : " This very solemnity has 
 " afforded me, alas ! many a thought I was 
 " forced to check with all my force, they mak- 
 " ing me too tender, though in retirement they 
 " are pleasant ; and that way I can indulge 
 " myself in at present. Sure if departed souls 
 " know what we do, he approves of what I have 
 " done ; and it is a reward upon his children for 
 " his patience, and so entire submission during 
 " his sufferings." 
 
 It is remarkable, that the principal circum- 
 stances in the life of Lady Russell are most of 
 them connected, or contemporary, with great 
 events in the history of her country.
 
 Within a week after the marriage of her daugh- 
 ter, the memorable trial took place of seven pre- 
 lates of the church of England, who proved at 
 once the strength of their faith, as well as the 
 purity of their doctrine, by manfully resisting, in 
 spiritual matters, not only the entreaties but the 
 commands of a Prince, to whom, and to whose fa- 
 mily, their unshaken fidelity afterwards willingly 
 sacrificed every temporal advantage. In this in- 
 stance, as in many others, it was the privilege 
 and the reward of a truly great and laudable 
 action, to occasion a much more extensive good 
 than that at which it aimed. 
 
 The quiet and respectful, but steady resistance 
 made by the bishops, drew out and exposed the 
 obstinate bigotry of the King to his plans and 
 opinions. It set an example of resistance, unac- 
 companied by violence, and anticipated the senti- 
 ments and gratitude of the nation for similar 
 exertions in the state, by the lively interest and 
 enthusiastic joy manifested on the success of 
 these champions of the church. 
 
 Such exertions were already made ; an asso- 
 ciation (1) was already formed, of names which 
 are inscribed in the fastes of their grateful coun- 
 
 (1) The Association whose members invited over the 
 Prince of Orange, was dated the 30th June 1 688, and was 
 signed by the Earl of Shrewsbury, the Earl of Devonshire, 
 Lord Lumley, the Bishop of London, Admiral Russell, and 
 Ma. Henry Sidney, afterwards Lord Romney.
 
 83 
 
 try. Measures were already taking, which, how- 
 ever they may have been subsequently reputed 
 too weak by faction, and too strong by prero- 
 gative, have established for ever a standard to 
 which to recur ; a rule by which to estimate our 
 rights, our expectations, and our demands. 
 
 To say it was imperfect, that it was supported 
 by some unworthy characters, and furthered by 
 some exceptionable means, is only saying it was 
 the work of man. When we look to the civil 
 and religious liberty it has secured to a great 
 people for above a century, we shall believe 
 that work of man approved and protected by 
 Heaven. 
 
 Lord and Lady Cavendish remained for about 
 three weeks after their marriage with Lady 
 Russell, at Southampton House, and then re- 
 moved with her and the Earl of Bedford to 
 Woburn. The relief she expresses at finding 
 herself once again in the quiet of the country, 
 after the hurry and business of London, in the 
 circumstances in which she had lately been 
 placed, it is as impossible not to enter into, as it 
 is not to admire the manner in which she united 
 to the sentiment of her unremoveable sorrow, 
 an exact, scrupulous, and cheerful discharge of 
 her duties, and a strict watch over the effects 
 which her feelings were likely to produce upon 
 her conduct. " The pensive quiet 1 hope for 
 
 G 3
 
 " here, I think, will be very grateful to my 
 " wearied body and mind ; yet when I contem- 
 " plate the fruits and labour of these last six 
 " months, it brings some comfort to my mind, as 
 " an evidence that I do not live only to lament 
 " my misfortunes, and be humbled by those 
 " heavy chastisements I have felt, and must for 
 " ever in this life press me sorely. That I have 
 " not sunk under the pressure, has been, I hope, 
 " in mercy, that I might be better fitted for my 
 " eternal state, and form the children of a loved 
 " husband, before I go hence. With these 
 " thoughts I can be hugely content to live, and 
 " the rather as the clouds seem to gather, and 
 " threaten storms ; though God only knows how 
 " I may acquit myself, and what help I may be, 
 " or what example I shall give to my young 
 " creatures : I mean well towards them, if I 
 " know my heart." 
 
 These last paragraphs evidently relate to the 
 critical state of the country. It was such as 
 might well excite the anxiety of a less thought- 
 ful mind than that of Lady Russell, as to the 
 future fate of all that was most dear to them. 
 
 In the month of August, Lord Cavendish was 
 sent to finish his education by travelling on the 
 Continent. His father was probably not sorry 
 that he should be out of the way of the difficult 
 scenes that were likely to ensue, while he was
 
 yet too young to take an active part in them. 
 He was first sent to Brussels, and from thence 
 into France and Italy ; and remained above two 
 years abroad, returning to England at the end 
 of the year 1690. 
 
 In the mean time, the happy issue of the 
 measures that had been taken placed the Prince 
 and Princess of Orange on the throne of Eng- 
 land. The active and honourable part borne by 
 the heads, both of the Russell and Cavendish 
 families in these events, was alone sufficient to 
 have deeply interested Lady Russell, independ- 
 ently of her own individual feelings, which we 
 find strongly marked in all her letters. (1) 
 
 She passed the remainder of this memorable 
 year at Woburn, except a visit of two days to 
 London, in the beginning of October, where she 
 mentions having " left all in amaze, and all 
 " talking of the same matter." "I think I 
 rt fear not for myself, but I am afraid what risk 
 " my children may run j and if that were not, 
 " our weak faith would furnish us with some 
 " other reason to justify our too great careful- 
 " ness." (2) 
 
 Immediately after the landing of the Prince of 
 Orange, she says to Dr. Fitzwilliam : " I have 
 
 (1) See Published Letters, passim. 
 
 (2) Published Letters, p. 174. 
 
 G 4>
 
 88 
 
 " rambled the more (in her letter), because one 
 " is in prudence confined not to speak of mat- 
 " ters one is strangely bent to be talking of." 
 When we remember that two entire months 
 elapsed between the landing of the Prince of 
 Orange in this country, and the final departure 
 of James, we shall feel that during the whole of 
 that anxious period, it is difficult to conceive a 
 position more interesting, or circumstances more 
 embarrassing, than those in which the persons ac- 
 tively concerned in this great scene were placed, 
 between the bad effects of an appearance of in- 
 difference, and too great, or premature eager- 
 ness, which might have ruined their game before 
 their opponent had thrown up his. (1) At last, 
 
 (1) The following letter, written from London on the 29th 
 November, 1688, addressed to Lady Margaret Russell at 
 Woburn, although containing merely the reports and gossip 
 of the moment, may not be unentertaining to the reader : 
 
 " November 29. 1688. 
 
 " I have taken a larger size paper, that I may have more 
 room to quarrel with Lady Margett for saying so unkind a 
 thing as that she obliges me with a short letter, it being a 
 civility I never was guilty of to your Ladyship ; but since 
 you have given me the example, will endeavour to practise 
 it. I hoped you had been so just as to believe that, next 
 your company, you could not more oblige me than with a 
 letter ; and the longer they were, the greater favour they 
 were esteemed by your humble servant. I have not had the 
 happiness of seeing your aunt Bristoll, or hearing any thing 
 ef her a great while : the last I did was when she was in tear*
 
 80 
 
 in the beginning of December, while the Prince 
 of Orange was yet at Salisbury, and Dr. Burnet 
 
 for her nephew Frank's revolt, and that so many of her fa- 
 mily should be rebels to the crown. I heard the great * Lady 
 (said) she could not go to bed last winter till she had heard 
 one said lately that she hated all the Russells. I fear all 
 this together will break my good friend's heart. I confess I 
 never longed more to see her than I do now, but I think she 
 stirs little abroad. Mr. Francis Russell's coach and six, and 
 all his baggage, were taken going to him. Soon after the 
 Prince landed, the packet-boat was taken going to Holland, 
 but nothing of any great consequence, as I heard of. Letters 
 of his to the States and other Princes, and one of Dr. Bur- 
 net's to his dear, and William Harbord's to his wife, with my 
 dear and my duck, &c. &c., and Mr. Foster's to his lady to 
 send him some beds, lodgings being very ill. They serve to 
 make jests on, but little else, I think. Mrs. Boyle has a 
 daughter. I hear, but how true I cannot tell you, that the 
 match is going on again with Miss Allington and Lord Fan- 
 shaw. The Duke of Albemarle is dead. Lord Dover is 
 gone to Portsmouth, being governor of that place in the 
 Duke of Berwick's room. Lord Milford and Duke of 
 Northumberland are made of the bed-chamber, in Lord 
 Churchill's and Duke of Grafton's places. They say Lord 
 Feversham was upon his knees two hours, and cried and 
 begged the King but to secure Lord Churchill ; but he would 
 believe nothing ill of him. Mr. Griffin is made a lord, and 
 to be called Lord Griffin, for his fidelity. They say the 
 Queen is told Lady Cornbury -j lines all her gowns with 
 orange colour, and wears nothing but orange ribbons. They 
 say our young Prince is to be brought back again next week 
 from Portsmouth, and put into the Bishop of Canterbury's 
 
 * James the Second's Queen, Mary of Modena. 
 
 f The Lady Catherine Obrian, daughter of the Earl of Thomond, 
 married to Edward Lord Cornbury, son of the second Earl of Clarendon. 
 Lord Cornbury joined trie Prince of Orange with his regiment at Salisbury,
 
 90 
 
 in his suite, Lady Russell, who had always 
 maintained a correspondence with the latter, 
 
 hands to be brought up : you may believe it, if you please. 
 The great guns came by us yesterday, into town again ; but 
 the ammunition, I think, is lost. The King goes to Windsor 
 to-morrow, and there, it is said, will encamp all his army 
 that is left ; but the good Queen stays to govern us here. 
 The lords and bishops that were summoned on Tuesday, 
 pressed very hard for a free parliament: the King took till 
 next morning to consider of it, and then agreed to it ; and 
 Lord Chancellor gave order for the writs to be ready to-day, 
 that no time may be lost ; so it is to be called with all speed, 
 and commissioners, they say, are to be sent to the Prince, 
 to know what he demands. The town names Lord Halifax, 
 Lord Nottingham, Lord Carberry, for the commissioners ; 
 the two first were sent for yesterday, and were a great while 
 with the King alone. Lord Lumley, they say, has secured 
 Newcastle, and some other lords, Hull ; Lord Bath has taken 
 Lord Huntingdon prisoner at Plymouth : his lady desired he 
 might be exchanged for Lord Lovelace, who the Papists say 
 is released. Lord Devonshire, they say, when the Prince's 
 declaration was read, and that part of being invited in by 
 the Lords temporal and spiritual, declared he was one, and 
 Lord Delamere did the same, and it is said they declared 
 for the King, the Protestant religion, and a free Parliament. 
 Skelton is made governor of the Tower, which it is said the 
 city is less satisfied with than with Hales. We have no news 
 of the Princess, but hope she is safe. It is said there was 
 an order out that morning to have secured her. The Prince 
 ( George of Denmark) made his escape with the Duke of Or- 
 mond, much after the same manner : supped with the King, 
 on Saturday night, and went to bed, but soon rose again, and 
 it is said made it his business at supper to condemn those 
 that were gone, and how little such people were to be trusted, 
 and sure the Prince could put no confidence in such, &c.
 
 91 
 
 sends him a special messenger from Woburn. 
 She had written to him on some previous occa- 
 sions, and now tells him, " I have, I may say, 
 " created this, since the bearer of it has no 
 " other errand than to carry this paper, and re- 
 " turn charged, I hope, with such good reports 
 " as every good soul wishes for. Curiosity may 
 " be too eager, and therefore not to be justified; 
 
 Lady Littleton talks of coming after Christmas, if things are 
 settled here. 
 
 " I have not kept my promise at the beginning, so hard 
 it is for me to break an old custom ; but to punish you a 
 little, at present, is no grief to me, being not at this time 
 Lady Margaret's humble servant. Lord Dunbarton seized 
 Colonel Kirke at the head of 3000 or 4000 men, going, as 
 was suspected, to the Prince of Orange ; and he is brought 
 to London, and to be tried, as it is said, by a council of war. 
 Lord Halifax, they say, made the most tender and obliging 
 speech at council that was ever heard : but they do not give 
 that character of Lord Clarendon's, but the contrary. Duke 
 of Berwick has Lord Churchill's troop of guards, or the 
 Duke of Grafton's, I know not which ; and Lord Arran has 
 his regiment of horse, and his brother his regiment. Colonel 
 Kirke has been before the council this day, and the King 
 has taken his word, and he is only confined to his chamber. 
 Lord Churchill and Prince George have written the most 
 submissive letters to the King that can be, and it is said there 
 is one from the Prince of Orange too, but that it is not 
 known what is in it. Sir George Hewe't is gone ten days 
 ago, and Mr. Heningame. 
 
 " Thursday night. 
 
 " For the Right Hon. the Lady Margarett Russell, 
 
 at Wooburn Abby> Bedfordshire. 
 " Wooborne Bagg." Dev. MSS.
 
 " but sure it is unavoidable. I do not ask you 
 " should satisfy any part of it, farther than you 
 " can in six lines. But I would see something 
 " of your hand-writing upon English ground, 
 " and not read in print only the labour of your 
 " brains." (1) 
 
 Burnet, it is known, wrote the declaration 
 published at Exeter, explanatory of the inten- 
 tions of the association which had invited over 
 the Prince of Orange. His answer to Lady 
 Russell's letter was, probably out of prudence, 
 immediately destroyed, as no trace remains of 
 any of his letters to her at this immediate junc- 
 ture. She tells Dr. Fitzwilliam, on the 8th of 
 December, while still remaining in the country, 
 " I confess one would be very glad to spend 
 " some hours in free discourse with a friend 
 " there is no need to disguise any thought be- 
 " fore. When it is denied, one must be con- 
 " tent as one can. I think having staid so long 
 " in the country, in the hurly-burly, we shall 
 " try it a little longer." (g) She, however, re- 
 moved to town with the Earl of Bedford, in 
 time to witness the departure of the King, and 
 the peaceable settlement by Parliament of the 
 new government; which she speaks of with 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 188. 
 
 (2) Published Letters, p. 187.
 
 93 
 
 the amazement it must necessarily have occa- 
 sioned in all contemporaries : " Those who 
 " have lived longest, and therefore seen the 
 " most change, can scarce believe it is more 
 " than a dream ; yet it is real, and so amazing 
 " a reality of mercy, as ought to melt our hearts 
 Sf into subjection and resignation to Him, who 
 " is the dispenser of all providences." (1) 
 
 The young Lady Cavendish was present witli 
 her mother-in-law, the Countess of Devonshire, 
 at the proclamation of William and Mary, and 
 accompanied her to their first drawing-room in 
 the evening of the same day. (2) The following 
 account which she gives of it, in a letter to some 
 young friend in the country (3), is interesting 
 from the memorable events and persons of which 
 she speaks as an eye-witness. 
 
 " February 1689. 
 
 " It is a great affliction to me to be so far from 
 " my dear beloved Silvia, and to hear from her 
 " so seldom : how happy shall 1 be when I see 
 ' you next ; how many things I have to tell 
 " you : for I dare not trust affairs of so great 
 " concern in a letter. But when will that time 
 " come ? 1 do not hear you speak of removing 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 191. 
 
 (2) The 13th of February, 1689, the day after the Princess 
 arrived in London from Holland. 
 
 (3) Probably her cousin, Mrs. (Miss) Jane Allington.
 
 " yet, to my grief. Pray leave your ugly prison 
 " as soon as you can, and come to your Do- 
 " rinda. (1) But now to my news : the House 
 " of Lords did vote that the Prince and Princess 
 " should be made King and Queen, and it was 
 " carried by a good many voices, for Lord Not- 
 " tingham and many more came off. Lord 
 " Nottingham had a great mind to come off 
 " before, but could not tell which way ; then 
 " the Commons agreed also that the Prince and 
 " Princess should be King and Queen, but 
 " that the Prince should have the sole adminis- 
 " tration of affairs in his hands ; that the Prin- 
 " cess should be no subject neither, as Queen 
 " Katherine and Queen Mary were, but a Sove- 
 " reign Queen, and her name put in every 
 " thing ; but still he the management of affairs. 
 " This they agreed upon, and so did the Lords ; 
 " then they went to the grievances, (that is) 
 " the too great power of the crown. After 
 " they had agreed upon what power to give the 
 " King, and what to take away from him, (the 
 
 ( 1 ) These names, given to herself and to her correspondent, 
 and afterwards to the King and Queen, were taken from 
 some of the fashionable romances of the day, perhaps Clelia ; 
 as in a letter addressed to Lady Cavendish, just before her 
 marriage, the writer says : " There will be no talking to 
 " your sister, when she has read Clelia ; for the wise folks say 
 *' it- is the most improving book can be read." Dev. MSS.
 
 95 
 
 " particulars of which I cannot tell you,) my 
 " Lord Halifax, who is chairman, went to the 
 " Banquetting House, where the Princess and 
 " Prince were, and made them a short speech, 
 " desiring them, in the name of all the Lords to 
 " accept of the crown. The Prince answered 
 " him in a few words, and the Princess made 
 " curtsies. They say, when they named her 
 " father's faults, she looked down as if she was 
 " troubled ; then Mr. Powle, the Speaker of 
 " the House of Commons, showed the Prince 
 " what they had agreed of, but made no speech. 
 " After this ceremony was ended, they pro- 
 " claimed them King and Queen of England. 
 " Many of the churchmen would not have had it 
 ** done that day, because it was Ash- Wednesday. 
 " I was at the sight, and, you may imagine, 
 " very much pleased to see Ormanzor and 
 " Plienixana proclaimed King and Queen of 
 " England, in the room of King James, my 
 " father's murderer. There was wonderful ac- 
 " clamations of joy, which, though they were 
 " very pleasing to me, yet they frightened me 
 " too ; for I could not but think what a dread- 
 " ful thing it is to fall into the hands of the 
 " rabble they are such a strange sort of people. 
 " At night I went to Court with my Lady De- 
 " vonshire, and kissed the Queen's hand, and 
 " the King's also. There was a world of bon- 
 
 7
 
 " fires, and candles almost in every house, which 
 " looked extremely pretty. The King applies 
 " himself mightily to business, and is wonder- 
 " fully admired for his great wisdom and pru- 
 " dence in ordering all things. He is a man of 
 " no presence, but looks very homely at first 
 " sight ; but if one looks long on him, he has 
 " something in his face both wise and good. 
 " But as for the Queen, she is really altogether 
 " very handsome ; her face is very agreeable, 
 " and her shape and motions extremely grace- 
 " ful and fine. She is tall, but not so tall as the 
 " last Queen. Her room was mighty full of 
 " company, as you may guess." (1) 
 
 One of the first acts of the government of 
 William and Mary, after its peaceable establish- 
 ment, was the reversal of Lord Russell's at- 
 tainder. 
 
 His execution was already denominated a 
 " murder," by a vote of the House of Commons ; 
 and a committee was appointed to enquire who 
 were " its advisers and promoters," as well as of 
 that of all the other persons who had suffered 
 for the Rye-House plot. The publicity and 
 length of their proceedings, and the examination 
 of a multitude of witnesses, raked up every 
 circumstance, and freshened every recollection 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS.
 
 97 
 
 which Lady Russell was in vain struggling to 
 subdue. Thus while her feelings must have been 
 highly gratified by the result of this enquiry, they 
 were severely shaken by the measures which 
 necessarily preceded it. Her sister, Lady Mon- 
 tagu, tells her she is very sorry to find that her 
 " thoughts have been so disturbed with what 
 " I thought ought to have some contrary ef- 
 " feet." (1) 
 
 Had Lady Russell's mind been of an ordinary 
 stamp, she would certainly at this time have 
 found more to elate, than to depress it. Ho- 
 nours were showered on the two families to 
 which she was the most nearly allied, and in 
 whose prosperity she was the most warmly in- 
 terested (2) ; and the respect and consideration 
 acquired by her own individual conduct was 
 such as no worldly distinctions could confer. 
 To her enlightened mind, to her candid estima- 
 tion of motives, and allowances for different 
 modes of faith, her friend, Dr. Fitzvvilliam, refers 
 his conscientious resignation of preferment under 
 
 (1 ) Published Letters, p. 251. 
 
 (2) The Earl of Bedford was made one of the Privy 
 Council and Lord Lieutenant of the counties of Bedford, 
 Cambridge, and Middlesex. The Earl of Devonshire was 
 made a Knight of the Garter, Lord Steward of the King's 
 household, and acted as High Steward of England at the 
 ensuing coronation of William and Mary. 
 
 H
 
 98 
 
 the new government ; and Tillotson applies for 
 her sanction to his acceptance of the dignity 
 offered him by King William. Such indeed was 
 the deference paid to her opinion, and the im- 
 portance attached to her good will, that even 
 the confident mind of the Duchess of Marlbo- 
 rotigh thought it necessary to assure herself of 
 Lady Russell's approbation, in the critical junc- 
 ture of advising the Princess Anne to acquiesce 
 in the settlement of the crown on the Prince of 
 Orange. (1) From Lady Russell we find no 
 intimation of this flattering reference ; but the 
 Duchess of Marlborough herself records, that 
 she could not satisfy her own mind till she " had 
 " consulted with several persons of undisputed 
 " wisdom and integrity, and particularly with 
 " the Lady Russell of Southampton House, and 
 " with Dr. Tillotson, afterwards Archbishop of 
 " Canterbury." (2) Both before and after Til- 
 lotson's exaltation to this dignity, we find him 
 giving a detailed account to Lady Russell of the 
 
 (1) It was this circumstance that suggested to the lively 
 and enthusiastic mind of Madame de Stael, the belief that 
 Lady Russell was afterwards consulted by the ministers of 
 King William, and by Queen Anne herself, on political 
 measures. See Considerations sur la Revolution Franpoise, 
 vol. iii. p. 290. 
 
 (2) See account of the conduct of the Duchess of Marl- 
 borough, p. 23.
 
 99 
 
 intended preferments in the church, and assur- 
 ing her of the respect which the King was dis- 
 posed to pay both to her wishes and those of 
 Lord Bedford in his nominations to preferment 
 in London. 
 
 To her friend Dr. Fitzwilliam she writes : " I 
 " am very sorry the case stands with you as it 
 " does, in reference to the oath ; and still 
 " wonder (unless I could find Kings of divine 
 " right) why it does ! And all this in the ac- 
 " ceptation of a word which I never heard two 
 " declare the meaning of, but they differed 
 " in the sense of it." After thus stating her 
 rational opinion of the oaths he could not re- 
 solve to take, she most kindly assures him of her 
 assistance and the continuance of her friendship 
 wherever his conscientious sense of duty may 
 lead him ; and finally tells him : " Whilst, in 
 " the mean time, I see those whose sincerity and 
 " ability I have equal value for, point blank 
 " contrary one to another ; yet both will be, I 
 " doubt not, accepted at the great day of trial. 
 " I will take leave, Sir, to wish you converted."(l) 
 With such sentiments, we shall not wonder 
 that her manner of exerting the dangerous power 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 259. Dr. Fitwilliam died, un- 
 married, soon after the date of this letter, which was in 
 June 1696. 
 
 H 2
 
 100 
 
 of retaliation and reproach, now in her hands, 
 towards those who she felt had neglected or been 
 deaf to her supplications in the day of her distress, 
 proves how well she had profited by " the uses 
 " of adversity.'* 
 
 Lady Sunderland, the wife of him whose time- 
 serving politics ended necessarily in his own dis- 
 grace, of him who had been a principal mi- 
 nister and adviser of Charles II. at the time of 
 Lord Russell's execution, now applied to his yet 
 sorrowing widow for her intercession and good 
 offices with the reigning powers. (1) 
 
 (1) Ann Digby, wife of Robert Earl of Sunderland, was 
 the daughter of George, the last Earl of Bristol of that family. 
 The character of this lady is thus given by the Princess Anne 
 of Denmark to her sister the Princess of Orange, a few 
 months before the Revolution. " His Lady, too, (i. e. Lady 
 " Sunderland) is as extraordinary in her kind ; for she is a 
 " flattering, dissembling false woman; but she has so fawning 
 " and endearing a way, that she will deceive any body at first, 
 " and it is not possible to find out all her ways in a little 
 " time. Then she has had her gallants, though may be not 
 " so many as some ladies here, and with all these good 
 " qualities, she is a constant church-woman ; so that to out- 
 " ward appearance, one would take her for a saint, and to 
 " hear her talk, you would think she was a very good Pro- 
 " testant ; but she is as much one as the other : for it is 
 " certain that her Lord does nothing without her." - March 
 " 13. 1688. * * * She goes to 
 
 " St. Martin's morning and afternoon, (because there are 
 
 6
 
 Lady SunderlancTs letters to Lady Russell 
 (which it would seem were frequent) are not 
 extant ; but the following expressions in her 
 answer to one of them ought to have forcibly 
 struck Lady Sunderland from the pen of Lady 
 Russell : " So unhappy a solicitor as I was 
 " once for my poor self 'and family, my heart 
 " misgives me when I aim at any thing of that 
 " kind any more." The rest of the letter proves, 
 in the least offensive manner, that she was per- 
 fectly aware of the flattering and insincere cha- 
 racter of her correspondent. (1) 
 
 The following letter from Lord Halifax, in 
 answer to one of condolence which Lady Russell 
 had addressed to him on his losing two sons 
 within the short space of a twelvemonth, ex- 
 
 " not people enough to see her in Whitehall chapel,) and is 
 " half an hour before other people come, and half an hour 
 " after every body is gone, at her private devotions. She 
 " runs from church to church after the most famous 
 " preachers, and keeps such a clatter with her devotions, 
 " that it really turns one's stomach;- Sure never was a 
 " couple so well matched as she and her good husband ; foe 
 " as she is throughout, in all her actions, the greatest jade 
 " that ever was, so he is the subtillest, workingnest villain 
 " that is on the face of the earth." March 20. 1688. 
 See Dalrymple's Memoirs, vol. ii. p, 298. et passim. See 
 likewise frequent and more honourable mention made of this 
 lady in Evelyn's Diary, vol. i. 
 (1 ) Published Letters, p. 252. 
 H 3
 
 102 
 
 presses an entire confidence in her heart and 
 understanding, as well as much devotion to her 
 interests. It is written while under those feel- 
 ings of dissatisfaction, to which his unpopularity 
 with the triumphant Whigs had given rise, and 
 which ended, soon after, in his resignation of 
 the Privy Seal. 
 
 " Madam, 
 
 " I must own that my reason is not strong 
 " enough to bear with indifference the losses 
 " that have lately happened in my family ; but, 
 " at the same time, I must acknowledge I am 
 " not a little supported by the continuance of 
 " your Ladyship's favour to me, in the obliging 
 " remembrance I have received from you, and 
 " in your condoling the affliction of the man in 
 " the world that is most devoted to you. I am 
 " impatient till I have the honour of an hour's 
 " conversation with your Ladyship, to ease my 
 " mind of the just complaints I have, that such 
 " returns are made to the zeal I have en- 
 " deavoured to express, in my small capacity, 
 " for the good of England. I cannot but think 
 " it the fantastical influence of my ill stars, very 
 " peculiar to myself, all circumstances con- 
 " sidered ; but whilst I am under the protection 
 " of your Ladyship's better opinion, the malice
 
 103 
 
 " or mistakes of others can never have the force 
 " so much as to discompose, 
 
 " Madam, 
 
 " Your Ladyship's most obedient servant, 
 
 " HALIFAX." 
 London, July 23. 1689. (1) 
 
 Lady Russell's answer to this letter is among 
 those already published. It is remarkable for 
 its good sense, its earnest recommendation of the 
 consolations of religion, (to which Lord Halifax 
 was supposed too much a stranger,) and for the 
 manner in which it touches on her own mis- 
 fortunes, and the ineffectual exertions of Lord 
 Halifax to assist her on that occasion. (2) The 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS. 
 
 (2) The letter is as follows. Published Letters, p. 224. 
 " My Lord, 
 
 " For my part, I think the man a very indifferent reasoner 
 that, to do well, he must take with indifference whatever 
 happens to him. It is very fine to say, Why should we com- 
 plain that is taken back, which was but lent us, and lent us 
 but for a time, we know ; and so on. They are the receipts 
 of philosophers I have no reverence for, as I have not for any 
 thing unnatural. It is insincere, and I dare say they did dis- 
 semble, and felt what they would not own. I know I can- 
 not dispute with Almighty Power ; but yet, if my delight is 
 gone, I must needs be sorry it is taken away, according to 
 the measure it made me glad. The Christian religion alone, 
 believe me, my Lord, has a power to make the spirit easy 
 under great calamity. Nothing less than the hope of being, 
 
 H 4"
 
 104 
 
 high opinion which the new sovereigns were 
 known to entertain of Lady Russell, and the 
 favour she was supposed to possess, produced 
 many applications for her patronage and interest. 
 Of this interest she seems to have made the 
 temperate and rational use which might have 
 been expected from a delicate mind, united to a 
 friendly disposition. Addressing Queen Mary, 
 in favour of one of Lord Carberry's family, she 
 says : " It is a sensible trouble to me when I 
 " do importune your Majesty, yet I do some- 
 " times submit, because I would not be quite 
 " useless to such as hope for some benefit by my 
 w means, and I desire to do what good I can." 
 The favours she asked were few; but for 
 
 again made happy, can satisfy the mind. J am sure I owe 
 it more than I could have done to the world, if all the 
 glories of it had been offered me, or to be disposed of by me. 
 And I do sincerely desire your Lordship may experience the 
 truth of my opinion. You know better than most, from the 
 share you have had of the one, what they do afford, and I 
 hope you will prove what tranquillity the other gives. If I 
 had a better wish to make your Lordship's constant expres- 
 sions of esteem for me, and "willingness, as I hope, to have 
 had me less miserable than I am, if you had found your potver 
 equal to your ivill, engages me to make it, and that alone 
 would have bound me, though my own unworthiness and ill 
 fortune had let you have forgot me for ever after my sad lot. 
 But since you would not do so, it must deserve a particular 
 acknowledgment for ever, from 
 
 " July, 1689. Your Lordship's," &c.
 
 105 
 
 the friends whose interests she espoused, she 
 exerted herself with all the earnestness and per- 
 severance she could have practised for herself. 
 In the letters already published, we find that 
 the Lord Chancellor Cooper owed his having 
 been first appointed a king's counsel, at the early 
 age of twenty- four, to her immediate application 
 to King William in his behalf; and that the diffi- 
 culties this appointment afterwards experienced 
 from the Attorney-General, and the Commis- 
 sioners of the Great Seal, were successfully re- 
 moved by Lady Russell's repeated statements to 
 Lord Halifax, and the Attorney-General Pol- 
 lexfen, on the subject ; to the latter of whom she 
 says, with the conscious feeling of one seldom a 
 supplicant, and to whom all motives of self- 
 interest were unknown : " I undertake few 
 " things, and therefore do very little good to 
 " people ; but I do not like to be baulked when 
 " I thought my end compassed." The high 
 character and future success of Mr. Cooper in 
 his profession, prove that she did not lightly 
 adopt the interests of those whom she determined 
 not to abandon. 
 
 Lady Russell's health, which she acknow- 
 ledges with gratitude, had not sunk under her 
 mental sufferings, but that, on the contrary, she 
 had enjoyed a freedom from bodily pain, " to a 
 " degree I almost never knew ; not so much as
 
 106 
 
 " a strong fit of headache have I felt since that 
 " miserable time, who used to be tormented 
 " with it very frequently." (1) But she now 
 began to perceive the approaches of infirmity, 
 and to feel it particularly, in the alarming form 
 of a rapidly increasing weakness of sight. She 
 complains of the badness of her eyes in the year 
 1689 ; but seems not to have been aware of any 
 local disease in them, till about two years after- 
 wards, when her increased blindness obliges her 
 to take advice, to abstain from writing by candle- 
 light, and shortly after from reading. 
 
 It has been said that Lady Russell wept her- 
 self blind: this is not a true statement of the 
 case j for although she tells us herself " My 
 " eyes are ever ready to pour out the marks of a 
 " sorrowful heart, which I must even carry to 
 " my grave," the complaint in her sight proved 
 to be a cataract on her left eye, a disease which 
 is known to have no connection with the lachry- 
 mal ducts. 
 
 In the year 1690 she had a new cause for 
 tears, in the death of her last remaining sister, 
 Lady Montagu, and of her nephew, Lord 
 Gainsborough, within a few weeks of each other. 
 Of the one she says : " After forty years' ac- 
 
 ( 1 ) Published Letters, p. 63.
 
 107 
 
 " quaintance with so amiable a creature, one 
 " must needs, in reflecting, bring to remem- 
 " brance so many engaging endearments as are 
 " yet, at present, embittering and painful." Of 
 the other, that " he was the only son of a sister 
 " and friend I loved with too much passion." 
 And slie owns to Dr. Fitzwilliam that he conjec- 
 tures truly as to the state of her mind : Every 
 " new stroke to a weary and battered carcase, 
 " makes me struggle the harder ; and though I 
 " lost, with my best friend, all the delights of 
 " living, yet I find I did not a quick sense of 
 " new grief." (1) 
 
 The return of Lord Cavendish from abroad, 
 in the autumn of this year, separated her from 
 her eldest daughter. During his absence, Lady 
 Cavendish had continued living with her mother 
 and sisters ; she was now established with her 
 husband in the house of his father. 
 
 Lady Russell's attention to every minute parti- 
 cular relative to her children, is marked by a letter 
 which she addresses at this time to Lady Derby, 
 the mistress of the robes to Queen Mary, recom- 
 mending to her protection, and to her advice, 
 the young Lady Cavendish, now frequenting 
 Court by the particular desire (as it would seena) 
 
 ( 1 ) Published Letters, p. 295-
 
 108 
 
 of the Queen, and separated, for the first time, 
 from " too fond a mother/' (1) 
 
 In the following year (1692) we find Lady 
 Russell's younger daughter, Katherine, express- 
 ing herself with great anxiety to her sister, Lady 
 Cavendish, about their mother's increasing blind- 
 ness : " Indeed it is very sad to think how much 
 " she has lost her eye-sight in as little a time as 
 " three weeks or a month. She uses nothing to 
 " them, which makes me more impatient to hear 
 " from the doctor ; though I do extremely fear 
 " he can do her no good, as she does think her- 
 " self." (2) Soon after, she herself tells Dr. 
 Fitzwilliam that she is " resolved to be strict in 
 " observing the directions I am under for my 
 " bad eyes, which I am not sensible I hurt by 
 " what I can do, which is writing. As for read- 
 " ing, I am past that contentment, especially 
 " print. Your hand is plain, and so well known 
 " to me, I make a shift to see it." 
 
 Her bodily ills, and the cruel prospect of 
 blindness, she seems to have supported with the 
 same patient magnanimity, and to have allowed 
 them to interfere almost as little with her duties 
 as she had done the sufferings of her mind. 
 
 (1) See Published Letters, p. 295. 
 
 (2) Dev. MSS.
 
 109 
 
 " While I can see at all, I must do a little more 
 " than I can when God sees it best that outward 
 " darkness shall fall upon me, which will deprive 
 " me of all society at a distance (1), which I 
 " esteem exceeding profitable and pleasant." 
 
 She was now occupied in settling the marriage 
 of her younger daughter with Lord Roos, the 
 eldest son of the Earl of Rutland. This, although 
 she herself calls it "the best match in England," 
 from her ignorance of the young man's character, 
 and from some peculiar circumstances relative to 
 his birth and rights of inheritance, she had paused 
 in accepting. John Lord Roos, his father, after- 
 wards Earl and Duke of Rutland had been 
 divorced by act of parliament, in 1670, from his 
 first wife (2) ; and two sons by that marriage 
 disabled by the same act of parliament from suc- 
 ceeding to his honours and estates, himself hav- 
 ing permission to marry again. 
 
 This divorce bill had caused 'great debates in 
 Parliament, and had become, at the time, almost 
 a party question. It had been forwarded by all 
 the Protestant interest, and the opposers of the 
 Duke of York, as an encouragement and example 
 
 ( 1 ) She means corresponding with absent friends. 
 (2 j The Lady Anne Pierpont, daughter of Henry Marquis 
 of Dorchester.
 
 no 
 
 for the King to attempt a divorce from Catherine 
 of Portugal. (1) 
 
 Under these circumstances, Lady Russell tells 
 Dr. Fitzwilliam : " I do own, when it was first 
 " proposed, I was, as it were, surprised ; but 
 " when I came to consider seriously, and dis- 
 " course with friends, and also with such others 
 " as I could then get to talk with, and found 
 " reason to conclude that a reverse of Parliament 
 " was all the scruple I need have, I was content 
 ' to hear more of it, and not refuse the best 
 " match in England for an imaginary religious 
 " scruple." * ***** 
 " But if a divorce is lawful, as agreeing with 
 " the word of God, I take a marriage after it 
 
 (1) " When there was a project in 1669 for getting a 
 
 *' divorce for the King, to facilitate it, there was brought into 
 
 " the House of Lords a bill for dissolving the marriage of 
 
 " Lord Rosse (Roos), on account of adultery, and to give 
 
 " him leave to marry again. This bill, after great debates, 
 
 " passed by the plurality of only two votes, and that by the 
 
 " great industry of the Lord's friends, as well as the Duke's 
 
 " enemies, who carried it on chiefly in hopes it might be a 
 
 " precedent and inducement for the King to enter the more 
 
 " easily into their late proposals; nor were they a little 
 
 " encouraged therein, when they saw the King countenance 
 
 " and drive on the bill in Lord Rosse's favour. Of eighteen 
 
 " bishops that were in the House, only two voted for the 
 
 " bill, of which one voted through age, and one was reputed 
 
 " a Socinian." See Evelyn's Diary, vol.ii. p. 361.
 
 Ill 
 
 " certainly to be so. And as for the estate, as 
 " we enjoy that by man's law, and that man can 
 " alter, and so may alter again, which is a risk 
 " I am willing to run, if there should be enough 
 " left." (1) 
 
 Having been confirmed in these sentiments, 
 and having allowed time both for herself and 
 her daughter to become acquainted with their 
 future son-in-law and husband, the marriage took 
 place in the summer of the following year. We 
 have, in the volume of Letters already published, 
 an entertaining account of all the honours which 
 accompanied the journey of Lord and Lady Roos, 
 and the ceremonies of their arrival at Belvoir ; 
 ceremonies, perhaps, " more honoured in the 
 breach than in the observance," which then took 
 place at weddings, even in the highest life. (2) 
 
 Lady Russell had excused herself going to 
 Belvoir with all the rest of the wedding company, 
 but followed them thither, before, as she says, 
 she had acquitted herself of all her formal con- 
 gratulations ; " for if I do more than a very little 
 " at a time, I find my eyes ache, and that I am 
 " sure is naught ; and a very little sight is too 
 " precious a good to be neglected." 
 
 (1 ) Published Letters, p. 305. 
 
 (2) See a letter of Sir James Forbes to Lady Russell, 
 Published Letters, p. 312.
 
 From Belvoir she writes : " Heretofore, 
 6 < whatever engagements I had a-days, the nights 
 " were free to me ; but my ill eyes can now not 
 " serve me at all when once a candle is lighted, 
 " so that since Lord Rutland came hither I 
 " have been mistress of no time ; if I had, I 
 " should not have lived in a continual noise and 
 " hurry as I have done." (1) 
 
 Still, however, with her usual pious gratitude 
 to Heaven, she rejoices in the goodness of God, 
 who, when she feared the utter loss of sight, 
 had let her " thus long see the light, and given'* 
 her " time to prepare for the bodily darkness 
 that must overtake" her. 
 
 Happily the operation of couching for a ca- 
 taract was already known and practised in Eng- 
 lanq!. It was successfully performed on Lady 
 Russell's eye in the following June. Her hand- 
 writing after this period testifies how much her 
 sight and power of employing it were improved. 
 It was a considerable time, however, before she 
 ventured to write much with her own hand. In 
 a letter, of the 13th August, 1695, in the first 
 part of which she had made use of an amanu- 
 ensis, she says, " I venture to write thus much 
 " with my first eye ; my new one does not yet 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 316.
 
 113 
 
 " alter much, though I think I do feel better 
 " than at first ; but there is something still 
 " before it." (1) 
 
 The same year in which Lady Russell obtained 
 this relief from the dreadful infirmity with 
 which she was menaced, the Houses of Russell 
 and Cavendish received an accession of honours 
 which few families have acquired by more essen- 
 tial services to their country. The Earls of 
 Bedford and Devonshire were, in April, ad- 
 vanced to the dignity of Dukes. 
 
 The reasons assigned, in the preambles of 
 their patents, for conferring these titles, honour 
 at once the sovereign and the subjects. (2) 
 
 In that of the Duke of Bedford, particular 
 mention is made of his son, Lord Russell. The 
 King, in bestowing the highest dignity in his 
 gift, declares, " We think it not sufficient that 
 " his (Lord Russell's) conduct and virtues 
 " should be transmitted to all future generations 
 " upon the credit of public annals, but will 
 " have them inserted in these our royal letters 
 " patent, as a monument consecrated to the 
 " most accomplished and consummate virtue in 
 
 (1) Bedford MSS. 
 
 (2) The preamble to the Duke of Devonshire's patent 
 was penned by Lord Somers. 
 
 I
 
 114 
 
 " the said family, &c. &c. Now, then, to com- 
 " fort one of the best of fathers for so unspeak- 
 " able a loss, to solemnise the memory of that 
 " most excellent son, and to excite the emula- 
 " tion of a worthy grandchild, born to so great 
 " hopes, that he may with more vigour tread in 
 " the steps of his truly great father, we do give 
 " our command for these marks of honour,"&c. 
 &c. &c. 
 
 Although Lady Russell had professed, on a 
 previous occasion of distinction to the Russell 
 family, " I would have assisted to my power for 
 " the procuring thereof, but for any sensible 
 " joy at these outward things I feel none :" still 
 this honourable memorial of all she had lost in 
 a husband, and all she hoped for in a son, 
 could not be viewed by her with indifference. 
 
 The lenient influence of eleven years had now 
 soothed the acuteness of her sorrows. She had 
 seen the government which had oppressed her, 
 proscribed : the power which she had found 
 implacable, fallen in the dust : the religion 
 whose political predominance she dreaded, in cir- 
 cumstances to require that toleration which it 
 was believed unwilling to allow : the man 
 whose vindictive spirit had inflicted the great mis- 
 fortune of her life, himself an exile, after having 
 ineffectually implored assistance from the father
 
 115 
 
 of him whom he had persecuted. (1) She had 
 seen the triumph of those principles for which her 
 beloved Lord had suffered, the immense effects 
 produced by a steady adherence to them, and 
 his name now for ever coupled with the honour 
 and the freedom of his country. 
 
 The sober age of Lady Russell forbad her 
 feeling these circumstances as she would have 
 done in earlier life, when the partner of all her 
 joys and sorrows might have shared them with 
 her. 
 
 We must suppose her, too, often recurring, 
 even now, with anguish to the idea of his life hav- 
 ing been sacrificed so near the overthrow of that 
 power which he had so honourably combatted, 
 and often indulging in (what she herself called) 
 " unprofitable thoughts," as to the distinguished 
 part that he might have acted in the great Re- 
 volution which so soon followed his death, and 
 in which he might have been a leader, instead of 
 a martyr, to the liberty^he loved. 
 
 In private life, too, she had had repeated oc- 
 casions to experience the interest her conduct 
 
 (1) The application said to have been majde by James to 
 the Earl of Bedford, after the landing of the Prince of 
 Orange, for his assistance and interest in the country, and 
 the affecting reply of the old Earl, recalling the loss of his 
 son, are well known.
 
 116 
 
 and character had inspired to all that, approached 
 her. Neither the humility of her truly Christian 
 mind, nor the unfading sense she still enter- 
 tained of her irreparable loss, could prevent her 
 receiving rational consolation from the con- 
 sciousness of having deserved, as well as ob- 
 tained, such sentiments. Her heart was neither 
 enfeebled by age, nor deadened by suffering. 
 At a much more advanced period of life, we 
 see in a letter to her cousin, Lord Galway, how 
 alive she even then was, at the age of 76, to the 
 opinions, the feelings, the affection of her 
 friends, to honest praise, and to the luxury of 
 loving and being beloved. (1) 
 
 She had now the satisfaction of having mar- 
 ried both her daughters into the most dis- 
 tinguished families of their country ; and she 
 found her alliance so eagerly sought, that be- 
 fore her son was Id years old, she received (ac- 
 cording to the custom of those days) a proposal 
 from Sir Josiah Child, for marrying him to Sir 
 Josiah's grand-daughter, the Lady Henrietta 
 Somerset, daughter of Charles Marquis of 
 Worcester. (2) The proposal was made in a 
 
 (1) See Published Letters, p. 338. 
 
 (2) The Marquis of Worcester had married Rebecca 
 Child, daughter and heiress of Sir Josiah, of whom Bur- 
 net gives the following character : " This summer Sir
 
 117 
 
 letter to Mr. Howe, (the dissenting clergyman 
 already mentioned,) to be communicated to Lady 
 Russell. By a second letter to the same person, 
 we see that Lady Russell had by no means re- 
 received the proposal as Sir Josiah thought it 
 merited. He tells Mr. Howe, "I received 
 " your favour of the 22d inst., and your letter 
 " of the 28th : the answer intimated in vour 
 
 r 
 
 " first was so cold, that I concluded the noble 
 
 * Lady either understood not the considerable- 
 " ness of the proposal, or had predetermined the 
 " disposal of her son some other way, and did 
 " expect to hear no more of it; the rather I 
 " thought so, from that expression in your let- 
 " ter, that the young Lord was in the course of 
 " his education, which I never knew to be a 
 " bar to parents discoursing of the matching of 
 " their children, which are born to extraor- 
 " dinary great fortunes ; and that being the 
 " case of the noble young Lord, as well as of 
 
 " Josiah Child died : he was a man of great notions as to 
 " merchandise, which was his education, and in which he 
 ' succeeded beyond any man of his time ; he applied himself 
 ' chiefly to the East-India trade, which by his management 
 ' was raised so high, that it drew much envy and jealousy 
 ' both upon himself and upon the country ; he had a com- 
 
 * pass of knowledge and apprehension beyond any mer- 
 
 * chant I ever knew : he was vain and covetous, and thought 
 " too cunning, though to me he seemed always sincere. 1 ' 
 Burnet's Hist. vol. iv. p. 328. 
 
 I S
 
 118 
 
 " my grand-daughter, made me the forwarder 
 <c without her mother's privacy to write that 
 " letter to you, that so great a fortune as God's 
 " providence has cast upon her, might fall into 
 " the best and most pious noble family I know, 
 " for such I esteem my Lord Bedford's to 
 " be." (1) 
 
 Either this great fortune did not tempt Lady 
 Russell, or she thought her son as yet too young 
 to enter into such distant engagements for him ; 
 or she had already in view the marriage which 
 two years afterwards he contracted with Miss 
 Howland, the only daughter and heiress of John 
 Rowland, Esq., of Streatham in Surrey, by an- 
 other daughter of Sir Josiah Child's. (2) 
 
 As soon as she had fixed on the future com- 
 panion of her son, she entered with all the good 
 sense and attention that belonged to her charac- 
 ter into the details of the young lady's education, 
 and maintained an intimate and frequent cor- 
 respondence with her mother, Mrs. Howland. 
 In the following letter, written about a twelve- 
 month after the marriage, Lady Russell appears 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS. 
 
 (2) The ceremony of marriage took place in May, 1695; 
 and in compliment to the large succession to which Miss 
 Howland was entitled, Lord Tavistock was immediately 
 afterwards created Baron Howland of Streatham.
 
 119 
 
 as rationally anxious for the health, improve- 
 ment, and accomplishments of her daughter-in- 
 law, as she could have been for that of her own 
 children. She tells Mrs. Howland, " I am too 
 " much concerned at Lady Tavistock's com- 
 " plaints, (though ever so small,) to pass in 
 " silence the first opportunity after your report, 
 " to know how she is ; though what I said yes- 
 " terday was confused from haste, the waggon 
 " having gone by, yet I believe I cannot alter 
 " the substance of it." * * * * 
 "It is possible the air and some change 
 " in the method of living may contribute 
 " to this little disorder, but if it has, it 
 " is not to be repented ; for it is what must 
 " happen at one time or other, and the younger 
 " the better it is to be accustomed to a variety 
 " of living, that in all likelihood must happen, 
 " and I hope agree with her. However, I 
 " guess you are eager to try Streatham air, and 
 " regular way there, which makes you set your 
 " time to remove so soon. If my house has 
 " been to your satisfaction (1), I am sure it is 
 " to mine that you have used it to yours and 
 " your daughter's, who, Lady Margaret tells 
 
 ( 1 ) Lady Russell writes from Stratton : Mrs. Howland 
 and her daughter had occupied Southampton House during 
 their residence in London.
 
 120 
 
 " me, has most apparently profited by Mr. Huck, 
 " which I really rejoice much at; though I 
 " confess fashion, and those other accomplish- 
 " ments that are perhaps over-rated by the 
 " world, and that I esteem but as dross, and as 
 " a shadow in comparison of religion and virtue, 
 " yet the perfections of nature are ornaments to 
 " the body, as grace is to the mind, and I wish, 
 " and do more than that, for I pray constantly 
 " she may be a perfect creature both in mind 
 " and body; that is, in the manner we can 
 " reach perfection in this world." (1) 
 
 The marriage had not taken place many 
 months, and the young Lord Tavistock was still 
 under the tuition of a private tutor, preparing 
 to be sent to Oxford, when Lady Russell received 
 a proposal of another nature for him, which it 
 must have required her sound judgment, and the 
 just estimation which she seems on all occasions 
 to have made of worldly distinctions, to have 
 rejected. 
 
 At the general election which took place in 
 October, 1695, it was proposed to her in the 
 most flattering manner, by order of the Duke of 
 Shrewsbury, then Lord Steward, and the Lord 
 Keeper Somers, to bring her son into Parliament, 
 as member for the county of Middlesex. This 
 
 (1) Bedford MSS.
 
 121 
 
 arrangement was first communicated to her in 
 the following letter from Sir James Forbes. (1) 
 
 " London, October 3d. 
 
 " 1 can safely retract, Madam, what I said in 
 " my last letter, that our courtiers did not 
 " trouble themselves with much business, but 
 " now I find we are all of a sudden grown 
 " extraordinary busy in making interest every 
 " where to bring in good men to our new Par- 
 " liament, and this reason alone has moved our 
 " Lords Justices (2) (I mean the two principal, 
 " my Lord Keeper (3), and the Duke of Shrews- 
 *' bury) to send for me, and to order me to 
 " write immediately to your Ladyship, that you 
 " would be pleased to let my Lord Tavistock 
 " stand for knight of the shire for Middlesex ; 
 " and although I made all the objections against 
 
 (1) In the volume of Published Letters, Sir James Forbes 
 is called, in a note to his letter addressed to Lady Russell, 
 " The gentleman by whom Lord Cavendish sent his offers of 
 " assistance to Lord Russell after his condemnation." He 
 was one of the persons afterwards examined in 1689, before 
 the committee of the House of Commons, for " the Inspec- 
 " tion/' &c. &c. of the trials of those who had suffered for 
 the Rye-House plot. His examination proves, how much 
 he was at that time in the intimacy of the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, and those with whom he associated. See Howell's 
 State Trials, vol.ix. p. 961. 
 
 (2) King William was now in Holland. 
 
 (3) Lord Somers.
 
 " it, that I think the Duke of Bedford or your 
 
 " Ladyship can make, yet they were still of one 
 
 " opinion, that it is your interest, and for the 
 
 " honour of the family, that he should stand at 
 
 " present ; and, being joined with Sir John 
 
 " Worsename (1), a very honest man, who is 
 
 " recommended by my Lord Keeper, they 
 
 " doubt not but they will carry it with a high 
 
 " hand, and thereby keep out two notorious 
 
 " Tories, which can never be done otherwise. 
 
 " When I told their Lordships that my Lord 
 
 " Tavistock was soon going to Cambridge, and 
 
 " afterwards to travel for two or three years, 
 
 " the Duke of Shrewsbury answered, that they 
 
 " would not hinder any thing of that design ; 
 
 " for he needed not to appear but once at the 
 
 " election, when he would be attended by 
 
 " several thousands of gentlemen, and other 
 
 " persons on horseback out of town, and the 
 
 " charges would be but little or nothing ; and 
 
 " the Duke of Shrewsbury bid me tell your 
 
 " Ladyship, that if you did consent he should 
 
 " stand, which he doubted not but you would, 
 
 " since it was on so good an account, that then 
 
 " they must have leave to set him up for that 
 
 " day only, by the name of Lord Russell, which 
 
 ( 1 ) Sir John Wolstonholme, who was returned with Lord 
 Edward Russell,
 
 123 
 
 " would bring ten thousand more on his side, 
 " if there be so many freeholders in the county. 
 " 1 have now, Madam, delivered my message 
 " from those two great Lords; which they 
 " had a great concern for, and seemed very 
 " earnest to have it complied with : therefore I 
 " think it would be very impertinent in me to 
 " use any arguments of my own, but must leave 
 " it to the consideration of the Duke of Bedford 
 " and your Ladyship's wise judgment to deter- 
 " mine : however, I beg your Ladyship will be 
 " pleased to make as speedy an answer as it is 
 " possible, because we expect the King here by 
 " Sunday, or Monday next ; and immediately 
 " the Parliament will be dissolved, and all hands 
 " will be set on work for a new one, as I hear 
 " the expression in the King's letters to the 
 " Lords is. 
 
 " I suppose this post brings a great deal of 
 " joy to Lady Margaret ; for the Spanish letters 
 " that are come to-day, make mention that the 
 " Admiral (1) is upon his way home, and Mr. 
 " Priestman tells me that he will be here within 
 " these ten days ; and Sir George Rook has 
 " orders from the King by this last post from 
 " Flanders, to set sail for the Straits imme- 
 
 ( 1 ) Admiral Russell, afterwards created Earl of Orford, 
 to whom Lady Margaret, his cousin, was married.
 
 124 
 
 " diately. I shall add no more but the assur- 
 ' ance of my being, 
 
 " Madam, 
 " Your Ladyship's most faithful 
 
 " and obedient Servant, 
 
 " J. FORBES." (1) 
 
 In this letter every circumstance is brought 
 forward, that could tempt Lady Russell to con- 
 cur in the opinion of peisons she so much 
 respected, expressed in so flattering a manner. 
 The permission requested to dispense for a day 
 with the newly-acquired title of Marquis of 
 Tavistock, and in proposing her son to represent 
 his county, to call him by the honoured name 
 of Lord Russell, was probably intended as much 
 to secure his mother's consent, as the young 
 man's election. But Lady Russell's sound sense 
 and steady judgment immediately saw in the 
 premature entry, of her son, yet a boy, into 
 public life, the probable ruin both of his future 
 character and happiness. With a diffidence of 
 her own opinion, which is not one of the least 
 admirable features of her character, before she 
 decidedly replied to Sir James Forbes's pro- 
 posal, she addressed the following letter from 
 Woburn, where she then was, to Lord Edward 
 Russell, her brother-in-law, in London : 
 
 (l)Dev. MSS.
 
 " Friday's post brought me the enclosed 
 " paper. Pray, my Lord, will you take the 
 " pains to read it ; and then, if you do not 
 " know it will be impertinent, I entreat you to 
 " wait on the duke of Shrewsbury, to whose 
 " judgment I have so great a deference, that if 
 " I could imagine he was as much in earnest, 
 " and is so still on the subject-matter of Sir 
 " James's letter, as my good friend takes him to 
 " be, it would make me doubtful of the weight 
 " of my own reason against it, and I believe 
 " would have the same effect upon your father, 
 " who at present knows nothing of Sir James's 
 " letter, nor what I am now doing ; and if you 
 " remember how averse he expressed himself, 
 " but a few days ago, upon the reading of a 
 " letter I had received with the same advice, 
 " you will guess that nothing less than the 
 " authority of his Grace's constant opinion can 
 " change Lord Bedford's, which is grounded on 
 " the apprehensions that such an interruption as 
 " being elected a parliament-man would make 
 " in his education, might undo him for the time 
 " to come, to all intents and purposes ; and 
 " really I am so much of that mind as to fear 
 " the mischief would be past retrieving : how- 
 " ever, as I am very jealous to do every thing 
 " I think best for my son, so I am too in my 
 " submission to persons so much wiser than
 
 126 
 
 " myself who wish well to us. I beg of you 
 " not to forget to give me a line or two by the 
 " next post ; for, till then, good Sir James is 
 " kept in suspense by , 
 
 " Your affectionate and humble servant." 
 
 Before the receipt of this letter, Lord Edward 
 had already written to Lady Russell, confirming 
 Sir James Forbes's statement. He tells her, 
 " I am informed by persons of the best credit, 
 " Madam, that if my Lord Tavistock will but 
 " appear on Wednesday at the Sessions, all the 
 " gentlemen are so inclined to choose him for 
 " the county, that there will be no sort of dan- 
 " ger or difficulty in it ; and it is believed that 
 " nobody will pretend to stand against him." 
 
 The Duke of Bedford had also received a 
 letter from Mr. Charles Montagu (1), strongly 
 recommending the same measure, as being 
 highly honourable to the Russell family, and 
 useful to the Whig interest. To all this impor- 
 tunity Lady Russell replies in the following 
 steady but considerate manner, throwing her 
 final refusal on the letter she was to receive 
 from Lord Edward, after he had spoken to the 
 Duke of Shrewsbury. 
 
 (1) Created in 1700, Earl of Halifax. He was now a 
 Lord of the Treasury.
 
 127 
 
 " The errand of this paper is no more than 
 ' to tell my brother Ned I have received his 
 " letter, and that Lord Bedford had also one 
 " from Mr. Montagu to make the same motion 
 " that the Knight did ; but all answers are 
 " deferred till we receive another from you : in 
 " the mean time I must express myself thus 
 " far, that upon the whole matter, it is clear to 
 " me that my Lord Shrewsbury had no original 
 " thought in this business ; nor, I verily be- 
 " lieve, any further approbation than through 
 " compliment to his friends ; I believe it, be- 
 " cause I do not see that there is reason for 
 " more : therefore, it is my opinion now, and I 
 " fancy will be so after your next letter, that 
 " my Lord Duke [and my self (I)'] should be 
 " positive, not to venture being baffled in a 
 " business that, if he carries, may be destruction 
 " to his grandson ; and sure, if there were no 
 " other objection, it is very late for two persons 
 " of uncertain interests to set up against two 
 " that know theirs, and no doubt have been 
 " effectually labouring in it." (2) 
 
 It is to be remarked that in those early days 
 of our renovated constitution, the objection of 
 Lord Tavistock's age was considered merely in 
 
 ( 1 ) A line is drawn through these two words in the MS 
 
 (2) Dev. MSS.
 
 relation to himself, and as no obstacle to the 
 success of his election. Mr. Montagu, in his 
 letter to the Duke of Bedford, to obviate any 
 scruple in the Duke's mind, mentions that Lord 
 Godolphin's son was to be chosen in Cornwall, 
 and Lord Leicester's in Kent, who were neither 
 of them older than Lord Tavistock ; and Mr. 
 Owen, in a letter to Lady Russell, tells her the 
 Duke of Albermarle's son had been allowed to 
 sit in Parliament under age. 
 
 In these more scrupulous times, when we are 
 no less attached to the letter than to the spirit 
 of our constitution, no one would venture to 
 nominate a youth of fifteen (whatever his birth 
 or pretensions) for a seat in Parliament ; and in 
 a severely-contested election, no one would de- 
 sire a better objection to his opponent, than the 
 power of proving him under age. 
 
 Having thus got rid of a proposal, upon which 
 Lady Russell so wisely decided, Lord Tavistock 
 was sent in the January of the ensuing year, to 
 the university of Oxford, where Lady Russell 
 thought " our nobility should pass some of 
 " their time. It has been for many years ne- 
 " glected. I use that term, because I think it 
 " a proper one."(l) 
 
 During his residence in college there are 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 309. 
 2
 
 129 
 
 several letters still extant from the Bishop of 
 Oxford to Lady Russell, giving her such an ac- 
 count of Lord Tavi stock's good behaviour, parts, 
 and success, as prove more certainly the good 
 Bishop's disposition to flattery (1), than the 
 young Lord's to learning ; and so it would seem 
 thought his right-headed mother : for in a letter 
 
 c? o 
 
 addressed to her by Mr. Hicks, her son's private 
 tutor, during the vacation of September 1696, 
 we find how closely she had enquired, and how 
 anxious she was not to be deceived, as to the 
 real progress and disposition of her son ; warn- 
 ing his tutor of his want of steadiness and appli- 
 cation. Mr. Hicks tells her, "I charged my 
 " dear Lord this morning with great promises 
 " and small performances, and might have 
 " quoted your Ladyship's longer knowledge of 
 " him for undoubted authority ; but his Lord- 
 " ship stands to it that he will do great matters, 
 " and study very hard at Woborn ; and that 
 " otherwise he shall not know how to spend his 
 " time there. But, upon your Ladyship's sug- 
 " gestion, I shall be moderate in my expect- 
 " ations, and look for nothing but a full blush, 
 " and some soft words in excuse for non-per- 
 
 ( 1 ) As k was from " Hough's unsullied mitre" that these 
 accounts came, we must suppose he believed what he ad- 
 vanced, 
 
 K
 
 " fbrmance of promise. Hitherto, Madam, I 
 " have had no reason to complain of want of 
 " application ; but when I shall have, (which I 
 " trust God will prevent,) your Ladyship will 
 " find that I can open my mouth as wide, and 
 " as loud as any body ; but I cannot accuse 
 " falsely, or magnify molehills into moun- 
 " tains." (1) 
 
 During Lord Tavistock's stay at Oxford, his 
 mother had occasionally taken up her residence 
 there ; thus maintaining the footing of confiden- 
 tial friendship and entire intimacy, on which 
 she ever continued with her son. 
 
 After remaining nearly a year at the univer- 
 sity, Lord Tavistock was, at the age of seven- 
 teen, sent abroad to travel. His grandfather, 
 now advanced in years, felt much reluctance at 
 the idea of parting with him for so long a time 
 as Lady Russell was willing to submit to her- 
 self, convinced, as she was, that " to live well 
 " in the world, it is, for certain, necessary to 
 <c know the world well." (2) 
 
 The following letter from the Duke of Bedford 
 shows that she had not only her own anxieties, 
 but his wishes, to combat, in keeping her son 
 for two years on the Continent. Thus allowing 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS. 
 
 (2) Published Letters, p. 178.
 
 131 
 
 him the opportunity of seeing such a variety of 
 manners, of modes of society, and of govern- 
 ment, of national peculiarities, virtues, and 
 prejudices, as is especially necessary to form the 
 character of an accomplished English gentle- 
 man. A character which superadds to such a 
 previous education, as, in other countries, is 
 rarely given even to those intended for learned 
 professions ; manners which belong to the really 
 well-bred of all countries, and an enlightened 
 Jove for his own, founded on a knowledge, not 
 an ignorance, of the rest of the world. 
 
 The letter from the Duke of Bedford is as 
 follows : 
 
 " Woborn Abbey, Oct. 16th, 1697- 
 " Dear Daughter, , 
 
 " These are to let you know, that their 
 " bearer, Mr. Hicks, came on Wednesday hither, 
 " in expectation of meeting master (Lord Tavi- 
 " stock) here ; and how well pleased I was with 
 " his company and conversation : looking upon 
 " him to be as deserving a person as you could 
 " have made choice of, to go abroad with my 
 * dear grandchild. In confidence not only of 
 " his great kindness to him, but also of his 
 " utmost care and diligence for his best im- 
 " provement, I have laid strict injunctions upon 
 *' him, to follow his advice in all things that 
 
 K 2
 
 <* concern his soul and body. My Lord Rosse 
 " (EGOS') and lie came hither on Friday night, 
 * after long expectation ; and I am glad to see 
 " him look so very well of it. They intend to 
 " be with you on Monday night, God willing. 
 
 " I must confess it is a very great trial for 
 " me to part with one so dear to me as he is. 
 " But 1 hope God Almighty will hear your 
 " hearty prayers and mine, and those of his 
 " other friends, by watching over him abroad, 
 " and with his good hand of Providence, that 
 " you and all of his relations may have the 
 " comfort of seeing him again. If God give 
 " me life till his return, it will add much to the 
 " joy of it, though I dare not promise myself 
 " that mercy, considering my declining age and 
 " infirmities. 
 
 " I do reckon you will send him to the 
 " Hague this winter, for his improvement in 
 " his exercises ; and if things be quiet in France, 
 " that he may go thither for some time, to his 
 " farther improvement and satisfaction : after 
 " which, to return home to the comfort of you 
 " and his friends. As for his travelling into 
 " Italy, I am much against it, for several rea- 
 " sons. I hope you will not let him stay very 
 " long abroad. 
 
 " So, with my constant and fervent prayers 
 " to God Almighty for him and yourself, with
 
 133 
 
 " your other dear relations, I rest, (not without 
 ' some sadness at parting,) 
 
 " Your most affectionate Father and Friend, 
 " to my last moment, 
 
 " BEDFORD." 
 
 Lord Tavistock left England soon after the 
 date of this letter, accompanied by Mr. Hicks. 
 To him was associated a Mr. Fazio, whom, for 
 some reason not connected with any complaint 
 of his pupil's, Lady Russell recalled from Ham- 
 burgh, whither they had gone after leaving the 
 Hague. At the Hague, Lord Tavistock had 
 seen and was presented to King William, who 
 was then about to return to England, after sign- 
 ing the peace of Ryswick. 
 
 At Hamburgh, Lord Tavistock was joined by 
 Mr. Sherard, a gentleman who had before ac- 
 companied Lord Townsend on his travels. Mr. 
 Hicks was (as much as circumstances would per- 
 mit) to pursue with Lord Tavistock his classical 
 studies, and to watch over his religious senti- 
 ments and duties. The number of defaulters 
 from the purity of our Protestant faith produced 
 by the time-serving politics of the two last reigns, 
 had appeared to arm the Roman Catholic reli- 
 gion with seductions, which we have some dif- 
 ficulty in comprehending in these altered times. 
 
 Mr. Sherard's business was with his pupil's 
 K 3
 
 134 
 
 temporal affairs, and his conduct in the world, 
 where his mother was anxious he should appear 
 with every advantage that could arise to a young 
 travelJer, both from his own distinguished birth, 
 and her foreign connections. He was provided, 
 by the younger Ruvigny (Lord Gal way), with 
 letters to all the principal diplomatic and mili- 
 tary characters in the different courts of Europe, 
 and was every where received with particular 
 attentions. 
 
 His numerous letters to his mother, during an 
 absence of two years, give a very favourable 
 opinion of the young man's predilection for good 
 company ; of his desire to inform himself, and 
 to profit by foreign society ; and above all, of 
 his affection, deference, and unlimited confidence 
 in his mother. It was not to be expected that 
 so young a traveller should preserve the letters 
 addressed to himself, when moving about from 
 place to place ; which leaves us to regret the loss 
 of those of Lady Russell. If they were as appro- 
 priate to the circumstances, and as much to the 
 purpose as the letter addressed to him at a later 
 period, on a religious life, and preserved in the 
 following collection, the loss is considerable. 
 
 It would seem that she had some suspicion, 
 before Lord Tavistock left England, that he 
 had an inclination to play ; for, in a letter of 
 his, from the Hague, he tells her : "I beg
 
 135 
 
 " your Ladyship that you will not trouble your- 
 " self about my loving play : for I do assure 
 " your Ladyship (1)1 think losing much at play 
 " is so foolish a thing as makes one be laughed 
 " at so much, that I am certain I shall never 
 " be guilty of it." We shall see that his youth- 
 ful confidence on this subject was not justified 
 by his subsequent conduct, while abroad. 
 
 After visiting Berlin, and some of the smaller 
 German courts, in the spring, 1698, he and his 
 two companions arrived at Rome in the follow- 
 ing summer. To Rome he had carried letters 
 to Cardinal Ottoboni, (the nephew of the pre- 
 ceding Pope, Alexander VIII.) and to several 
 other persons of distinction, at the Papal court of 
 Innocent XII. (Pignatelli), who, from his enmity 
 to Lewis XIV. was supposed not to have been 
 averse to the conduct of those who had favoured 
 the English Revolution. The young man writes 
 from Rome to his cousin, Admiral Russell, 
 (then Earl of Orford,) that " Cardinal Ottoboni 
 " is a mighty lover of the English nation, and 
 
 (1) No inference is to be drawn from the frequently 
 repeated title of Ladyship or Lordship, of the intimacy 
 subsisting between the persons who so used them. By the 
 fashion of the time, they were not dispensed with, in the 
 intercourse of the dearest and most intimate relations of life. 
 The Editor has seen letters of a later date, between be- 
 trothed lovers, beginning, " My dear Angel;" which angel 
 is addressed by the title of Your Ladyship, half-a-dozen 
 times in the same letter. 
 
 K 4
 
 " particularly an admirer of the King ( William]. 
 " A great reason why I am received so at this 
 " place is, by having the honour of being re- 
 " lated to your Lordship, who is as well known 
 " here by the name of Admiral Russell as in 
 " England." (1) 
 
 Admitted into the best foreign society at 
 Rome, Lord Tavistock talks, with much enjoy- 
 ment, of the amusements of which he partakes 
 there, during the summer, 1698 : " The great 
 " pleasure now is, to be in one of the open ca- 
 " leches, going about the town in the moon- 
 " shiny nights. There are always some fine 
 " serenades, and all the best company in town, 
 " taking the air, till an hour or two after mid- 
 " night. I seldom fail of this diversion ; and, 
 " indeed, it is mighty pleasant, after the heat 
 " of the day, to be abroad so, most part of the 
 ** night, and to hear music, and to go talk to any 
 " body that one is acquainted with, with all the 
 <* freedom in the world." (5) 
 
 He continued so much pleased with this resi- 
 dence, and his way of life, that, after a short 
 visit to Naples, in the autumn, he returned, to 
 pass the whole winter and carnival at Rome. 
 
 He now gave, as well as received, entertain- 
 ments, from all the foreign Ministers, and prin- 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS. (2) Ibid.
 
 137 
 
 cipal Roman nobility. The expense entailed by 
 this mode of living, even in those days, was such 
 as might have startled a less liberal mother than 
 Lady Russell. In a letter from Mr. Sherard to 
 her, he hopes their expenses at Rome will not 
 exceed three thousand pounds a-year, a large 
 travelling allowance, even now, to a youth of 
 seventeen. Some costly articles of dress, in- 
 deed, would not enter into a modern account ; 
 such as, " two point cravattes," " a very rich 
 " laced suit," and " a long perriwig, sent 
 " from Leghorn, none being to be found here.'* 
 
 He goes on to say, " His Lordship will also 
 " have a barouche, and a pair of horses, to drive 
 " himself about the country ; and he must have 
 " a couple of running footmen with it, which 
 " must be clothed. The latter end of next 
 " month we shall go to Frescati, twelve miles 
 " from hence, where, and at the places adja- 
 " cent, will be all the best company of Rome. 
 " After a month's stay there, and at Albano, 
 " with Cardinal Ottoboni, his Lordship designs 
 " for Naples, where he will not stay above a 
 " week, and so return hither, where I hope he 
 " will spend the carnival." * * * 
 
 " I find he does not care being denied any 
 " thing that he has a fancy to ; but what he lays 
 " out, beside necessary expenses, will be of some 
 " use, or diversion at least, to him in England, 
 
 7
 
 138 
 
 " as music, prints, designs, books, essences, &c. 
 " which are usually bought here." (1) 
 
 It would have been well if his pupil had been 
 contented with these purchases ; but finding Mr. 
 Sherard averse to others more costly, and not 
 always willing to comply with his demands for 
 money, he was tempted to make some expensive 
 presents, the price and payment for which he 
 concealed from Mr. Sherard. He chose rather 
 to trust to the indulgence of his mother, than to 
 that of his governor, and drew a bill directly on 
 Lady Russell for 200/. sterling, beseeching her 
 not to disgrace him by protesting it, nor to ex- 
 pose him to Mr. Sherard. 
 
 He writes on this occasion, a letter of deep 
 contrition to Lady Russell, which proves all the 
 confidence as well as the profound respect and 
 attachment with which she had inspired her 
 children. He assures her he will never again 
 make a present, or take a farthing of money, but 
 from Mr. Sherard. " I desire, for God's sake, 
 " that you will pardon me. If your Ladyship 
 " did but know a little part of the grief I suf- 
 " fer, I am sure you would forgive me ; and if I 
 " did not think you would, I could not bear it." 
 
 After owning that they were living at a great 
 expense, he tells her, with the reasoning of a 
 very young man, " But then it is certain that 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS.
 
 139 
 
 " the honours I have received here are so very 
 " extraordinary, that the expense could not be 
 " less. It is undoubtedly much for the honour 
 " of my family : as for myself j I think I deserve 
 " nothing, since I am capable of afflicting your 
 " Ladyship." ****** 
 " If you did but know my thoughts, and half 
 * 4 the trouble that I am in, I am certain your 
 " Ladyship would grant what I desire, and hope 
 " well for the future. I will yet come home to 
 " be a comfort to your Ladyship, and make you 
 " easy, and so follow, in some things, I hope at 
 " least, the steps of my good father." 
 
 After having been relieved from this embar- 
 rassment, we find him again confessing, " with 
 " the greatest sorrow imaginable, that I have 
 " done ill. 1 had the unhappiness some time 
 " ago to play for something more than I used 
 " to do, and lose." (1) 
 
 But of the extent of his losses at play, and the 
 little reliance that could be placed upon his re- 
 solutions against it, Lady Russell was not aware 
 till his return to England, towards the end of 
 the year 1699 ; when she found the amount so 
 considerable as to oblige her to address herself 
 to his grandfather to assist her as a security in 
 raising money. The letter to the Duke of Bed- 
 ford, making this proposal, will be found in the 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS.
 
 140 
 
 following collection. The considerate manner 
 in which she there addresses the old man, and 
 in which she speaks of the errors of the young, 
 is a sufficient reason for the affectionate confi- 
 dence placed in her by both. 
 
 Within a year after Lord Tavistock's return 
 to England, he succeeded to the title and estates 
 of his grandfather. An application made by Lady 
 Russell herself, in a letter to King William (1), 
 to obtain the garter for her son, was successful. 
 He was appointed, as soon as he was of age, to 
 the lieutenancies of the three counties of Bed- 
 ford, Middlesex, and Cambridge, which had 
 been held by his grandfather. At the corona- 
 tion of Queen Anne, he acted as Lord High 
 Constable of England, and was named a Privy 
 Councillor. 
 
 Lady Russell now saw her son established in 
 all the honours of his race, with a wife, who 
 seems to have justified the choice she had made 
 for him, and by whom he was the happy father 
 of several children. It might have been hoped 
 that the sorrows of Lady Russell were now over ; 
 that the severe afflictions of her former life 
 might, according to the common allotments of 
 good and evil, have exempted her from the grief 
 of other premature losses before the end of her 
 career ; the rather as her children, being those 
 
 ( 1 ) The letter will be found in the following collection.
 
 Ml 
 
 of a second marriage, made the difference of 
 age between them and herself considerable ; but 
 she was doomed yet to suffer in those affections 
 to which she was peculiarly alive. Her son, 
 whose health as a child, whose education as a 
 youth, and whose success as a man, she had 
 watched over with such unwearied and rational 
 attention ; on whom she had concentrated all 
 that she felt for the last representative of her 
 own family, as well as for that of her still- 
 lamented lord ; in the midst of health, and the 
 vigour of life, was seized with the small-pox. 
 
 The small-pox was at this time, and during 
 the beginningof the eighteenth century, a plague, 
 which deserved that appellation almost as much 
 as the disease to which it has been appro- 
 priated. (1) Beauty and youth saddened at its 
 sound. Parents fled with their children from its 
 approach, and often were obliged to fly from 
 their children for fear of themselves falling a sa- 
 crifice, and abandoning those that might survive. 
 It separated the nearest and dearest relatives in 
 circumstances when they are peculiarly necessary 
 to each other. It was a danger for ever present, 
 for ever suggesting vexatious precautions, in the 
 
 ( 1 ) In some of the eastern counties, and particularly 
 Essex, they had, till very lately, pest-houses f at a small dis- 
 tance from the villages, for the reception of small-pox 
 patients.
 
 vain hope to avoid ; and when encountered, 
 creating a despair which helped on the disease. 
 ' The upper orders of society were as much exposed 
 to its ravages as the lower. Indeed the mistaken 
 manner in which it was treated by the physi- 
 cians, left those persons the best chance who 
 were least the objects of their care. (1) 
 
 This evil has now been so long removed from 
 us, as not to allow sufficient justice to be done, 
 or sufficient gratitude felt, for the two great dis- 
 coveries, the first of which subdued, and the 
 second has almost annihilated, this scourge of 
 human nature in social life. 
 
 Neither inoculation, nor the vaccine had been 
 heard of in the times of which we are speaking. 
 The Duke of Bedford caught the small-pox 
 naturally, and fell a sacrifice to it before the age 
 of thirty-one. 
 
 As soon as the disorder had declared itself 
 his wife (2) and children were obliged to fly 
 from him. At his death-bed we find only his 
 mother, receiving his last words, soothing his 
 last moments, and pointing his last thoughts to 
 
 (1) Of the members of the Royal Family who returned 
 to England at the Restoration, three died of the small-pox 
 within the first year ; and it is well known that Queen Mary 
 and Queen Anne's son, both died of the same disease. 
 
 (2) She died of the same disease, in 1724.
 
 143 
 
 that heaven, which she was again, to prove gives 
 means of support in present, and of consolation 
 in future, for all misfortunes, however severe or 
 repeated, to which we have not ourselves con- 
 tributed. 
 
 How deeply she felt the death of her son, a 
 letter to Lord Galway, mentioning the particu- 
 lars of his last moments, gives us an affecting 
 picture (1): "Alas! my dear Lord Galway, my 
 " thoughts are yet all disorder, confusion, and 
 " amazement ; and I think I am incapable of 
 " saying or doing any thing I should. I did 
 " not know the greatness of my love to his 
 " person till I could see it no more."' 
 
 From this loss she could hardly have recovered 
 the composure which her unfeigned piety, and 
 submission to the will of Heaven could alone 
 produce, when, in the November following, her 
 younger daughter, the Duchess of Rutland, 
 after having been the mother of nine children, 
 died in childbed. 
 
 Of her death Lady Russell has left us no par- 
 ticulars. We only know, that as her eldest 
 daughter, the Duchess of Devonshire, was at 
 the time laying-in, Lady Russell had the reso- 
 lution to conceal from her, her sister's death at 
 the moment when it happened ; and to prevent 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p. 330.
 
 144 
 
 her from hearing it suddenly, avoided the too 
 particular enquiries of the Duchess of Devon- 
 shire, by saying that she had that day " seen her 
 sister out of bed," when in fact she had seen her 
 in her coffin ! 
 
 Yet this daughter she tenderly loved, and she 
 had possessed her entire confidence and friend- 
 ship. A letter from her to her mother during 
 Lord Tavistock's absence in Italy, shows, that 
 while Lady Russell's children were much 
 attached to each other, they all equally placed 
 their confidence in her. Lady Roos had fan- 
 cied, by a letter from her brother at Rome, that 
 he w ? as likely to get into some difficulty or 
 quarrel, about a lady of the society in which he 
 was living there. She immediately commu- 
 nicates her fears to her mother ; although, as 
 she says, her brother " used to laugh at my 
 " foreseeing dangers where there were none, 
 " and I hope this is the case now, which your 
 " Ladyship will be the best able to judge of; so 
 " that though he charged me to tell nobody 
 " what he writ, and I am sure I should most 
 " heartily fear angering him, yet I cannot for- 
 " bear naming it to your Ladyship, and hope 
 " for that he would not blame me if he knew 
 it." (1) 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS.
 
 145 
 
 Whether Lady Russell thought it necessary 
 to take any notice of this warning we know not ; 
 but the fears of his anxious sister either pre- 
 vented the evil, or were superfluous, for nothing 
 ensued from the circumstances to which she 
 alluded. 
 
 Within a very few months after the death of 
 Lady Russell's daughter, the Duke of Rutland 
 determined on marrying again. The respect and 
 affection with which Lady Russell inspired every 
 one connected with her, made her son-in-law, 
 the Duke of Rutland, feel considerable un- 
 easiness in communicating to her this intention, 
 lest, as she says, she should " take offence at 
 " some circumstances, the censorious part of 
 " the town will be sure to do, and refine upon 
 " for the sake of talk." But finding that he had 
 " first taken care to be truly informed what 
 " powers he had to do for his children, and then 
 v by the strictest rules of justice and impartial 
 " kindness, settled every younger child's portion 
 " by adding to it * * and that 
 
 " he was under all the anxieties a man could 
 <c feel, how to break it to me ; though it was 
 " then but a thought of his own, yet so much 
 " he would not conceal from me. Mr. Charlton 
 " undertook to tell me, and I did as soon 
 " resolve to let it pass as easy between him and 
 " me as I could, by bidding Mr. Charlton let 
 
 L
 
 146 
 
 " him know I would begin to him. I did so, 
 " which put us both in some disorder, but I 
 " believe he took, as I meant it, kindly." (1) 
 
 To be thus indulgent to the wishes, the feel- 
 ings, the passions of others, while so strict in the 
 government of her own, is a part of Lady Rus- 
 sell's character, which may serve as a model to 
 thousands of her sex, not placed in circumstances 
 to copy her in other excellences. 
 
 She was now arrived at a very advanced age, 
 and had no longer any immediate duties to call 
 forth the energies, or to animate the feelings of 
 her mind. Yet we find her still maintaining a 
 commerce of active friendship with her old 
 friends, and an interest in the affairs of the 
 world, by her constant and affectionate inter- 
 course with her daughter, her grandchildren, 
 and her nieces. With their success, their sor- 
 rows, and their happiness, she was still occupied ; 
 she was still applied to in moments of difficulty 
 by all who might pretend to her interference, 
 and her services still gratefully acknowledged 
 by those who had recourse to them. 
 
 On a separation, for incompatibility of temper, 
 about to take place between her niece, Lady 
 Elizabeth Noel, and Mr. Norton, to whom she 
 was married, Lady Russell was addressed by the 
 
 (1) Published Letters, p.SSS.
 
 14? 
 
 husband to settle the terms on which they were 
 to part. This she does in a letter remarkable 
 for the considerate and feeling manner in which 
 she treats the subject, such as to call forth Mr. 
 Norton's warmest acknowledgments. He desires 
 to conclude his letter of thanks for her inter- 
 ference " with the pleasing repetition of the 
 " obligations I shall publicly own while I have 
 " breath." 
 
 Thus deservedly enjoying the respect and 
 honour due to the experience and the wisdom of 
 length of days, she kept her mind free from its 
 prejudices, peculiarities, and selfishness, by still 
 maintaining over her feelings the same rigorous 
 self-examination to which she had ever accus- 
 tomed herself. 
 
 In an unfinished paper, the writing of which 
 denotes the trembling hand of extreme old age, 
 and the contents of which seem notes intended 
 to have been thrown more directly into the form 
 of prayer ; she takes a sort of review of her life 
 in a supplication to Heaven, for pardon on the 
 transgressions she recapitulates. (1) They are 
 such, as prove her inquisition to have been ever 
 directed, not to the forms, but to the feelings of 
 
 ( 1 ) Dev. MSS. The manuscript is a fragment, a mere 
 rough draft, with so many erasures, and so many words 
 repeated, and omitted, as to have made the transcription 
 difficult, and the meaning sometimes obscure. 
 
 L 2
 
 148 
 
 Christian piety; not to outward appearances, 
 but to the inward heart and disposition. 
 " Christianity," she thought " not distinguished 
 " by outward fashions, or by the professing a 
 " body of notions differing from others in the 
 * world, but by the renewing of our minds by 
 " peaceableness, chanty, and heavenly love." (1) 
 The balance between the world's opinion and 
 her character, she knew had been long struck, 
 and was greatly in her favour ; but that between 
 her own conscience and Heaven, she here enters 
 into with a scrupulous exactness which may 
 assure us, she had not weightier matters to bring 
 forward in the account. 
 
 " Vanity cleaves to me, I fear, O Lord ! in 
 " all I say, in all I do. In all I suffer, proud, 
 " not enduring to slights or neglects, subject to 
 " envy the good parts of others, even as to 
 " worldly gifts. Failing in my duty to my 
 " superiors; apt to be soon angry with, and 
 " without cause too often ; and by it may have 
 ' grieved those that desired to please me, or 
 " provoked others to sin by my rash anger. 
 " Not ready to own any advantage I may have 
 " received by good advice or example. Not 
 " well satisfied if I have not all the respect I 
 " expected, even from my superiors. Such has 
 
 (1) Dev. MSS.
 
 149 
 
 " been the pride of my naught heart, I fear, 
 " and also neglect in my performances due to 
 " my superiors, children, friends, or servants 
 " I heartily lament my sin-. But, alas ! in my 
 " most dear husband's troubles, seeking help 
 " from man, but finding none. His life was 
 " taken away, and so sorely was ray spirit 
 " wounded, even without prospect of future 
 " comfort or consolation the more faulty in 
 " me, having three dear children to perform my 
 " duty to, with thankfulness for such a blessing 
 " left me, under so heavy a dispensation as I 
 " felt the loss of him to be. But, alas ! how 
 " feeble did I find myself both then, and also 
 " poorly prepared to bear the loss of my dear 
 " child and only son, in 1711. 
 
 " If I carry my sorrow to the grave, O Lord, 
 " in much mercy let it not be imputed as sin in 
 " me ! His death was a piercing sorrow to me, 
 " yet thou hast supported me, Lord ! even in a 
 " very old age, and freer from bodily pains and 
 " sickness than most feel I desire thankfully 
 " to recollect. 
 
 " Alas ! from my childhood t can recollect a 
 " backwardness to pray, and coldness when I 
 " did, and ready to take or seek cause to be 
 " absent at the public ones. Even after a sharp 
 " sickness and danger at Chelsea, spending my 
 
 " time childlishly, if not idly ; and if I had read 
 L 3
 
 150 
 
 a few lines in a pious book, contented I had 
 " done well. Yet, at the same time, ready to 
 " give ear to reports, and possibly malicious 
 " ones, and telling my mother-in-law, to please 
 " her. At seventeen years of age was married ; 
 " continued too often being absent at the public 
 " prayers, taking very slight causes to be so, 
 " liking too well the esteemed diversions of the 
 " town, as the Park, visiting, plays, &c. trifling 
 " away my precious time. At our return to 
 " London, I can recollect that I would choose 
 " upon a Sunday to go to church at Lord B.'s, 
 " where the sermon would be short, a great 
 ' dinner, and after, worldly talk ; when at my 
 " father's, the sermon longer, and discourse 
 " more edifying. And too much after the same 
 " way, I much fear, at my several returns to 
 " Wales and England. In the year 1665, was 
 " brought to bed of my first child ; with him too 
 " indulging I fear to get strength soon, and 
 * spend my time as before, much with my loved 
 " sisters ; I doubt not heedful, or not enough 
 " so, my servants went to church, if I did, or 
 " did not go myself. 
 
 " Some time after in London, and then with 
 " my father's wife at Tunbridge, and after with 
 " her at Bath, gave too much of my time to 
 " carelessly indulging in idleness. At Bath too 
 " well contented to follow the common way of
 
 151 
 
 " passing the time in diversion, and thinking 
 " but little what was serious : considering more 
 " health of body than that of my soul. Forgive 
 " my heaviness and sloth in spirituals, for Christ 
 " Jesus' sake. 
 
 " After this, I must still accuse myself that 
 " sometimes in Wales, and other times in Eng- 
 " land, my care in good has not suited to my 
 " duty, not with the active and devout heart and 
 " mind I should in the evening have praised 
 " thee, my God, for the mercies of the past day, 
 " and recollected my evil doings, or omissions 
 " of doing good in my power. Not in the 
 " morning carefully fixing my will and purpose 
 " to pass the day pleasing in thy sight, and 
 " giving good example to man, particularly such 
 " as under my care ; more especially after my 
 " second marriage, forgetting by whose blessing 
 " I was so happy, consuming too much time 
 " with him." * * * * * 
 The end wanting. 
 
 Lady Russell had attained the age of eighty- 
 six before she was summoned to pay the debt of 
 nature. Of her last illness we know little. Her 
 only remaining child, the Duchess of Devonshire, 
 received atChatsworth an account of hermother's 
 seizure, and immediately returned to her in Lon- 
 don. A letter from the Duchess of Devonshire's 
 
 L 4
 
 daughter, Lady Rachael Morgan (1), to her 
 brother, Lord James Cavendish, from Chats- 
 worth, tells us " The bad account we have re- 
 " ceived of grandmamma Russell, has put us 
 " into great disorder and hurry. Mamma has 
 " left us, and gone to London." * * * 
 * * * * "I believe she has stopt 
 " the letters on the road, for none have come 
 " here to-day, so that we are still in suspense. 
 " The last post brought us so bad an account 
 " that we have reason to fear the worst. I 
 " should be very glad that mamma should get 
 " to town time enough to see her, because it 
 " might be some satisfaction to both, and I hear 
 " grandmamma asked for her." (2) 
 
 This letter is dated the 26th September, and 
 Lady Russell expired on the 29th. (3) Her death, 
 
 ( 1 ) Lady Rachael Cavendish, married to Sir William Mor- 
 gan, of Tredegar, in Monmouthshire. 
 
 (2) Dev. MSS. 
 
 (3) In The Weekly Journal, or Sat M-day's Post, September 
 28th, 1723, a newspaper of the day, it is mentioned, that 
 " The Lady Russell, widow of the Lord William Russell 
 " that was beheaded, continues dangerously ill." In another 
 Weekly Journal, or British Gazetteer, October 5th, 1723, her 
 death is thus recorded : " The Right Honourable the Lady 
 " Russell, relict of Lord William Russell, died on Sunday 
 " morning last, at five o'clock, at Southampton House, aged 
 " eighty-six, and her corpse is to be carried to Chenies, in 
 " Buckinghamshire, to be interred with that of her Lord/'
 
 153 
 
 therefore, was not according to the Euthanasia 
 of the Poet, " instant, and without a groan j" 
 but it was certainly not preceded by long suf- 
 ferings : and if ever any mortal, in dying, might 
 hope to 
 
 " Wake to rapture in a life to come," 
 
 it was the pure spirit, warm heart, and tried 
 virtues of Lady Russell. 
 
 May the writer of the foregoing pages be 
 allowed to hope, while fast sinking to the 
 grave that must shortly close on an insignificant 
 existence may she be allowed to hope, that 
 
 The London Journal of the following week, Saturday, Octo- 
 ber 12. 1723, mentions, that " On Tuesday morning last the 
 " corpse of the Lady Russell was carried from her house in 
 " Bloomsbury-square, to its interment at Chenies, in Buck- 
 '* inghamshire." This is all the notice taken of Lady Rus- 
 sell's death, by the newspapers of the day. In these more 
 inquisitive times, every particular of the illness, death, in- 
 terment, and testamentary dispositions of so distinguished a 
 person, would have been detailed in a dozen daily papers, 
 and repeated and amplified in as many magazines and monthly 
 publications. In the present instance, it is to be regretted 
 that their scanty information is not supplied by any letters or 
 family remembrances.
 
 154 
 
 existence rescued from the imputation of per- 
 fect inutility, by having thus endeavoured to 
 develope, and hold up to the admiration of her 
 countrywomen, so bright an example of female 
 excellence as the character of Lady Russell ? a 
 character whose celebrity was purchased by the 
 sacrifice of no feminine virtue, and whose prin- 
 ciples, conduct, and sentiments, equally well 
 adapted to every condition of her sex, will in all 
 be found the surest guides to peace, honour, and 
 happiness.
 
 155 
 
 (1) In the fancied niches of the Temple of 
 Fame, which it is delightful to assign to past 
 merit, Lady Russell and Madame de Sevigne 
 may surely be placed at the head of female ex- 
 cellence in their respective countries ; and the 
 entirely separate character of their minds, their 
 modes of thinking, their opinions, and their ha- 
 bits of life, may perhaps be found, not unfairly, 
 to represent the appropriate and distinguishing 
 excellencies of the two nations to which they 
 belong. 
 
 Both nobly born, and nearly(2) contemporaries, 
 Lady Russell, at a time when the serious dis- 
 cussion of the subjects of religion and government 
 in England became so general as to interest 
 and occupy all orders of people, received her first 
 
 (1) It is hardly necessary to observe, thai neither com- 
 parison nor contrast is here intended between the accom- 
 plishments of the two persons in question, still less between 
 their epistolary talents, in which one of them is likely to re- 
 main for ever unrivalled. The mutual excellence of their 
 moral characters and conduct, in very dissimilar circum- 
 stances, alone suggested this attempt to recall these illus- 
 trious contemporaries in each other's company, to the parti- 
 cular attention of the present generation. 
 
 (2) Madame de Svign6 was born in 1626, and died at the 
 age of seventy, in 1696. Lady Russell was born in 1636, 
 and died at the age of eighty-six, in 1723.
 
 impressions of both from a father, whose virtues 
 and whose conduct must have deeply engraven 
 those impressions on her intelligent mind. 
 
 Madame de Sevigne, born while France, under 
 the strong arm of Richelieu, was settling into 
 the quiet of arbitrary power, and making rapid 
 advances in all the refinements, pleasures, and 
 expenses which its policy encourages, received an 
 education, rare for the time of day as to the cul- 
 tivation of her talents, but so strongly tinctured 
 with the peculiarities of the soil on matters of 
 religion and government, that her naturally good 
 abilities could never totally eradicate them, and 
 her diffidence in her own opinion often made her 
 strive to perpetuate. 
 
 Lady Russell, united in the meridian of life 
 to the husband of her choice, whose character, 
 whose virtues, and whose attachment to her, 
 excited and perfected every faculty both of her 
 heart and of her understanding, with whom she 
 thought as with a friend, and felt as with a lover, 
 was called forth from that domestic life, which, 
 during twelve happy years, had fostered her vir- 
 tues, strengthened her affections, and matured 
 her abilities, to the high destiny of aiding and 
 supporting the man she loved in a mortal danger, 
 of submitting to the glorious sacrifice of his life 
 to his honour and his principles, of bringing peace 
 and composure to his dying moments ; and, last 
 
 2
 
 157 
 
 and severest of trials, to the melancholy duty of 
 surviving him, to embalm his memory, to weep 
 his loss, and to protect his children. 
 
 Madame de Sevigne early married, and early 
 deprived of a husband, the choice of her family, 
 and of a character not likely to have called forth 
 the inexhaustible capacity of her heart for every 
 virtuous affection, sought and found, in her 
 youthful widowhood, consolation and happiness 
 in the rational enjoyment of the best society, in 
 the cultivation of her mind, the affection of her 
 friends, and above all, in her devoted attachment 
 to her daughter. Thus becoming the orna- 
 ment of the distinguished circle in which she 
 lived, no less admired for the incomparable 
 charm of her conversation, and of her corre- 
 spondence, than loved for the warm affections 
 of her heart, and respected for the blameless 
 integrity of her life. 
 
 In the contemplation of Lady Russell's cha- 
 racter, the lighter graces of society, however 
 much they might have become her virtues and 
 adorned her tenderly affectionate disposition, are 
 lost in the great and imposing scenes in which 
 we behold her ; in the respect with which we 
 find her considered and consulted in the most 
 important affairs ; in the confidential reverence 
 with which she is looked up to by her children 
 and her friends.
 
 158 
 
 The result of these circumstances, of the 
 severe virtues she had been called upon to ex- 
 ercise, and the severe trials to which those 
 virtues had been exposed, was a mind deeply 
 impressed with the truths of that religion which 
 had taught her to " rejoice with trembling" 
 during her felicity, and which she had found 
 " a tower of strength" to her in her adversity : 
 that religion, which held out the only consolation 
 she sought, in the assurance of rejoining the 
 Being she never ceased to weep, and regaining 
 the happiness she had too justly appreciated, 
 and too truly enjoyed, to seek otherwise to re- 
 place. Neglecting no duty from her sorrows, 
 assuming no merit from her sufferings, nor any 
 importance from the high consideration in which 
 she was held. 
 
 Madame de'Sevigne, brought up in the strictest 
 doctrines of the religion of her country, and 
 belonging to a family which had been dis- 
 tinguished for its austere piety, we find, in the 
 innocent openness of her heart, reluctantly ad- 
 mitting some doctrines which she had in vain 
 endeavoured to impose on her excellent under- 
 standing; and while in the exercise of every 
 Christian virtue, and the practice of every moral 
 precept, reproaching herself with not being able 
 to attain a state of mind, which, however de- 
 sirable, she cannot always persuade herself to
 
 159 
 
 persist in as necessary : satisfied with that im- 
 plicit belief and trust in the mercy of an Al- 
 mighty Being, worthy of her pure, tender, and 
 confiding character. 
 
 To Lady Russell, religion was the support of 
 her sorrows : to Madame de SeVigne, the con- 
 firmation of her enjoyments. Both equally 
 under its benign influence, uniting to superior 
 intellect, the greatest tenderness of heart, and. 
 the most unsullied purity of conduct. 
 
 In Madame de Sevigne, adorned by every charm 
 of wit, taste, social accomplishment, and all the 
 fascinating graces of her sex, which may be saii 
 peculiarly to distinguish her countrywomen. 
 
 In Lady Russell, accompanied by the cha- 
 racter of a heroine, united to the conduct of a 
 saint. 
 
 The existence of such characters allows the 
 weaker sex to assume a rank in the scale of in- 
 tellectual being, which may satisfy the most 
 ambitious mind, excite to the most virtuous ex- 
 ertions, and compensate for the most painful 
 sufferings.
 
 LETTERS 
 
 raw 
 
 RACHAEL LADY RUSSELL 
 
 TO 
 
 HER HUSBAND WILLIAM LORD RUSSELL, 
 FROM 1072 TO 
 
 LADY VAUGHAN (1) TO MR. WILLIAM RUSSELL, 
 ' FROM 1672 TO 1678. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, I6lh Affly, 1672.]. 
 
 I WILL not endeavour to tell you what I suffer 
 by being parted from you, but beg of you 
 that we may meet again (God permitting) as 
 soon as may be. Things are here just as they~ 
 
 (1) Lady Vaughan retained the name of her first husband 
 Lord Vaughan, till Mr. Russell, by the death of his elder 
 brother Francis Lord Russell in 1678, succeeded to his 
 title. 
 
 M
 
 162 
 
 were : no obstruction removed by my (2) sister 
 being able to resolve, but will, I guess, to-mor- 
 row ; for yesterday Sherwood wrote word the 
 Duke (3) at farthest would be at Dover as this 
 morning, then he was to ask for the boat, and 
 the report she then receives, which will be to- 
 morrow, being Friday, will certainly make her 
 determine ; but whatever that is, I desire you 
 will allow me to come to you on Tuesday, un- 
 less you intend, as the coachman says you do, 
 to be here on Monday. Your father says you 
 promised him to come again. I cannot acquaint 
 you with my sister's resolves till the Saturday's 
 post ; so cannot have your's, whatever we shall 
 do till the Wednesday after, which by your 
 pardon I must not stay for ; so that unless I see 
 you on Monday, I am of opinion you will me at 
 
 (2) Elizabeth Wriothesley half-sister to Lady Russell. 
 She had been first married to Jocelyn Percy, the last Earl of 
 Northumberland, and then to the Honourable Ralph Mon- 
 tagu, son of Lord Montagu of Boughton, and afterwards 
 himself Duke of Montagu. He was now embassador in 
 France, and it was to France that she was wanting to go. 
 See mention made of this Lady and of Mr. Montagu, in a 
 letter of Madame de la Fayette to Madame de Se'vigne'. 
 Lettres de Madame de Stvigne', vol. ii. p. 340. Grouvelle's 
 edit. 
 
 (3) The Duke of York, then going to take the command 
 of the fleet in the second Dutch war.
 
 163 
 
 Stratton (4) on Tuesday or Wednesday. On 
 Saturday you shall have more of my mind ; but 
 the coachman says he is appointed to be at Bag- 
 shot on Monday. I do all I can to put off 
 going to Dover. My Lady Shrewsbury (5) is 
 returned from Dover without more company 
 than she carried with her. Here was an alarm 
 on Tuesday night by guns being heard ; the 
 cause was, seven of our ships, intending to go 
 to join the Duke, found themselves just upon 
 
 (4) The house and estate in Hampshire which Lady 
 Russell had inherited from her father Lord Southampton, and 
 where she and Lord Russell resided in the summer. 
 
 (5) Anna Maria Brudenel, daughter of Robert Earl of 
 Cardigan. This is the person whose husband, Francis Earl 
 of Shrewsbury, was killed (1667) in a duel, by the Duke of 
 Buckingham, when she was said to have held the Duke's 
 horse in the disguise of a page. See Evelyn's account of 
 meeting this Lady at Newmarket the autumn before the date 
 of this letter, on his return from Lord Arlington's at Euston, 
 where the King was coming every day from Newmarket. 
 " The Duke of Buckingham was now in mighty favour, and 
 " had with him that impudent woman the Countess of 
 " Shrewesbury, with his band of fiddlers," &c. Evelyn's 
 Diary, vol. i. p. 422. 
 
 It is she whom Pope mentions in the two well-known lines 
 of his character of the Duke of Buckingham. 
 
 " Gallant and gay in Cliveden's proud alcove, 
 " The bower of wanton Shrewesbury and love.*' 
 
 The Duke of Buckingham was now a volunteer on board 
 the Duke of York's fleet, to which circumstance probably 
 Lady Russell's remark alludes. 
 
 M 2
 
 164 
 
 the Dutch fleet, upon which they retired ; and 
 the Dutch followed so close that the castle shot 
 upon the'Dutch. There is difference in opinions 
 about the fleets engaging ; they say still a few 
 days must now show it. Mrs. Laton and her 
 she friend, not your's, at least not your best, (I 
 praise God,) were yesterday in every corner 
 of your house, and without the house ; she 
 praised it, and seems to like it as well as you 
 have done her. My Lady Newport (6) goes 
 into Shropshire on Monday next come fortnight, 
 so that she says she must defer her Stratton 
 journey till another year. I am writing in my 
 sister Die's bed-chamber (7) ; my Lord (8) is just 
 looking in, and bids me send you his affectionate 
 remembrance, and hopes to see you on Satur- 
 day. I shall be thought very long writing, for 
 we are going abroad when I am done ; but not 
 for my diversion, I am sure you will believe, 
 when, to do so, I must leave what I am now 
 
 (6) Lady Diana Russell wife of Francis Lord Newport, 
 afterwards created Earl of Bradford. She was daughter of 
 Francis Earl of Bedford, and consequently aunt to Lord 
 Russell, 
 
 (7) Lady Diana Russell, sister to Lord Russell, first married 
 to Sir Greville Verney, and then to William Lord Arlington. 
 
 (8) William, fifth Earl of Bedford, father of Lord RusselK
 
 I6o 
 
 about, which yet I cannot till I have signed with 
 great truth, 
 
 Myself your's, 
 May 16th, Thursday. R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, May, 1672.] 
 
 I AM very sure, my dearest Mr. Russell meant 
 to oblige me extremely when he enjoined me to 
 scribble to him by the post, as knowing he could 
 not do a kinder thing than to let me see he 
 designed not to think me impertinent in it ; 
 though we parted but this morning, which I 
 might reasonably have doubted to have been, 
 when I have passed all this long day and learned 
 nothing new can entertain you and your good 
 company, all I see either are or appear duller to 
 me than when you are here ; and I do not find 
 the town is enlivened by the victory (1) we have 
 obtained ; there is no more talked of than you 
 heard last night, nor nothing printed, because 
 
 (1) This was the bloody engagement in Solbay, of the 
 28th May, in which the Duke of York gained a dear-bought 
 advantage over the Dutch Fleet, commanded by De Ruyter. 
 Lady Russell, we see, confirms what Burnet says of the 
 supposed treachery of the French Fleet, then acting as oufcr 
 ally, 
 
 M 3
 
 16(5 
 
 there is no letters come yet; Tom Howard, 
 Lord Howard's son (2), is expected every hour 
 with them. Many whisper the French behaved 
 themselves not like firm friends. The Duke of 
 York's marriage is broke off(3) ; that, or other 
 causes, makes him look less in good humour than 
 ordinary ; they say she is offered the King of 
 Spain ; and our Prince shall have D'EIbeuf (4) ; 
 Mrs. Ogle (5) is to marry Craven Howard, Tom 
 Howard's son (6) ; and Tom Wharton (7) has 
 has another mistress in chase, my Lady Roches- 
 
 (2) He succeeded to the title by his father's death this 
 year, and is the same person who, under the name of Lord 
 Howard of Escrick, was the principal evidence against Lord 
 Russell, in the Rye House plot. 
 
 (3) That with the Archduchess of Inspruck, afterwards 
 married to the Emperor. 
 
 (4) Charles de Lorraine Due d'Elbceuf married Catharine 
 Henriette, a daughter of Henri IV. and Gabrielle d'Estrees. 
 It must be a daughter of theirs here mentioned as the in- 
 tended wife of the Duke of York. 
 
 (5) Mrs. Ogle (or according to the language of the present 
 day, Miss Ogle) was the daughter of Thomas Ogle, Esq. of 
 Pinchbeck in Lincolnshire, and was Maid of Honour to 
 Queen Catherine of Portugal. 
 
 (6) Who was the fourth son of the first Earl of Berkshire, 
 see in Evelyn's Diary, vol. i. p. 452., an account of a lawsuit 
 Mr. Craven Howard had with his mother, which Evelyn be- 
 lieves to have been " by instigation doubtless of his wife, 
 one Mrs. Ogle (an ancient maid), whom he had clandestinely 
 married, and who brought him no fortune. ?> 
 
 (7) Son of Philip Lord Wharton, and afterwards created 
 Earl of Wharton..
 
 m 
 
 ter's grandchild (8) ; but he is so unfortunate 
 before the end that it is mistrusted he may miss 
 her, though the grandmother is his great friend. 
 Young Arundel, my Lord Arundel of Trerice 
 his son, is extremely in love, and went down 
 where she is, and watched her coining abroad 
 to take the air, rode up to her coach. Mr. 
 Warton was on horse by the coach side ; Arun- 
 del thrust him ^iway, and looking into the 
 coach, told her no man durst say he valued her 
 at the rate he did. Mr. Warton, like a good 
 Christian turned the other cheek ; for he took 
 no notice of it ; but the other having no oppor- 
 tunity to see or speak to her, was thus forced to 
 return ; but Warton is admitted to the house. 
 My cousin Spencer (9) is at Kimbolton still, so 
 we may send thither time enough. My Lady 
 Jane and Northumberland (10) are waiting for 
 
 (8) Elizabeth Wilmot, daughter of the profligate Lord 
 Rochester. Neither of the persons here mentioned succeeded 
 in their addresses ; she married Edward Montagu, Earl of 
 Sandwich. She is the same person who in her widowhood 
 lived much at Paris, and is often mentioned in the corre- 
 spondence of St. Evremond with Ninon de 1'Enclos, who was 
 frequently admitted to her society. 
 
 (9) The Honourable Robert Spencer, son of William 
 Lord Spencer, of Wormleighton, by Penelope, daughter of 
 Henry Earl of Southampton, (father of the Lord Treasurer,) 
 and consequently cousin to Lady Russell. 
 
 (10) Lady Northumberland, her sister. 
 
 M 4
 
 16'8 
 
 
 
 an egg when I have done this, so that I scarce 
 know what I say ; yet I am loth to leave, and 
 hope, how ill soever I express myself, you will 
 still understand me to be entirely, as I ought, 
 
 Your's, 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 My best service to your ladies. 1 hope they 
 find no other inconveniences in their journey 
 than what the unfitness of the place to receive 
 them is cause of. My Lord Ormond was at the 
 door to inquire for you, so that I guess they are 
 come from Hatfield. 
 
 Saturday night. 
 
 LETTER IIL 
 
 [From London to Stratton, September 23. 1672.] 
 
 IF I were more fortunate in my expression, I 
 could do myself more right when I would own 
 to my dearest Mr. Russell what real and perfect 
 happiness I enjoy, from that kindness he allows 
 me every day to receive new marks of, such as, 
 in spite of the knowledge I have of my own 
 wants, will not suffer me to mistrust I want his 
 love, though I do merit, to so desirable a bless- 
 ing ; but, my best life, you that know so well 
 how to love and to oblige, make my felicity entire,,
 
 169 
 
 by believing my heart possessed with all the 
 gratitude, honour, and passionate affection to 
 your person, any creature is capable of, or can 
 be obliged to ; and this granted, what have I to 
 ask but a continuance (if God see fit) of these 
 present enjoyments ? if not, a submission, with- 
 out murmur, to his most wise dispensations and 
 unerring providence ; having a thankful heart 
 for the years I have been so perfectly contented 
 in : He knows best when we have had enough 
 here ; what I most earnestly beg from his mercy 
 is, that we both live so as, which ever goes first, 
 the other may not sorrow as for one of whom 
 they have no hope. Then let us cheerfully ex- 
 pect to be together to a good old age ; if not, 
 let us not doubt but he will support us under 
 what trial he will inflict upon them. These are 
 necessary meditations sometimes, that we may 
 not be surprised above our strength by a sudden 
 accident, being unprepared. Excuse me, if I 
 dwell too long upon it ; it is from my opinion 
 that if we can be prepared for all conditions, we 
 can with the greater tranquillity enjoy the pre- 
 sent, which I hope will be long ; though when 
 we change, it will be for the better, I trust, 
 through the merits of Christ. Let us daily pray 
 it may be so, and then admit of no fears ; death 
 is the extremest evil against nature, it is true ;
 
 170 
 
 let us overcome the immoderate fear of it, either 
 to our friend or self, and then what light hearts 
 may we live with ? But I am immoderate in my 
 length of this discourse, and consider this to be 
 a letter. To take myself off, and alter the sub- 
 ject, I will tell you the news came on Sunday 
 night to the Duke of York, that he was a mar- 
 ried man ; he was talking in the drawing-room, 
 when the French ambassador (1) brought the 
 letters in, and told the news ; the Duke turned 
 about and said, " Then I am a married man." 
 It proved to be to the Princess of Modena ; for 
 it was rather expected to be Canaples' (2) niece ; 
 she is to have 100,000 francs paid here ; and 
 now we may say she has more wit than ever 
 woman had before ; as much beauty, and greater 
 youth than is necessary : he sent his daughter, 
 Lady Mary (3), word the same night, he had 
 provided a playfellow for her. Mr. Neale, who 
 interrupts me in this my most pleasant employ- 
 
 (1) M. de Croissy, brother to Colbert. 
 
 (2) M. de Canaples was a younger brother of the Due and 
 of the Marechal de Crequi. His niece was the Due de 
 Crequi's daughter, whom Madame de SeVigne" mentions as a 
 probable match for the Due de Lauzun, in a letter, vol. i. 
 p. 102. Grouvelle's edit. 
 
 (3) Afterwards Princess of Orange and Queen of England. 
 She was now eleven years old.
 
 171 
 
 ment, tells me, my Lord Mulgrave (4) has the 
 garter given him. The Duke of (5) Monmouth 
 goes this week, and more regiments, as they talk 
 now. The Emperor has made a declaration, or 
 remonstrance, how the French have made the 
 first breaches, so forced him to war; that he has 
 declared ; but I do not find that the Swede joins 
 yet with the French. The Lady Northumber- 
 lands has met at Northumberland-house. After 
 some propositions offered by my sister to the 
 other (6), which were discoursed first yesterday 
 
 (4>) John Sheffield, Earl of Mulgrave, afterwards created 
 by Queen Anne, Duke of Buckingham. 
 
 (5 ) To France. He was made the next year a lieutenant- 
 general in the French service. 
 
 (6) The elder Dowager Countess of Northumberland. She 
 was daughter of the Earl of Suffolk here mentioned. " The 
 " child" in question was her grand-daughter, the Lady Eliza- 
 beth Percy, only child and heir of Jocelyn Percy, the last 
 Earl of Northumberland, by the Lady Elizabeth Wriothesley 
 (Lady Russell's sister), now married to Mr. Montagu. The 
 Lady Elizabeth Percy was twice a widow before she was 
 sixteen. She was thrice married, first 1679, before she was 
 twelve years old to Henry Cavendish, Earl of Ogle, only son 
 of the last Cavendish, Duke of Newcastle, who dying the 
 year after (1680), she was married dejure but not de facto 
 in 1681, to Mr. Thynne, assassinated by Count Konings- 
 marck in Pall-Mali (1682), and the same year she married 
 Charles, the sixth Duke of Somerset. She is the person, of 
 whose influence afterwards with Queen Anne (to whom she 
 was first Lady of the Bed-chamber), the Tories were so
 
 172 
 
 before my Lord Chancellor, between the elder 
 Lady and Mr. Montagu, Lord Suffolk by ; ray 
 sister offers to deliver up the child, upon condi- 
 tion she will promise, she shall have her on a 
 visit for ten days or a month sometimes, and 
 that she will enter into bonds not to marry the 
 child without the mother's consent, nor till she 
 is of years of consent ; and, on her part, Mr. 
 Montagu and she will enter into the same bonds, 
 that when she is with them, or at no time, they 
 will marry or contract, any marriage for her, 
 without the grandmother's consent ; but she was 
 stout yesterday, and would not hear patiently ; 
 yet went to Northumberland- house, and gave 
 my sister a visit. I hope for an accommodation. 
 My sister urges, it is hard her child [that if she 
 has no other children must be her heir] should 
 be disposed of without her consent ; and in my 
 judgment it is hard ; yet I fancy I am not very 
 apt to be partial. If the weather be with you 
 as it is with us, there never was a more dismal 
 time for the country : it is happy you have some 
 
 much afraid during Lord Oxford's administration. The un- 
 warrantable and unprincipled manner in which she was abused 
 by Swift in " the Windsor Prophecy" sufficiently excused 
 her for having been the means of preventing the Queen ever 
 allowing of his promotion in England. See " the Windsor 
 Prophecy," Swift's Poetical Works.
 
 173 
 
 society besides hawks. I hope Friday will bring 
 the chiefest desire in the world by your 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 My Lady Bellasys (7) is going to France for 
 a consumption. 
 
 For Mr. William Russell, at Stratton House, 
 to be left with the Postmaster at Alsford, 
 Hampshire. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, 1675.] 
 
 THE few hours we have been parted seem too 
 many to me, to let this first post-night pass, 
 without giving my dear man a little talk, which 
 must be an account how 1 have spent my time ; 
 for intelligence I have none, and my heart and 
 thoughts are all known to Mr. Russell. There- 
 fore, to return to my present design, I am to tell 
 
 (7) Anne Brudenel, daughter of Lord Cardigan, and widow 
 of John Lord Bellayse of Worlaby. This is the Lady who, 
 Burnet says, the Duke of York wanted to marry. " She was 
 " a woman of much life and great vivacity, but of very small 
 " proportion of beauty." Burnet, vol. i. p. 353. folio edit. 
 
 She afterwards married Charles, second Duke of Rich- 
 mond.
 
 174- 
 
 you, though I intended to dine where I am now, 
 at Leicester-house (I), yet, your father coming 
 to see our Miss (2J, carried me to dinner to 
 Bedford-house to eat Devonshire fish, and after 
 wanting gamesters I must play one hour ; but 
 before I had done one quarter, Lord (8) Suffolk 
 came, and I desired to resign to him, having 
 won my Lord five pounds and myself thirty 
 shillings ; so I came to my sister, and found her 
 in great trouble, the child seeming indeed to be 
 very ill, and the doctor directing a vomit, and 
 whilst it was getting ready he went to see my 
 Lady Jones' (4) children, and whilst he was 
 there, her youngest boy died, played with him 
 when he came in, and only flushed in his face 
 and died instantly. My sister's girl is better to- 
 day ; our's fetched but one sleep last night, and 
 was very good this morning. My Lord Stam- 
 
 (1) Leicester-house was at this time inhabited by her 
 sister Lady Northumberland and Mr. Montagu, while Mon- 
 tagu House (now the British Museum) was building. 
 
 (2) Their eldest child Rachael, afterwards Duchess of 
 Devonshire, born the preceding year. 
 
 (3) Theophilus Howard Earl of Suffolk. He was the 
 father of the elder Countess Dowager of Northumberland, 
 by Elizabeth, daughter and co-heiress of George Earl of 
 Dunbar in Scotland. 
 
 (4?) Wife of Sir William Jones, made Attorney-General 
 in January of this year. See Burnet's character of him, 
 vol. ii. p. 150. 8vo. edit.
 
 175 
 
 ford (5) left his wife this morning at four 
 o'clock, and is gone to his uncle Gray. This 
 Mr. Darcy (6) told me this morning ; but you 
 will suppose I have not bettered my information 
 since, being at this day at Leicester-house ; the 
 Lord Huntingtour (7) is a better fortune than 
 he was by the death of the Lord Stanhope, 15001. 
 a year coming to him. Mr. Grimes (8), that 
 
 (5) Henry Grey Earl of Stamford, married one of the 
 daughters and coheiresses of William Earl of Exeter. 
 
 (6) The Honourable Conyers Darcy, eldest son of Lord 
 Darcy and Conyers. He had married the widow of the Lord 
 Treasurer Southampton, and was himself created Earl of 
 Holderness, in 1682. 
 
 (7) Lord Huntingtour was son (by her first marriage) of 
 the Duchess of Lauderdale, who was Countess of Dysart in 
 her own right. 
 
 (8) Colonel James Grehme of Leevens in Westmoreland. 
 Of their previous courtship we find the following account in 
 Mr. Evelyn's Journal. After mentioning accompanying Mrs. 
 Howard and her two daughters (of whom this lady was one) 
 to Northampton on law business, he says, 
 
 " In this journey went part of the way Mr. James Graham, 
 " (since Privy Purse to the Duke of York,) a young gentle- 
 " man exceedingly in love with Mrs. Dorothy Howard, one of 
 " the Maids of Honour in our company. I could not but pity 
 " them both, the mother not much favouring it. This lady 
 " was not only a great beauty, but a most virtuous excellent 
 " creature, and worthy to have been wife to the best of men. 
 " My advice was required, and I spoke to the advantage of 
 " the young gentleman, more out of pity, than that she de- 
 " served no better match, for though he was a gentleman of 
 " good family yet there was great inequality."
 
 176 
 
 was at Wickham, was married yesterday to DoJ. 
 Howard, the Maid of Honour. Madam Maza- 
 rin (9) is not arrived yet ; but I hear Madam 
 
 (9) HortensiaMancini, Duchesse de Mazarin, was the niece 
 and heiress of Cardinal Mazarin. She was married to Charles 
 Armand de la Porte de Meilleraye, eldest son of the Mare- 
 chal de Meilleraye, and on his marriage took the name, arms, 
 and title of Due de Mazarin. Her eternal disputes with her 
 husband, and the strange conduct of them both, filled the 
 tribunals of France with their legal quarrels and demands on 
 each other, and the ears of the idle of Europe, with endless 
 histories of their private life and adventures. See frequent 
 mention of them in Madame de Sevigne's Letters. 
 
 Madame de Mazarin did not arrive in England till the 
 29th December this year, 1675. She was by birth cousin 
 to the Duke of York's second wife, (a Princess of Modena,) 
 whose mother Martinozzi was another niece of Car- 
 dinal Mazarin. This relationship with the Court procured 
 her a distinguished reception here, and a pension of 4OOO/. 
 a year from Charles II., which was continued to her succes- 
 sively by James and by William, until her death at Chelsea, 
 in 1699. This pension, the sale of her jewels, and every other 
 means of procuring money were so inadequate to her ex- 
 pensive habits, and her passion for play, that after having 
 been the greatest heiress in Europe, she lived and died over- 
 whelmed with debts. See the works of her admirer and 
 friend, St. Evremond, who, after endeavouring in vain to 
 reclaim her both by reason and by flattery, often supplied 
 the wants of her extravagance from the savings of his eco- 
 nomy. " Madame de Mazarin m'a du jusques a huit cens 
 " livres sterling: elle me devoit jusques a quatre cens guinees 
 " quand elle est morte." " Quand je songe que la niece et 
 " l'he>itiere de M. le Cardinal Mazarin, a eu besoin de moi 
 *' en certains terns pour subsist? t , je fais des reflexions chre-
 
 177 
 
 Tremblet is. My uncle (10) told Sir Harry 
 
 Vernon (1 1) yesterday he was une des incurables, 
 
 If you are not mightily delighted, I hope you 
 
 will not stay the longest of your time from your 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 The docter (12) presents his services to you. 
 He has been to see the child. No city news, he 
 says ; but the monied men likely to be undone 
 again, all calling in their money, and they not 
 able to pay it so suddenly. , 
 
 Harry Saville (13) is in a kind of disgrace with 
 the Duke (of York}. When the King dined at 
 the Duke of Albemarle's, after dinner, the Duke, 
 talking to Saville, asked if he meant not to in- 
 vite the King to the business of the day. Saville 
 
 " tiennes, qui serveront & mon salfrt, si elles sont inutiles 
 " pour mon payment." (Euvres de St. Evremond, vol. iii. 
 p. 291. 
 
 See also her life written by herself at the end of the Abbe" 
 de St. Real's " Conspiration de Venice" 
 
 (10) M. de Ruvigny. He was now Embassador from 
 France, but was superseded in the May following by M. de 
 Courtin. 
 
 (11) Sir Harry Vernon was cousin to Lady Russell, her 
 grandfather, Henry Earl of Southampton, having married 
 Elizabeth Vernon, sister to Sir Robert Vernon of Hodnet, in 
 Shropshire. 
 
 (12) Dr. Lower, a physician of eminence in the reign of 
 Charles II. See Granger's Biog. Hist. vol. iv. p. 313. 
 
 (13) Brother to the Marquis of Halifax. 
 
 N
 
 178 
 
 wondered what he meant. The Duke told him 
 he need not ; for sure it was his constant endea- 
 vour to get the King to drink more than any 
 that wished him well would do. Saville denied 
 it. " Then go away," replies the other ; so he 
 did. And the next day, the King reproaching 
 him for not staying, he told the occasion ; so 
 there is great anger. I write in the nursery, 
 and Lady Harvey (14) is just rushed by, and no 
 sister at home ; so I may be engaged, but I 
 think not, for she is started back again, a perfect 
 vision ! I am going to see poor Lady Jones. 
 
 For Mas. William Russell, at Stratton, 
 in Hampshire, to be left 'with the post- 
 master at Akford. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, Feb. 10M, 1675.] 
 
 WHAT reputation writing this may give me, 
 the chamber being full of ladies, I know not ; 
 but I am sure, to be ill in that heart (to whose 
 person I send this) I dare not hazard ; and since 
 
 (14) Sister to Ralph, the first Duke of Montagu, married 
 to Sir Daniel Hervey, sent Embassador to the Porte in 1676. 
 She is the person to whom La Fontaine's fable of " Le Rf- 
 " nard Anglois" is addressed. See fable 23d, book 12.
 
 179 
 
 he expects a letter from me, by neglect 1 shall 
 make no omission, and without doubt the per- 
 formance of it is a pleasanter thing than I have 
 had sense of, from the time we parted ; and all 
 acts of obedience must be so to my dearest man 
 who, I trust in God, is well ; but ill entertained, 
 I fear, at Stratton, but what the good company 
 repairs. The weather is here very ill, and the 
 winds so high that I desire to hope you do not 
 lie in our old chamber, being afraid when I think 
 you do. Our little Fubs (1) is very well ; made 
 her usual court to her grandfather just now, 
 who is a little melancholy for his horses ; but 
 they are all sent to take the air at Kensington, 
 or somewhere out of town. My Lord's gelding 
 is dead, and more saddle horses, and one coach- 
 horse, I think. I have asked every one I see for 
 news, but all I can learn is, that Attorney Mon- 
 tague has done his best to be Chief Justice, but 
 will fail ; Winington most spoke (2) of; some say 
 Rainsford. (3) Montague (4) shall be a Judge, 
 
 (1) Their little daughter. 
 
 (2) Sir Francis Winnington was then Solicitor-General, 
 having succeeded Sir William Jones in 1673. 
 
 (3) Sir Richard Rainsford was made Chief Justice in April, 
 1676. 
 
 (4) William Montague, Esq. was made a Baron of the Ex- 
 chequer. All the law promotions here mentioned as proba- 
 ble, did not take place till the next year, 1676. 
 
 N0 
 .<>
 
 ISO 
 
 and so contented, if he please. My Lord Hali- 
 fax (5) continues ill still. My Lord Duras (6) 
 is not married yet: some speak of a stop in it. 
 There is no more news of the fleets. The King 
 and Duke both professed that if they could see 
 a report from De Ruyter they should give a 
 perfect credit to it, being sure he would write 
 nothing but truth. There is such a buzz, I can 
 so little tell what I say, that it is in vain to say 
 more. My Lady Die sends a token of the bill 
 of mortality, and Lady Shaftesbury (7), the 
 Mercury. All this charge comes from my put- 
 ting up the Gazette, the ladies would obligingly 
 add. I am, my best love, more than I can tell 
 you, and as much as I ought. 
 
 Your's, 
 Feb. 10th. R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 (5) George Saville, Earl and afterwards Marquis of Ha- 
 lifax. 
 
 (6) Louis de Duras, brother to the French Due de Duras. 
 He was naturalized and made Lord Duras by Charles II. 
 in the year 1673. He married Mary the eldest daughter 
 of George Londes Earl of Feversham, and succeeded to that 
 title according to the entail in right of his wife. See fre- 
 quent mention made of him by St. Evremond. 
 
 (7.) Margaret Spencer, third wife of the first Earl of Shaf- 
 tesbury, was daughter of William Lord Spencer of Worm- 
 leighton, by Penelope, daughter of Henry, Earl of South- 
 ampton, (father of the Lord Treasurer,) and was consequently 
 cousin to Lady Russell.
 
 : .- ; .. ; ' - 
 
 ' 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, Feb. Llth, 1675.] 
 
 EVERY new promise of Mr. Russell's unalter- 
 able kindness is a most unspeakable delight to 
 my thoughts ; therefore I need use no more 
 words to tell you how welcome your letter was 
 to me ; but how much welcomer Monday will 
 be, I hope you do imagine. Your father sent 
 me the inclosed, but says withal, that the news 
 at Court from France this morning was, Messina 
 was relieved. For weddings and deaths, and 
 that sort of news, I know not the least. Her 
 Grace of Cleveland (1) has set the day for 
 France to be within ten days. The Duchess of 
 
 (1 ) Barbara Villiers was the daughter and heiress of William 
 Villiers, Viscount Grandison, who fell in the royal cause at 
 the battle of Edgehill. She was born about the year 1642, 
 and was married the year before the Restoration to Roger 
 Palmer, then a student in the Temple, afterwards created 
 Earl of Castlemaine, by which title she was known till the 
 year 1670, when she was created by Charles II. Duchess of 
 Cleveland. She had three sons by the King, whom he 
 successively created Dukes of Cleveland, of Grafton, and of 
 Northumberland, and one daughter born in the first year of 
 her marriage, who bore the name of Palmer, with the farther 
 dubious designation of adopted daughter of the King. She 
 married, at fourteen, Thomas Lennard, Earl of Sussex. 
 N 3
 
 182 
 
 Portsmouth (2) is melancholy, as some persons 
 will have it, and with reason. You will easily 
 conclude your sister Alington is so when I tell 
 you her boy has the measles ; he had a cough 
 two or three days, but was so well, she was with 
 him in the Park last night, and this morning the 
 measles appeared ; but I hear nothing but he is 
 very well with them ; the doctor sees no ill 
 symptom at all. Our girl is as you left her : I 
 bless the mercy of God for it. I have silently 
 retired to my little dressing-room for this per- 
 formance, the next being full of company at 
 cards. The Lady Pultney (3) one, introduced 
 
 (2) Louisa de Querouaille, the daughter of a noble family in 
 Brittany was an attendant on Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans, 
 when she visited England, and was met by the King her bro- 
 ther, at Dover in 1672. The charms of this lady were sup- 
 posed to have been purposely thrown in the way of the King, 
 to attach him more effectually to the interests of France. 
 The plan succeeded, and she shortly after became the reign- 
 ing mistress, and was created Duchess of Portsmouth. In 
 Evelyn's Diary, are some curious details of a visit he made 
 to Lord Arlington at Euston in 1673, when Mademoiselle de 
 Querouaille was amongst the guests. In the same entertain- 
 ing Diary we find mention made of a visit Mr. Evelyn re- 
 ceived from a Mr. and Madame de Querouaille, relations of 
 the Duchess of Portsmouth's, who were in England in the 
 year 1675. They had been much known to his father-in-law. 
 Sir Richard Browne, during his residence in Brittany. See 
 Diary, vol. i. p. 449. 
 
 (3) Annabella, daughter of George, Earl of Berkeley, 
 married to Sir Willfam Pultney, Knight, of Mistcrton, in 
 Leicestershire.
 
 by Lady Southampton. (4<) I am engaged with 
 Northumberland (5) j but at nothing, nor to 
 nothing upon earth entirely, but to my dear 
 Mr. Russell ; his I am with most passionate 
 affection. 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 [From Tichfield to London, 22d August, 1675J 
 
 Sunday night* 
 
 I WRITE this to my dear Mr. Russell, because 
 I love to be busied in either speaking of him or 
 to him ; but the pretence I take is lest that I 
 wrote yesterday should miscarry ; so this may 
 again inform you at London, that your coach 
 shall be at Harfbrd Bridge (if God permit) upon 
 Thursday night, to wait your coming ; and 
 on Saturday I hope to be at Stratton, and my 
 
 (4) Frances, daughter of William Seymour, Duke of So- 
 merset, and widow of Viscount Molineux, when she married 
 the Lord Treasurer Southampton, (Lady Russell's father,}* 
 to whom she was third wife. She long survived him, and 
 afterwards married Conyers d'Arcy, the first Earl of Hoi- 
 dernesse. 
 
 (5) Lady Northumberland, her sister. 
 
 N 4*
 
 sister (1) also. This day she resolved it, so her 
 coach will bring us all, as I think to contrive it, 
 or at least with the help of the chariot and cart- 
 horses ; but I think to send you the coach, to save 
 sending six horses for it, for a pair will bring the 
 chariot. It is an inexpressible joy to consider, 
 I shall see the person in the world I most and 
 only long to be with, before another week is past ; 
 I should condemn my sense of this expected hap- 
 piness as weak and pitiful, if I could tell it you. 
 No, my best life, I can say little, but think all 
 you can, and you cannot think too much : my 
 heart makes it all good. I perfectly know my 
 infinite obligations to Mr. Russell ; and in it is 
 the delight of her life, who is as much your's as 
 
 you desire she should be. 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 Miss is very well. I drink the waters yet, 
 and intend it till I go, if the weather holds so 
 good. 
 
 For Mr. Russell at Southampton-house* 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 [From Stratton to London, 24& August, 1676.] 
 
 You bid me write to you on Thursday, but 
 civility obliged me to that to answer yours, so 
 
 (1) The Lady Elizabeth Noel, eldest daughter of the Lord 
 Treasurer Southampton, married to Edward, eldest son of 
 Lord Noel, afterwards Earl of Gainsborough.
 
 185 
 
 that this is to show my obedience to your orders, 
 and a little indulgence to my own self; since I 
 do love to talk any way with Mr. Russell, though 
 he does abuse poor me sometimes. You had like 
 to have vexed me bravely by (1) Jack Vaughan's 
 letter, I was putting that up in my pocket to 
 read two or three days after, at leisure ; 1 saw you 
 had opened it, but as it was going up, finding 
 one in it, it came in my mind, if he should have 
 put in one, it might be for a trick, how it would 
 vex me ! so broke your seal, and was very happy 
 by doing so. Oh, my best life, how long I think 
 it since we were together ! I can forgive you if 
 you do not do so, upon condition you do not stay 
 too long away. Your coach, by the grace of 
 God, shall be at Bagshot on Wednesday night ; 
 and on Thursday will, I hope, bring my wishes 
 to me. I know nothing there is to give you 
 notice of from hence. The joiners will end their 
 work to-day in the new room. There is no cop- 
 ing bricks till Monday: nor till you come to 
 her, no entire satisfaction in the heart of your 
 affectionate 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 For Mr. Russell, at Russell-house, in 
 Southampton Square, London. 
 
 (1) A relation of the Earl of Carberry's.
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 [From London to Woburn, April, 1677 ] 
 
 I CANNOT neglect so great a pleasure to myself 
 as writing to Mr. Russell is, yet have nothing to 
 tell him, but how I have passed my time since I 
 saw him yesterday: it was with your two(l) sisters 
 at a Dutch Woman's (2), Paternoster-row, and 
 the three Exchanges. (3) This day I dined 
 at the Tower (4<), but there is no news : the 
 
 (1) Lady Allington and Lady Margaret Russell. 
 
 (2) This was probably what was called an India-house, a 
 warehouse where tea, china, and other Indian goods were 
 then only to be purchased. It was the shopping of the fine 
 ladies of those days : it afterwards became so much the 
 fashion with the young and gay, that other motives than 
 " to cheapen tea, or buy a screen *," were imputed to the 
 visits to India-houses. King William's severity reprehended 
 Queen Mary for having been persuaded to go to one ; and 
 Gibber makes Lady Towneley " take a flying jaunt to an 
 India-house," as one of the most dashing gaieties of a fine 
 lady's London life. 
 
 (3) The three exchanges were Exeter, the New Exchange, 
 and the Royal Exchange. 
 
 (4-) Probably with Lord Shaftesbury, who had been sent to 
 the Tower in February, 1676, with the Duke of Buckingham, 
 
 * " To cheapen tea, or buy a screen, 
 
 What else could so much virtue mean ?" PRIOJU
 
 187 
 
 Lords have no answer of their petition. (5) Mr. 
 Shepherd has not been heard from ; (6) Charlton 
 came in : he says the King told Mr. Shepherd 
 he came post, but his answer would not be so 
 hasty j nothing will be done in it, it is thought. 
 Wharton is commanded to Woburn, and goes 
 to-morrow. Crequi (7) was overturned just 
 
 Lord Salisbury, and Lord Wharton, for having asserted that 
 Parliament was legally dissolved by a prorogation of more 
 than a yean The three last were shortly after liberated, but 
 Lord Shaftesbury remained in confinement above a twelve- 
 month. 
 
 (5) Mr. Shepherd * was an upper servant, out of livery, of 
 Lord Shaftesbury 's, or hisgentleman, as they were then called, 
 and, indeed, as they often were by birth, although serving in 
 a menial capacity in great families. See Rawleigh Redi- 
 vivus, or the Life and Death of Anthony late Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury, p. 55. 
 
 Butler, the author of Hudibras, was designated in the 
 same manner in the family of the Countess of Kent. " She 
 " gave her gentleman twenty pounds a-year. He [Butler J 
 " lived some years in her family." See Letters by eminent 
 Perlons from the Bodleian Library, vol. ii. p. 260. 
 
 (6) Perhaps son of Sir Job Charlton, who was speaker of 
 the House of Commons in 1673. 
 
 (7) Marshal Crequi. His defeat by the Austrians at Con- 
 saarbruck in 1675, and its supposed effect on the court of 
 Charles II., is thus mentioned by Lord Russell in one of the 
 few letters to his wife, still extant 
 
 * Perhaps a relation to Mr. Shepherd, the wine-merchant, at whose 
 house the fatal meeting took place; which, misrepresented, conducted 
 Lord Russell to the scaffold.
 
 188 
 
 going into Newmarket. The King comes on 
 Saturday or Tuesday : the Queen is ill, and much 
 affected with the blazing star. There is a huge 
 whale come up to Chatham, 52 feet long. Hav- 
 ing no better entertainment than you find, I 
 think it is as well for me to make an end, and 
 wait upon Lady Shaftesbury, who means to sup 
 with me. I am most obedient to my Lord and 
 Mr. William Russell, both, 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 Tuesday, 8 o'clock. Our girls (8) are well. 
 
 For Mr. William Russell, at Woburn Abbey, 
 Bradfordshire, to be left at Brick-hill. 
 
 " I sent you, in my last, the news of Crequi's defeat, 
 " which proves very true, and is owned by M. de Ruvigny : 
 " it is a thing of vast consequence at this conjuncture of 
 " time, and will, as it is thought, unavoidably occasion the 
 " total ruin of their army about Strasburg, for all the victory 
 " mentioned in the Gazette ; which is so ridiculously penned 
 " that every body laughs at it, and wonders how so silly a 
 " thing could be ordered to be printed. They say that not 
 " only the Bretons continue up, but that in the Lower Nor- 
 " mandy their is a rising too, and if so, nobody knows how 
 
 " far it may go." 
 
 " These late disasters of the French have caused great people 
 ** to shed tears at Windsor." 
 
 " August 10. 1675." 
 
 (8) Their second daughter Katherine, afterwards Duchess 
 of Rutland, was born in August of the preceding year.
 
 189 
 LETTER X. 
 
 [From London to Woburn, 12th April, 1677.] 
 
 I HAVE stayed till past eight, that I might have 
 as much intelligence as I knew how to get. 
 Spencer (1) promised to be here this evening, 
 but I find him not in my chamber, where I ex- 
 pected him at my coming home ; for I have 
 spent the afternoon with my sister Allington, 
 and by all our travels could not improve my 
 knowledge as I extremely desired to do, that I 
 might entertain your dear self the better by this 
 letter ; else could have been content to be to- 
 morrow morning as ignorant as I was this ; for 
 all my ends and designs in this world are to be 
 as useful and acceptable to my Mr. Russell as I 
 can, to deserve better, if I could, that dear and 
 real kindness I faithfully believe his goodness 
 suffers me to enjoy. My cousin Spencer is just 
 come. The inclosed paper I copied from one 
 Lord Allington gave me last night : it is the 
 King's message to the House (2) yesterday. 
 This day the debate held till 4 o'clock j and the 
 result of it is, you have ordered a second address 
 
 {!) The Honourable Robert Spencer, her cousin. 
 (2) The llth of April, 1677.
 
 to thank His Majesty for taking into consider- 
 ation your first (3), and to desire he would, if he 
 please, pursue what in that they desired ; and 
 that they might not be wanting, they have added 
 a clause (if the King accepts of it) to the money 
 bill, that gives him credit to use two hundred 
 thousand of that money towards new alliances ; 
 promising, if he do see cause to lay it out, to re- 
 place it him again. This, as Sir Hugh Chol- 
 mondeley (4) says, it is not pleasing at court : 
 expectations were much higher. The Lords 
 have not agreed with the Commons : they desire 
 to have it put in the bill, they should receive an 
 account as well as the Commons. The House 
 was in a way of agreeing, and the speaker pressed 
 it ; till, after three hours' debate, he told them 
 suddenly he had mistook the thing, that he knew 
 the House nice upon money matters, and the 
 Lords had only a negative in money concerns ; 
 and this seemed an affirmative, so put it to the 
 question ; but would not divide the house, though 
 if they had, the ayes would have carried it, it is 
 
 (3) The first address was for entering into an alliance with 
 Holland against France for the preservation of the Nether- 
 lands. The second address to the same purpose was pre- 
 sented on the 25th of the May following : it drew down a 
 sharp reprimand from the King, for prescribing what alliances 
 he was to make, and produced an adjournment of the House. 
 
 (4) Sir Hugh Cholmondeley of Whitby in Yorkshire.
 
 191 
 
 believed. To-morrow, at two, is a conference 
 with the Lords. The Queen is so ill she could 
 not perform the Maunday this day, but the Lady 
 Fingale did it. The Lady Arlington's brothers 
 are neither of them killed. (5) The Lady Mo- 
 hun has a son (6) : he is ill ; every thing else as 
 you left it. Your girls very well. Miss Rachel 
 has prattled a long story ; but Watkins (7) calls 
 for my letter, so I must omit it. She says, papa 
 has sent for her to Wobee, and then she gallops 
 and says she has been there, and a great deal 
 more ; but boiled oysters call, so my story must 
 rest. She will send no duty she is positive in it. 
 I present you all any creature can pay : I owe 
 you as much. 
 
 R. VAUGHAN. 
 
 (5) Lady Arlington was Isabella de Bevervvaert, of the 
 lamily of Nassau-Orange, being .a grand-daughter of Maurice, 
 Prince of Orange. Thomas, Earl of Ossory, (son of the 
 Duke of Ormond,) married a sister of Lady Arlington's, and 
 another sister unmarried, and called Lady Charlotte Bever- 
 waert, was a lady of the Bed-chamber to Queen Anne. 
 See frequent mention made of her in St. Evremond's works 
 under the name of Mademoiselle, as an intimate associate of 
 Madame de Mazarin's. 
 
 (6 ) He who was killed in a duel in Hyde Park with the 
 Duke of Hamilton, in 1712, which proved fatal to both the 
 combatants. 
 
 (7) The house-steward.
 
 192 
 
 LADY RUSSELL TO LORD RUSSELL. 
 
 FROM 1678 TO 1681. 
 
 LETTER I. (1) 
 
 MY sister (2) being here tells me she overheard 
 you tell her Lord last night, that you would 
 take notice of the business (you know what I 
 mean) in the House (3) : this alarms me, and I 
 do earnestly beg of you to tell me truly if you 
 
 (1) This is on half a sheet of paper, and folded as a note. 
 The date at the bottom is in the hand-writing of Lord 
 Russell. 
 
 (2) Lady Allington. 
 
 (3) On the 14th of March of this year, the House of 
 Commons had resolved itself into a committee of the whole 
 House to consider the state of the nation. The motion for 
 this committee was made by Lord Russell in the following 
 words : " I move that we may go into a committee of the 
 " whole House to consider of the sad and deplorable con- 
 " dition we are in, and the apprehensions we are under of 
 " popery and a standing army, and that we may consider of 
 " some way to save ourselves from ruin." * 
 
 Sir John Reresby mentions the great exertions made by 
 the Court to resist these proceedings. It is probable that 
 
 * See the New Parliamentary Register, vol. iv. p. 951.
 
 193 
 
 have or mean to do it. If you do, I am most 
 assured you will repent it. I beg once more to 
 know the truth. It is more pain to be in doubt, 
 and to your sister too ; and if I have any inter- 
 est, I use it to beg your silence in this case, at 
 least to-day. R. RUSSELL. 
 
 March the l6?7-8. 
 while the House was sitting. 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 [From Tunbridge Wells to London, 1678.] 
 
 AFTER a toilsome day, there is some refresh- 
 ment to be telling our story to our best friends. I 
 have seen your girl well laid in bed, and our- 
 selves have made our suppers upon biscuits, a 
 bottle of white wine, and another of beer, min- 
 gled my uncle's way, with nutmeg and sugar. 
 None are disposing to bed, not so much as com- 
 plaining of weariness. Beds and things are all 
 very well here : our want is, yourself and good 
 weather. But now I have told you our present 
 
 this note was meant to dissuade Lord Russell from making 
 this motion, or perhaps from some other of a stronger nature 
 on the same subject, in which she was successful. Lord 
 Russell having kept this note, and endorsed it, with the time 
 at which it came to his hands, proves the strong impression, 
 which some circumstance about it, had made on his mind. 
 
 o
 
 194 
 
 condition : to say a little of the past, I do 
 really think, if I could have imagined the illness 
 of the journey, it would have discouraged me : it 
 is not to be expressed how bad the way is from 
 Sevenoaks ; but our horses did exceeding well, 
 and Spencer, very diligent, often off* his horse, 
 to lay hold of the coach. I have not much more 
 to say this night: I hope the quilt is remem- 
 bered ; and Frances must remember to send more 
 biscuits, either when you come, or soon after. 
 I long to hear from you, my dearest soul, and 
 truly think your absence already an age. I have 
 no mind to my gold plate : here is no table to 
 set it on ; but if that does not come, I desire 
 you would bid Betty Foster (1) send the silver 
 glass I use every day. In discretion I haste to 
 bed, longing for Monday, I assure you. From 
 your R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Past ten o'clock. 
 
 Lady Margaret (2) says we are not glutted 
 with company yet : you will let Northumber- 
 land (3) know we are well j and Allie. (4) 
 For the Lord Russell. 
 
 (1) A house-maid. 
 
 (2) Lady Margaret Russell. 
 
 (3) The Countess of Northumberland, Lady Russell's 
 sister. 
 
 (4) Lady Allington.
 
 195 
 LETTER III. 
 
 f From London to Woburn, 1st January, 1679.] 
 
 Tuesday, midnight. 
 
 I BEG thy leave, my only dear, by the way of 
 refreshment, to tell you how I have spent the 
 day : I ate pudding with the girls, and then 
 went and ate porridge and partridge with my 
 sister ; then sent for both misses to make their 
 visit, dispatched them home, so proceeded to the 
 work of the day ; made a dozen visits, and con- 
 cluded at Whitehall. I learnt nothing there, 
 but that the Queen had cried heartily : her eyes 
 made it very visible (1), yet she was very lively. 
 She was at cards with Lady Sunderland (2) and 
 
 (1) The nation was now involved in the disgraceful de- 
 lusions of the popish plot. Gates and Bedloe had denounced 
 the Queen as accessary to it, not six weeks before the date 
 of this letter. A very sufficient reason for the state in which 
 Lady Russell mentions having seen her. 
 
 (2) Anne Digby, daughter of George Earl of Bristol, 
 and wife of Robert Earl of Sunderland, the son of Sacca- 
 rissa. See frequent mention made of this lady in Evelyn's 
 Diary.
 
 196 
 
 Lady Betty lelton. (3) Lord Ossory(4) was 
 there: he came on Saturday. I am told Sir 
 William Temple will be the other Secretary, 
 though some would have (but cannot compass 
 it) Mr. Hyde (5) : so Mr. Montagu told me at 
 dinner. He had met Lord Aylesbury : he told 
 him he came through Bedfordshire, and the two 
 lords (6) he heard would be chosen. My Lord 
 
 (3) Lady Betty Felton was a daughter of James Earl of 
 Suffolk, married to Thomas Felton, Esq. Page of Honour 
 to Charles II., and afterwards Sir Thomas Felton. See fur- 
 ther mention of this lady in these letters. 
 
 (4) Thomas Earl of Ossory, the accomplished son of the 
 first Duke of Ormond, whose much-lamented death the fol- 
 lowing year extorted from his father the touching boast, that 
 he would rather have his dead son, than any living son in 
 England. He had been named Governor and General of the 
 forces going to Tangiers to repair the losses sustained in a 
 late attack from the Moors. But the best of the troops des- 
 tined for this expedition having been afterwards withdrawn 
 from his command, he seems to have anticipated the sacri- 
 fice of himself or his honour, in being sent with such an in- 
 competent force. See an affecting account of his death, and 
 the previous state of his mind, in Evelyn's Diary, vol. f. 
 p. 4-88. 
 
 (5) Lawrence Hyde, second son of the Lord Chancellor 
 Clarendon, afterwards Earl of Rochester. It was Sir Leoline 
 Jenkins who was made Secretary of State on this occasion. 
 and neither of the persons Lady Russell mentions. 
 
 (6) Lord Russell and Lord Bruce, eldest son of the Earl 
 of Aylesbury. He had been member for the county of Bed- 
 ford in the preceding Parliament ; but was not now re-chosen 
 with Lord Russell, whose colleague, in 1679? was Sir Hum-
 
 197 
 
 Aylesbury answered, he could not tell : they 
 had taken a prejudice to his son, upon ill offices 
 done him in the country ; and all was for two 
 votes, and they were but votes of civility. When 
 I began, if I had remembered this would come 
 the day you were going to your election indeed, 
 when gone, I had been so much sooner in bed. 
 Farewell for a while, my best life. 
 
 R* RUSSELL. 
 
 Williamson (7) is married to Lady Catherine. 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 [From London to JVoburn, ^th January, 1679.] 
 
 IT is now between eleven and twelve o'clock j 
 an hour, I guess, you are in full employment, 
 and I at the most delightful I can choose, con- 
 
 phrey Monnoux. Lord Bruce is the same person who af- 
 terwards, as Earl of Aylesbury, was suspected of being an 
 agent in the plots against King William. He retired to 
 Brussels, where he established himself, and where he died 
 in 1722. 
 
 (7) Sir Joseph Williamson. He had been Secretary of 
 State in the year 1673. See an account of his birth and rise 
 in public affairs under the protection of Lord Arlington in 
 Evelyn's Diary, vol. i. p. 4-42. He married Lady Catherine 
 Obrian, widow of the Lord Obrian. She was sister to Charles 
 Stuart, Duke of Richmond, the husband of La belle Stuart 
 of the Memoirs of Grammont, by whom he had no children, 
 so that his sister was his heir. 
 
 o B
 
 sidering any present circumstances. If yours 
 be not so easy to-day (1), to-morrow, I hope, will 
 make some amends ; and by this day se'nnight, 
 the remembrance of the toil past, and the ex- 
 pectation of the enjoyments at sweet Stratton, 
 will recompense all. Your father sent me two 
 letters to read this morning ; one was Tom Gre- 
 gory's (2), the other Lord Bolingbroke's (3) to 
 him, with mighty compliments to you in it. 
 Poor Lord Aylesbury had a doleful face yester- 
 day (4), Lady Mary (5) told me. Since Tues- 
 day night I heard nothing, but I will try this 
 afternoon, add what I can get, but I would 
 begin lest my time should be short in the 
 evening. Mr. Montagu had a letter yesterday 
 from the council-board to be there at his leisure, 
 to see his cabinets opened ; so to-morrow he 
 goes. (6) I have sent you my sister's (Lady 
 
 (1) The day of the election for Bedfordshire. 
 
 (2) A servant. 
 
 (3) Oliver St. John, Earl of Bolingbroke. The earldom 
 became extinct in the person of Paulet St. John, his brother, 
 who died unmarried in 1711. 
 
 (4) On account of his son's failure at the Bedfordshire 
 election. 
 
 (5) Lady Mary Bruce, his daughter, afterwards married 
 to Sir William Walter. 
 
 (6) Mr. Montagu's papers were searched by an order of 
 council for his transactions, while ambassador in France, 
 with the Lord Treasurer Danby, relative to the secret treaty. 
 See Burnet's account of this affair, vol. ii. p. 217.
 
 199 
 
 Northumberland} letter to read : the poor man 
 is delivered out of a peck of troubles, one may 
 perceive. I would not end this epistle till I had 
 coasted the town for news, but I met none at 
 home to furnish me with any ; and being now at 
 Montagu House, find as little there. Sir Ro- 
 bert (7) is in discontent to-day ; and swears if 
 he knew as much as he does to-day a fortnight 
 ago, he would have been a parliament man, 
 whatever it had cost him : he is out of favour, 
 he says. Sir William Temple, it . is believed, 
 will be the other Secretary, and not Mr. Hide. 
 To give you all reports, my Lord Bath (8), they 
 say, is to be treasurer ; and some other remove, 
 I heard, as not unlikely, but have forgot it ; and 
 here is such a buzz at cards, and with the child, 
 that I can remember none ; and, to help, Mr. 
 Stukely is come in. Your sister (9) is well, but 
 I hear nothing of sister Alinton ; their porter has 
 been missed a week ; they have changed the lock, 
 and I hope take care ; I send to them to know 
 
 (7) Probably Sir Robert Worsley, of Pilewell in Hamp- 
 shire, her neighbour at Stratton. 
 
 (8) Sir John Granville, Earl of Bath : the same who had 
 been the messenger between the King and Parliament at the 
 time of the Restoration. The appointment Lady Russell 
 mentions as a report, did not take place ; the treasury having 
 been put in commission. 
 
 (9) Lady Margaret Russell., 
 
 o 4
 
 200 
 
 if they take care to watch, but I get no good 
 answer ; you know my concern. They will let 
 me say no more ; our girls are very well and 
 good. I am, my Lord Russell's creature entirely, 
 Thursday night. R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Williamson is gone with his lady into the 
 country. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 [From. London to Basing, February, 1679. J 
 
 Thursday, 7 o'clock. 
 
 I WAS very sorry to read any thing under your 
 hand, written so late as I had one brought me 
 to Montague House ; but I heard yesterday 
 morning, by a servant of my Lord Marquis, you 
 got well to Teddington, so I hope you did to 
 Basing (1), and our poor Stratton, and will by 
 
 (1) The seat of Charles Paulet, Marquis of Winchester, 
 
 afterwards Duke of Bolton. This is the person of whom Sir 
 
 John Reresby gives the following curious account the year 
 
 before the Revolution. " In the midst of the impending 
 
 ' dangers which seemed to threaten us, there was a noble- 
 
 1 man, the Marquis of Winchester, who had, by his conduct, 
 
 ' persuaded some people to think him mad, though he cer- 
 
 ' tainly acted upon principles of great human prudence. 
 
 ' This gentleman passing through Yorkshire in his way to 
 
 ' London. I went to pay him a visit ; he had four coaches
 
 201 
 
 f 
 
 Saturday night to the creature of the world that 
 loves you best. I have lived as retired, since 
 you went, as the severest and jealous husband 
 could enjoin a wife : so that 1 am not fitted to 
 entertain you with passages in the town, know- 
 ing no more how the world goes, than an Italian 
 lady, they say, usually does. The weather has 
 been of the worst kind here, continually either 
 snow, hail, or high winds : God keep you from 
 colds ! I wish you may know when you are welF, 
 and not stir from my Lord Marquis, whose very 
 
 ' and a hundred horses in his retinue, and staid ten days at 
 " a house that he borrowed in our parts. His custom was to 
 " dine at six or seven in the evening, and his meal always 
 " lasted till six or seven the next morning; during which he 
 *' sometimes drank ; sometimes he listened to music ; some- 
 " times he fell into discourse ; sometimes he took tobacco, 
 *' and sometimes he ate his victuals ; while the company had 
 " free choice to sit or rise, to go or come, to sleep or not. 
 " The dishes and bottles were all the time before them on 
 " the table ; and when it was morning, he would hunt or 
 " hawk, if the weather was fair ; if not, he would dance, go 
 " to bed at eleven, and repose himself till the evening. 
 " Notwithstanding this irregularity, he was a man of great 
 " sense, and though, as I just now said, some took him for 
 " mad, it is certain his meaning was to keep himself out of 
 " the way of more serious censure in these ticklish days, 
 " and preserve his estate, which he took great care of." 
 Reresby's Memoirs, p. 247. 
 
 It is certain that he was already, at the time Sir John 
 Reresby wrote, in correspondence with the Prince of Orange. 
 See several of his letters in Dalrymple's Appendix, vol. ii.
 
 202 
 
 humble servant I am, and must be the more so, 
 because I think he is so kind to you, as that my 
 Lord would willingly agree to my wish. (2) To 
 take up as little of your time as I can, I have 
 sent you my sister's letter to read ; my answer 
 to it you may guess at. I wrote at large what 
 was said in my chamber : it might have been 
 remembered, how you had accepted Bedford- 
 shire, and the reports here of Sir Richard 
 Knight, or such, being set up. If I had news, 
 I should not be very ready to send it you, being 
 sure my Lord Marquis would have it better 
 expressed from several, therefore I have been 
 the less inquisitive. My sister Northumberland 
 
 (2) The following letter, written at this time from Basing, 
 is among the very few, yet extant, from Lord Russell to his 
 wife. 
 
 " Basing, February the 8th, 1678-9. 
 
 " I am stole from a great many gentlemen into the draw- 
 ing-room at Basing, for a moment, to tell my dearest I have 
 thought of her being here the last time, and wished for her a 
 thousand times ; but in vain, alas ! for I am just going now 
 to Stratton, and want the chariot, and my dearest dear in it. 
 I hope to be with you on Saturday. We have had a very 
 troublesome journey of it, and insignificant enough, by the 
 fairness and excess of civility of somebody: but more of 
 that when I see you. I long for the time, and am, more 
 than you can imagine, your " RUSSELL. 
 
 " I am troubled at the weather for our own selves, but 
 much more for my sister. Pray God it may have no ill 
 effect upon her, and that we may have a happy meeting on 
 Saturday. I am Miss's humble servant."
 
 203 
 
 had, last night, a letter from the Lady North um- 
 berland(S); all the account she gives her, is, 
 that if her granchild (4) likes the addresses of 
 my Lord Ogle better than any others, she shall 
 accept them : this is the whole ; for all the rest 
 of the letter is some kind of notice how severe 
 she hears she is against her in her ordinary dis- 
 course. My Lord Ogle is come to town for 
 certain, I think. 
 
 Your aunt tells me your cousin Newport (5) 
 will be chosen, it is declared ; but she did not 
 tell me how her lord took it. My sister was told 
 yesterday Mr. Montague was off for standing 
 knight of the shire, but was for some borough. 
 Mr. (6) helps him too, and the election- 
 day would be Saturday j but she knew nothing 
 of this from him, or any thing else. Her little 
 girl has been so ill two days, she feared the small- 
 pox : I have not seen it, but she sent me word 
 this morning Doctor Micklethwart thought it 
 would prove an ague. Your sister is as well as 
 
 (3) Her mother-in-law. 
 
 (4) The Lady Elizabeth Percy, married, at twelve years 
 old, to the Earl of Ogle. She was not, even at this age, on 
 good terms with her mother, (Lady Russell's sister,) as 
 appears by a letter from Lady Russell to Lady Ogle on her 
 marriage, in this collection, dated April, 1679. 
 
 (5) Richard, son of Francis Lord Newport, by the Lady 
 Diana Russell, an aunt of Lord Russell's. 
 
 (6) A name here in the MS. not to be decyphered.
 
 is to be expected ; but we hear nothing of Lady 
 Die. Our small ones are as you left them, I 
 praise God ; Miss writes and lays the letters by, 
 that papa may admire them when he comes : it 
 is a moment more wished for than to be ex- 
 pressed by all the eloquence I am mistress oi\ 
 yet you know how much that is ; but my dear 
 abuser I love more than my life, and am entirely 
 his R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Amongst letters were opened, there was some 
 of Lord Marquis's and Lord Shaftesbury's, in all 
 which they give their friends great caution not 
 to choose fanatics, at which the King was much 
 pleased, and said he had not heard so much good 
 of them a great while. (7) This is a report : if 
 I hear any other of any kind, I will send it from 
 Montague House, whither I am going, and will 
 not seal till I have been there : I know Lady 
 Shaftesbury is there, my Lady Marquesse(S), &c. 
 
 (7) Lord Shaftesbury was made president of the council 
 very soon after the date of this letter. 
 
 (8) The Marchioness of Winchester, second wife of the 
 Marquis of Winchester above mentioned. The peerage calls 
 her the eldest natural daughter of Emanuel Scroop Earl of 
 Sunderland, and widow of Henry, second son of Henry 
 Carey Earl of Monmouth. Emanuel Scroop, Earl of Sun- 
 derland, was the first and the last of his name who bore that 
 title. The title of Marchioness was not yet in use. The 
 wife of a Marques was then called a Marquesse.
 
 205 
 
 I am to play at beast (9) to-morrow, at Lady 
 Shaftesbury's. 
 
 Lord Gray (10) says the Bedfordshire gentle- 
 men are ready to break their hearts, that you are 
 gone to Hampshire (11), and will leave them. 
 
 A near relation of Lady Catherine Obrian, 
 says, this day, the marriage is owned with Wil- 
 liamson ; he will be chosen at Queenborough. 
 It seems he has, for some time past, given them 
 plate for their church ; so little Herbert will be 
 to seek. It is for Nottingham, by Lord 
 Manchester's interest, Mr. Montague stands. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 [From London to Woburn^ February 15. 1679.] 
 
 At dinner at Lord Shaftesbury's I received 
 your letter, and found nothing in it that hindered 
 my offering it him to read j he did so at the 
 
 (9) The name of a game at cards then much in fashion. 
 
 (10) Ford Lord Grey, of Werke, married to Mary, fourth 
 daughter of George Earl Berkeley. His infamous amour 
 and elopement with her sister, Lady Henrietta, did not take 
 place till three years after this date. 
 
 (11) Lord Russell had been returned both for Bedford- 
 shire and Hampshire, and finally made his election for Bed- 
 fordshire.
 
 206 
 
 table, and some part of it to the company. Lord 
 Wharton dined there, and Judge (I) Ellis; 
 Charlton and Shaftesbury conclude (2) Beecher 
 will be the man. I wish the day over, but fear 
 it is so likely to be a troublesome one, that I 
 shall not see you so soon as my last desired ; 
 yet if it may be, 1 wish for it ; the main reason 
 -is, to discourse something of that affair my uncle 
 (Ruvigny} was on Sunday so long with me about. 
 It is urged, and your Lordship is thought a 
 necessary person to advise with about (S) it. 
 Your tasks are like to be difficult in town and 
 country : I pray God direct your judgment in 
 all your -actions. 1 saw Sir leveril (4) at Lord 
 Shaftesbury's, who told him my Lord Russell 
 was a greater man than he, for he was but one 
 knight, and Lord Russell would be two. Sir 
 
 (1) Sir William Ellis, a puisne judge of the Common 
 Pleas. 
 
 (2) No one of the name of Beecher was elected into this 
 parliament. 
 
 (3 ) This may probably allude to the Exclusion Bill, whose 
 progress was only postponed by the prorogation and sub- 
 sequent dissolution of this parliament, which, having met in 
 March, was dissolved in May of the same year. The Exclu- 
 sion Bill was resumed with fresh spirit by Lord Russell and 
 his friends in the ensuing parliament, which met in October, 
 1680. 
 
 (4) This name is here printed from the spelling of the MS. 
 but the editor neither knows the name as it stands, nor for 
 whom it is meant.
 
 207 
 
 leverill answered, if it were in his power he 
 should be a hundred. This is but one of many 
 fine things I heard to-day, yet my heart thinks 
 abundantly more due to my man. I write again 
 in Northumberland's (5) chamber ; and Mrs. 
 Young is come in, who says Berry (6) is turned 
 Protestant, and has confessed very much, and 
 wrote a letter to the King that tells such things, 
 Mr. Stanhope, who is at beast, says he dares not 
 repeat it. Aunt Tresam loses, and bates me to 
 end this. My love, I am in pain, till Tuesday is 
 past, because I am sure you must have a great 
 deal. I am, to the last minute of my life, your 
 most obedient wife, R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Saturday night. 
 
 Your sister rose to-day. My best service to 
 brother James. I sent your letter to Lord 
 Bedford. 
 
 For the Lord Russell, at Woburn Abbey, in 
 Bedfordshire, to be left with the Post- 
 master at Brick-hill. 
 
 (5) Her sister. 
 
 (6) Henry Berry, one of the three persons who had been 
 convicted of the murder of Sir Edmondbury Godfrey. The 
 report Lady Russell here mentions on this subject was quite 
 false ; for he and his two associates, Green and Hill, were 
 executed on the 21st of this month, denying the fact for 
 which they suffered to the last.
 
 208 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 [From London to Bedfordshire, September, 1679.} 
 
 I SUPPOSE John will have told you we are all 
 well, so that you will not be surprised upon that 
 account, but the cause of his errand you will. 
 I made bold to open your letter, curiosity 
 inviting me : I know not how you are to behave 
 yourself, but I should think, now you are chosen, 
 you cannot be chosen again. I write this at 
 Lady Allington's who is ill a-bed of a cold, 
 only I hope you may guess by my writing, what 
 pains I take to do it. (1) My sister Northum- 
 berland tells me the King missed his fit. () I 
 hear not one earthly word of news ; but I know 
 I am entirely my Lord Russell's 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 My Lord Allington says you may stand in 
 Bedfordshire, and not decline till a fortnight 
 
 (1) The writing is with a very bad pen, on a scrap of 
 paper. 
 
 (2) This was the King's ague, in Sept. 1679, which brought 
 the Duke of York, unasked, in a hurry, from Bruxelles, 
 changed the King's counsels, and caused the prorogation of 
 the parliament, for which the elections were then making.
 
 209 
 
 after the House sits, he believes. He says, if 
 you are chosen in Bedfordshire, and so decline 
 Hampshire, he fancies my brother (3) must have 
 it, for he has one voice more than Sir Richard 
 Knight. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, April 3. 1680.] 
 
 To be absent from the best and most loved 
 thing and friend in the world, and now, I may 
 almost say, the only one I have in it, must cause 
 some alteration in a person sensible of her con- 
 dition ; but for any other, I praise God I can 
 complain of none. I have kept close to my easy- 
 chair this very ill stormy day ; but been uneasy 
 in my thoughts for the two travellers. God 
 grant you keep from cold, and preserve you 
 from all other ills ! I have staid till past eight, 
 to get news, and now Lady Southampton and 
 Mr. Darcy (1) is come in, so I must shorten my 
 
 (3) The Honourable Edward Noel, married to Lady Rus- 
 sel's sister. He was member for the county of Hampshire 
 in this parliament, with Richard Norton, Esq. 
 
 (1) Conyers Darcy, son of Lord Darcy and Conyers. He 
 was married to Lady Southampton, the widow of Lady Rus- 
 sell's father. He was himself created Earl of Holdernesse 
 in 1682.
 
 210 
 
 converse with my best and only true joy. Charl- 
 ton is, I believe, out of town, and so is all the 
 world to me, I think, for I have seen nobody 
 but your father and brother Ned : all I can hear 
 is, the King has forbid the Duke of Monmouth 
 to see Nell (Nell Gwynne) ; that is, I should say 
 Nelly to see him. The Princess of Orange is 
 not likely to last long, as is said. Lady 
 Inchequin (2) was here last night ; she meant 
 to go to-day, and get a doctor to go with her. 
 There is a report that the witness whom they 
 secured about this Irish plot is got away : this 
 is our neighbours' news ; Lady Southampton 
 brought it. I hope, by Tuesday, to do better 
 things. Our girls are, I hope, as well as you 
 can wish them. The widow (3) and I are going 
 to a partridge and Woburn rabbits. My sister 
 Allington is not very well yet, but no fear, I 
 hope, of miscarrying. Good night, my dearest 
 love, I am inviolably yours, 
 
 April 3. 1680. R. RUSSELL. 
 
 (2) Lady Inchequin was a Villiers, daughter of Sir Edward 
 Villiers, and sister of the first Earl of Jersey, and of the 
 Ladies Fitzharding and Orkney. She was the only English 
 woman of quality who accompanied the Princess of Orange 
 to Holland on her marriage. This account of the Princess's 
 health was one of the many false reports of the day. 
 
 (3) Probably a Mrs. Tresam, mentioned more than once 
 in these letters by the name of " Aunt Tresam."
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, 1680.] 
 
 Ten o'clock, Sunday night. 
 MY thoughts being ever best pleased when I, 
 in some kind or other, entertain myself with the 
 dearest of men, you may be sure I do most wil- 
 lingly prepare this for Mr. Chandler. If I do 
 hear to-morrow from you, it will be a great plea- 
 sure to know you got well to Stratton, though I 
 fear for you every day, knowing you will frisk 
 out abroad. Mr. James, (Russell,) I hope, airs 
 your rooms well with good fires. Your father 
 sighs with the prospect of his journey. Mrs. 
 Herbert, the doctors conclude, cannot live: 
 Scarborough (1) only has some hopes : he is now 
 called in. Mr. Montague was to see her, and 
 says she is as her sister Denham (2) was. The 
 
 (1) Sir Charles Scarborough, first physician to Charles 
 the Second. 
 
 (2) Lady Denham was a Miss Brooke, married to Sir John 
 Denham the poet, author of Cooper's Hill. Her portrait is 
 among the beauties at Windsor, and her history among the 
 heroines of the Memoirs de Gramont. The story there men- 
 tioned of her being poisoned, is repeated in Aubrey's Lives 
 of Eminent Persons, but with another version. Both reports 
 were probably false, as Lady Russell here speaks of Lady 
 
 P 2
 
 Lord Shrewsbury (3) is like to lose both eyes. 
 It is very true, the gentleman that was put into 
 the messenger's hands, is gone ; but, as I have 
 it from a privy counsellor, he was first put there, 
 by his own desires, for safety, pretending fear of 
 his life, but is now sent into Ireland with the 
 messenger, as I gather, to be hanged for other 
 crimes, he being, as my author has it, the great- 
 est rogue alive, and witnessed to be so, by a man 
 Lord Essex (4) brought to see him, who he was 
 confident must know him, and so he did, saying 
 he would not, for a world, be one hour alone 
 with him, so dangerous a man he was ; at which 
 character Lord Essex was much confounded, 
 having appeared so much before for him, and 
 seemed to credit his informations. Another 
 witness, he named, is sent for out of Ireland, 
 who is in gaol for horrid crimes : they are both 
 Tories, so was the fellow they pretend was 
 
 Denham's sister, Mrs. Herbert, dying in the same ivay, and 
 she was not poisoned also, either by the jealousy of her hus- 
 band, or by that of the Countess of Rochester. See Aubrey's 
 Lives of Eminent Persons, &c. vol. ii. p. 319. 
 
 (3) Charles Talbot, afterwards Duke of Shrewsbury, son 
 to the Earl of Shrewsbury, killed in a duel by the Duke of 
 Buckingham. 
 
 (4) Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex, he who perished in the 
 Tower by his own hand, on the very day, and during the 
 time of Lord Russell's trial. He had been Lord Lieutenant 
 of Ireland, and had returned from thence this year. 
 
 6
 
 213 
 
 poisoned, another villain also, for this person 
 Lord Essex brought knows them all : this man 
 was kept so private, none ever saw him since the 
 messenger took him, but themselves, nor know 
 what is become of him, but those so happily in- 
 formed as myself. A lady out of the city told me 
 it is certain there was before the Mayor yester- 
 day examinations of some apprentices concern- 
 ing a new plot (5), and that five did take their 
 oaths, it was to put the lords out of the Tower, 
 and burn them and the Duchess of Portsmouth 
 together: this is the latest design I hear of: if 
 any other discoveries be made between this and 
 Tuesday night, I hope I shall not fail to be your 
 informer, and after that, that you will quickly be 
 mine again : I long for it truly, my dear. Lady 
 Southampton was to see the Marquesse of Win- 
 chester to day : she says her Lord will try how 
 Bourbon waters agree with him before she goes : 
 so my Lady is to follow : she wants to go with 
 him, she says : I know who could not be so shook 
 off. Now they say, none must come to court 
 that sees the Duke of Monmouth. The dinner 
 at the club in the city has more angered the 
 King than any thing yet. Mr. Craford has 
 
 (5) Called (in that plotting age) the Prentices Plot. The 
 Lords in the Tower were Earl Powis, Viscount Stafford, 
 Lord Ariindel of Wardour, and Lord Bellasis. 
 
 p 3
 
 214. 
 
 stole a young woman worth 20001. out of a 
 window. Her mother had employed him to 
 persuade her against a match she was not willing 
 to consent to, and so he did, most effectually. 
 Miss says she means to write herself, so I have 
 no messages ; but she knows not, I think, of this 
 express, for truly, I had forgot it till, as I supped, 
 they remembered me. I am so well pleased to 
 be alone, and scribbling, that I never consider 
 the matter. Pardon, my dear love, (as you have 
 a thousand other failings,) all the nonsense of 
 this, and accept the passionate, kind intentions 
 
 of your 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 The painting cannot be done till Wednesday : 
 he can get no men to work. Lady Die is pretty 
 well, they send me word from her house. Lau- 
 derdale (6) is only troubled with rheumatism. 
 It is so cold, I stirred not to-day to chapel. 
 
 (6) The Duke of Lauderdale, the tyrannical and worthless 
 administrator of the affairs of Scotland during the greatest 
 part of the reign of Charles the Second. See Burnet's His- 
 tory of his Own Times, passim.
 
 216 
 LETTER X. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, 1680.] 
 
 I HAVE thought the day long, because I could 
 never be alone to entertain myself, as I had 
 most mind to do. I have now only Lady Mar- 
 garet (1) left, who is so kind as to stay and eat a 
 Woburn rabbit with me ; and I believe they are 
 just coming up, and it is nine o'clock ; yet I 
 must tell my joy I received his, and am glad to- 
 find Mr. James (Russell) is so very well accom- 
 modated for the weather, and so delighted with 
 the country, and so much in the air, without 
 caring for hat or periwig on his head. All the 
 talk is, the Duke of Monmouth is to be sent for 
 to appear at council ; great talk of his raising a 
 regiment ; letters taken, and witnesses to prove. 
 I was told this evening there would be some 
 discourses to-morrow at council about this, and 
 perhaps he might appear though not sent for. 
 Lord Cavendish (2) is not to be admitted to 
 
 (1) Lady Margaret Russell. 
 
 (2) William, first Duke of Devonshire, the spirited friend 
 of Lord Russell. See various anecdotes of his early life at 
 this period, in the letters of Lady Sunderland in this collec- 
 tion. 
 
 p 4
 
 216 
 
 Nell Gwynne's house, nor Mr. (3) Thynne, 
 Lady Ann Barrington (4), about ten days ago, 
 left her husband a letter to tell him she was gone 
 to a fine place, where she should be very well 
 pleased : his house was so dirty she could not 
 endure it longer ; so was not heard of till yes- 
 terday. She came home again, her sister was 
 so afflicted, that a child dying, and another near 
 it, was, she professed, the less affliction. Re- 
 membering no more tattle, and being nine 
 o'clock, I take my leave, hoping to see your 
 dear person in a few days. I am yours, as I 
 should be, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 For the Lord Russell. 
 
 (3) Thomas Thynne, of Longleat, the same person who 
 became the second husband of Lady Ogle, within a twelve- 
 month after the date of this letter, and who on her account 
 (as it was supposed) was assassinated in his coach in Pall 
 Mall, February, 1682, by Count Koningsmarck, and three 
 foreigners under his orders. See a detailed account of the 
 whole of this transaction in Reresby's Memoirs, p. 135. 
 
 (4-) Lady Ann Barrington was a daughter of Robert Rich, 
 Earl of Warwick and Holland, (the son of the Parliament's 
 Admiral in the great rebellion). She married Sir John Bar- 
 rington, of Barrington Hall, in Essex.
 
 LETTER XI. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, June 12. 1680.] 
 
 MY dearest heart, flesh and blood cannot have 
 a truer and greater sense of their own happiness 
 than your poor but honest wife has. I am glad 
 you find Stratton so sweet ; may you live to do 
 so one fifty years more; and, if God pleases, I 
 shall be glad I may keep your company most of 
 those years, unless you wish other at any time ; 
 then I think I could willingly leave all in the 
 world, knowing you would take care of our brats: 
 they are both well, and your great one's letter 
 she hopes came to you. Charlton dined at Lord 
 Leicester's (1) to-day with the great men, yet 
 brings no news. The three chits go down to 
 Althorpe, if they can be spared. There is great 
 talk of a new plot. Duke Monmouth, Lord 
 Shaftesbury, and many concerned. Lord Essex 
 named one : in a few days we shall know what 
 
 ( 1 ) Philip Earl of Leicester, the eldest brother of Alger- 
 non, Henry, and Robert Sydney, and of Lady Sunderland 
 (Saccarissa). He married a daughter of the Earl of Salis- 
 bury's, and had three children, who may probably be the 
 " three Chits" here mentioned as going down to Althorpe, 
 the seat of their first cousin the Earl of Sunderland, Sacca- 
 rissa's son.
 
 218 
 
 can be made out. Sister Northumberland and 
 Lady Mary are here, and also Charlton ; so that 
 the chat is not in a low voice j and they stay to 
 call for ombra, a less pleasing exercise ; I hope 
 you think it is to your ever obedient and affec- 
 tionate wife, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 Saturday night. 
 
 Tor the Lord Russell^ at Stratton, 
 Hampshire, to be left at Alsford, 
 with the Postmaster there. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, 1680.] 
 
 THE sadness of the weather and the remem- 
 brance of Blackwater, makes me very solicitous 
 to read your letter of Friday : I hope it will 
 bring no worse news than I send, your girls and 
 your wife being as well as my best love left 
 them, I praise God. Little Kate (2) takes her 
 journey often to papa, but the other keeps her 
 cares in her breast. My sister Northumberland 
 and aunt Tresam dined at Charlton's to-day. 
 
 (2) Their second daughter, afterwards Duchess of Rutland.
 
 219 
 
 The first meaning was to carry Lady Mary so 
 far towards Derbyshire, but the water is too 
 high for her to pass ; so she comes back with 
 them, and that may be a pretence for another 
 dinner, if he pleases. I believe there is no other 
 news but the enclosed ; for Mr. Montague was 
 here this afternoon, and sat an hour by Lord 
 Shaftesbury and I, and nothing could I learn of 
 him. Several of the council went down to-day 
 to Windsor, in order to to-morrow's business. 
 Most say a parliament will sit (3) ; some, the 
 league is conditional it should do so. Lord 
 Radnor (4) was sent for on Sunday to the coun- 
 cil, but he said he must serve God before the 
 King, and desired to be excused, as my author 
 says. Lord Rochester has converted his wife (5) : 
 she received the sacrament on Whitsunday, and 
 is a mighty penitent at present ; himself I mean. 
 I wish your business so soon dispatched, that I 
 will not take more of your time than is just ne- 
 cessary to tell you, you have a loving creature 
 of your 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 (3) It did not meet till the 21st October of this year. 
 
 (4) Robartes, Earl of Radnor. He had been made presi- 
 dent of the council on the dismissal of the Earl of Shaftes- 
 bury in October, 1679. 
 
 (5) John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, was married to Eliza- 
 beth Mallet, daughter of J. Mallet, Esq. of Enmore, in the 
 county of Somerset.
 
 220 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 '[From London to Stratton, 1680.] 
 
 Saturday night. 
 
 THESE are the pleasing moments, in absence 
 my dearest blessing, either to read something 
 from you or be writing something to you j yet 
 I never do it but I am touched with a sensi- 
 ble regret, that I cannot pour out in words what 
 my heart is so big with, which is much more 
 just to your dear self (in a passionate return 
 of love and gratitude) than I can tell you j but 
 it is not my talent; and so I hope not a ne- 
 cessary signification of the truth of it ; at least 
 not thought so by you. I hear you had the 
 opportunity of making your court handsomely 
 at Bagshot(l), if you had had the grace to have 
 taken the good fortune offered. The Lord 
 Pembroke is glad to keep out of sight at pre- 
 sent (2), though I was told the Lord Dunbarton 
 
 (1) This must have been to the Duke of York then resi- 
 dent there, for she afterwards mentions the King as being at 
 Windsor. 
 
 (2) Lord Pembroke had been committed to the Tower the 
 year before, for some insult offered to the ceremonies of the 
 Roman Catholic church. He had likewise been tried in 1678, 
 for the murder of Nathaniel Coney, but was brought in guilty 
 only of manslaughter. See State Trials. The Editor knows 
 not if the story to which Lady Russell alludes is connected 
 with either of these circumstances.
 
 says, he did no more than a man of honour 
 ought to have done. As I was writing as much 
 as 1 knew of the story, my sister sends me the 
 print. (3) I present it to Mr. James. (4) It 
 was Lord Colchester (5) helped to get him off, 
 as they say. Bedloe (6) is believed to be dead 
 at Bristol of a fever. I am told that (7) Jenks ; 
 you must guess who I mean, I know not how to 
 spell it ; it is Buckingham's creature ; that he 
 had yesterday a letter from Bristol, informing 
 him that in his sickness, Bedloe sent for Sir 
 John Knight, a parliament man (8), and told 
 him he was likely to die ; if he should, he did 
 there declare, all the evidence he had given was 
 true ; he had more to say to him, but was faint 
 then ; so Sir Knight left him, and about four 
 hours after came again, and told him there was 
 a privy councillor in town : it might do very 
 well he would say to him what he had more to 
 
 (3) She means a newspaper, or a printed account of this 
 adventure, whatever it might be. 
 
 (4) Mr. James Russell, Lord Russell's brother. 
 
 (5) Thomas Lord Colchester, eldest son of Thomas Savage, 
 Earl of Rivers, who died in his father's lifetime. 
 
 (6) Bedloe was the colleague of the infamous Titus Gates, 
 in the accusation of the Popish plot. 
 
 (7) Probably Sir Leoline Jenkins, who in the beginning of 
 this year had been made Secretary of State in the place of 
 Mr. Henry Coventry. 
 
 (8) He was member for Bristol.
 
 say. Bedloe consented, and North was brought, 
 though unwilling to come at first ; so Sir John 
 Knight withdrew, and North (9) and his clerk 
 being only present, took his words, and then 
 sealed up the paper. This is the story as I have it, 
 and those who told it are confident there is truth 
 in it. Your father writes me word, he had above 
 twenty knights and gentlemen dined with him, 
 and your health was heartily drank. The King 
 is very well at Windsor, as the inclosed will cer- 
 tify you (10), if you can bestow time to read it. 
 I care not to write a story out of it, so I send it. 
 They say I shall be too late ; yet I took to this 
 exercise as soon as I could get from eating 
 boiled oysters with Mr. Darcy ; but I leave 
 writing to Woburn also, so cannot lengthen this 
 short epistle, from yours entirely, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Lady Ogle is well of the measles. (11) Bethell 
 has dined at Copt-Hall, and professed he did 
 
 (9) Sir Francis North, then Chief Justice of the Common 
 Pleas, afterwards Lord Keeper. 
 
 (10) A newspaper or letter, which is not to be found. 
 
 (11) Slingeley Betheil, who with Alderman Cornish were 
 sheriffs of London this year. See Lady Sunderland's letters, 
 No. 6. Copt-Hall was then inhabited by Charles Sackville, 
 Earl of Dorset.
 
 223 
 
 not find courtiers such bugbears as some would 
 have them ; so that possibly it is hoped in time 
 he may understand himself. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 [From London to JVoburn, August 24. 1680.] 
 
 ABSENT or present, my dearest life is equally 
 obliging, and ever the earthly delight of my soul, 
 it is my great care (or ought to be so) so to mo- 
 derate my sense of happiness here, that when 
 the appointed time comes of my leaving it, or 
 its leaving me, I may not be unwilling to forsake 
 the one, or be in some measure prepared and fit 
 to bear tlie trial of the other. This very hot 
 weather does incommode me, but otherwise I 
 am very well, and both your girls. Your letter 
 was cherished as it deserved, and so, I make no 
 doubt, was hers, which she took very ill I should 
 suspect she was directed in, as truly I thought 
 she was, the fancy was so pretty. I have a letter 
 about the buck, as usual, from (1) St. Giles's; 
 but when you come up, I suppose it will be time 
 enough to give order : the 1st of September is 
 the day they desire it. Coming so lately from 
 St. Giles's I am not solicitous for news for you, 
 
 (1) The seat of the Earl of Shaftesbury, in Dorsetshire.
 
 especially Sir Harry Capel (2) being to see Your 
 Lordship to-morrow ; and the greatest discourse 
 we have is (next to Bedloe's affidavit), Tongue's 
 accusing Lord Essex, Lord Shaftesbury, and Lord 
 Wharton for the contrivers of the plot, and set- 
 ting his father and Gates to act their parts ; this 
 was told me by a black-coat made me a visit 
 yesterday, but I hear it by nobody else. My 
 sister and Lady Inchiquin are coming, so that I 
 must leave a better diversion for a worse, but 
 my thoughts often return where all my delight 
 is. I am yours entirely, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 They say Lord Pembroke is at Paris. Sir 
 John Curiton is dead : Master Charlton knows 
 him. You may tell him his lady is well, sitting 
 by me. His son is come this morning from 
 Tunbridge. He says the waters agree to a 
 miracle with Mr. Montague : he comes back on 
 Saturday. Chief Justice North sent up Bedloe's 
 affidavit to the Council ; but Lord Bath says it 
 was no more but to confirm what he had evi- 
 denced in his life, though others will not believe 
 
 (2) Brother to Arthur Earl of Essex. He was made a 
 Knight of the Bath at the coronation of Charles II., and was 
 afterwards created a Baron by the title of Lord Capel of 
 Tewkesbury.
 
 it. My sister and Lady Inchiquin are just come 
 from Bartholomew fair (3), and stored us all 
 with fairings. 
 
 LETTER XV. 
 
 [From London to Woburn, September 17. 1680.] 
 
 THOSE moments of true pleasure, I proposed 
 at the opening of your letter, were hugely 
 disappointed; first, when I found less than 
 one, would dispatch in the reading of it; 
 and secondly, yet more, that I could not pro- 
 long my delight as usual, by reflections on 
 those expressions I receive as the joy of my un- 
 worthy life, which can never be very miserable 
 in any accident of it, whilst my affectionate 
 heart can think you mine, as I do now. But 
 your head-ache over night, and a dinner at 
 Bedford next day, gives me more than ordinary 
 longings for a new report of your health in this 
 crazy time. The maid, in our house, died last 
 night. Poor Lord Shaftesbury continues ill. 
 As I was at dinner yesterday, the doctor coming 
 to the maid, was sent for to him, so I did not see 
 him, to enquire what he thought of him ; though 
 
 (3 ) Bartholomew fair was, in these days, we see, visited by 
 the first company in London.
 
 I fancy it was the first time he had been sent for, 
 and so he knew nothing of his condition. I 
 doubt he had a double fit yesterday, as I can 
 understand by messages. He has taken the 
 Jesuits' powder five times since yesterday 
 morning. Lord Halifax (1) came to town on 
 Thursday, and next morning his coach stood at 
 Sir Thomas Chitchley's. (2) The town says he 
 is to hear all sides, and then choose wisely. He 
 kissed the Duchess's (Portsmouth} hand last 
 night ; and she is gone this morning to tell the 
 news at Newmarket. (3) My brother James 
 walked over to-day to show me how fair he looks, 
 now he has a swelled face ; but talks of Wo- 
 burn on Monday, hating the place he has been 
 sick in. Lady Newport, my sister Allington 
 tells me, is ill : was taken with a coldness in her 
 head, and drowsiness j but was better to-day, and 
 talks cheerfully. Lord Lauderdale, it is plain, 
 his humble servants say, is not out of favour, but 
 being weary of business, transfers it to a son-in- 
 law. My sister Allington desires you to bring 
 
 (1) George Saville, Earl and afterwards Marquis of Hali- 
 fax. He had married Lord Sunderland's sister, the daughter 
 of Saccafissa. See her letters addressed to him, in this 
 collection. 
 
 (2) Sir Thomas Chitchley was married to Lord Halifax's 
 mother. He was member for the town of Cambridge. 
 
 (3) To the King, who was there.
 
 her some larks from Dunstable. I forgot to send 
 her of mine ; so have not confessed I had any, 
 unless she hears otherwise of them. Sir John 
 JBarnardiston (4) at Hackney, that was cut for 
 the stone, is dead. Dispose, I beseech you, of 
 my duty and service, and all other ways, as you 
 please, in all particulars, of your ever faithful, 
 obedient, passionately affectionate wife, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Sidney (5) is come : he says Duke of Hano- 
 
 (4>) Father to Sir Samuel Barnardiston, who was tried in 
 1684, for sedition, and fined ten thousand pounds, for writing 
 four private letters, in which the execution of Lord Russell 
 and Algernon Sidney was commented on, and blamed. 
 
 (5) Henry Sidney, afterwards Earl of Romney. A younger 
 brother of Algernoon Sidney's. He was now returned from 
 Holland, where he had been minister. What the provocation 
 here alluded to is not clear. Algernoon Sidney had received 
 the King's pardon and permission to return to England in 
 1677. He had since twice lost his election for a seat in the 
 House of Commons, by the opposition of the Court, and had 
 attached himself to that party, who, unfortunately for them- 
 selves, had allowed the Duke. of Monmouth to rank himself 
 among them. The " discourse" of Henry Sidney seems to 
 allude to what his brother Algernoon " so provoked," not 
 himself, " might be induced to do." Or whether the provo- 
 cation was Henry Sidney's at the opposition of the Court to 
 his brother's elections, and the evil eye with which he was 
 considered, or at Algernoon's still associating with a sus- 
 pected party, seems doubtful. See Lady Sunderland's let- 
 ters in this collection.
 
 ver (6) is coming over to take our Lady Anne 
 away. I hear he runs high in his discourse, what 
 a brother, so provoked, may be induced to do. 
 The Duchess (of York) is to have three new 
 maids, Miss Watts, Miss Falbrey, and one Miss 
 Len, a niece of Lady Pulteney's ; and the Duke 
 must give 2001. a year a piece. 
 
 Mrs. Cellier (7) stood this day in the pillory, 
 but her head was not put in the hole, but de- 
 fended one side of her head, as a kind of battle- 
 dore did the other, which she held in her hand. 
 All the stones that were thrown within reach, 
 she took up and put in her pocket. 
 
 My sister Northumberland's intelligence is, 
 that Madame de Soissons (8) has won millions at 
 
 (6) Afterwards George the First. He came to England 
 in December of this year, with an intention, as it seems, of 
 marrying the " Lady," afterwards Queen " Anne." 
 
 (7) Mrs. Cellier, a midwife, of the Roman Catholic religion. 
 A woman of some cleverness, but of very bad character. 
 She had been charged, in the preceding year, with being 
 concerned in the Popish Plot, but was acquitted ; and her 
 accuser, Dangerfield, committed to prison. She had been 
 now convicted of the publication of a libel, called " Malice 
 defeated ;" and was sentenced to stand three times in the 
 pillory, and fined a thousand pounds. 
 
 (8) Olympia Mancini, Comtesse de Soissons, sister to 
 Madame de Mazarin, and mother to Prince Eugene. She 
 had fled from France the January of this year, being ira-
 
 play of the Jews at Amsterdam. She says also, 
 that Lady Halifax (9) has lost no beauty in the 
 country, and takes particular care you may know 
 it. Mrs. Lawson is coming up again j so that 
 
 plicated in the affair of La Voison's poisonings. She was 
 decretee de prise du corps, by the tribunals of Paris, and never 
 returned to France, living afterwards at Bruxelles. Madame 
 de Sevigne" gives the following account of her sudden disap- 
 pearance from a supper at her own house at Paris, together 
 with another woman of fashion, accused of the same crime. 
 
 " Pour Madame la Comtesse de Soissons elle n'a pu en- 
 " visager la prison ; on a bien voulu lui donner le terns de 
 " s'enfuir ; si elle est coupable. Elle jouoit a la bassette 
 " Mercredi : M. de Bouillon entra ; il la pria de passer dans 
 " son cabinet, et lui dit qu'il falloit sortir de France, ou aller 
 " a la Bastille elle ne balana point ; elle fit sortir du jeu la 
 " Marquise d'Alluie ; elles ne parurent plus. L'heure du 
 " souper vint ; on dit que la Comtesse soupoit en ville : tout 
 " le monde s'en alia, persuade 1 de quelque chose d'extraor- 
 " dinaire. Cependant on fit beaucoup de paquets, on prit 
 " de 1'argent, des pierreries ; on fit prendre des justaucorps 
 " gris aux laquais, aux cochers ; on fit mettre huit cheveaux 
 " au carosse. Elle fit placer aupres d'elle dans le fond la 
 " Marquise d'Alluie qu'on dit qui ne vouloit pas aller, et 
 " deux femmes de chambre sur le devant. Elle dit a ses 
 " gens qu'ils ne se missent point en peine d'elle, qu'elle e"toit 
 " innocente : mais que ces coquines de femmes avoient pris 
 " plaisir a la nommer : elle pleura : elle passa chez Madame 
 " de Carignan, et sortit de Paris a trois heures du matin." 
 Lettrea de Madame de Sevignt, vol. v. p. 53. Grouvelle's 
 edition. 
 
 (9) Lord Halifax's second wife ; the lady here mentioned, 
 was Gertrude, daughter of William Pierpont, second son of 
 the Earl of Kingston. 
 
 Q 3
 
 there is great strife likely to be between her and 
 your cousin Howard of Escrick. 
 
 They say this young Hanover is one of the 
 -handsomest and best bred men of the age : 
 spends now in the academy twenty thousand 
 pounds a year. 
 
 Do not forget the larks. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 [JFrom Stratton to London during the Sitting of Parliament, 
 1680.] 
 
 Stratton, Thursday night. 
 
 SENDING your victuals by the higler, I take 
 the same opportunity to let my dearest know 
 I have his by the coach, and do humbly and 
 heartily praise my God for the refreshing news 
 of his being well : yet you do not in words tell 
 me if you are very well ; and your going to the 
 House tells no more than that you are not very 
 ill. If your nose bleeds as it did, pray let me beg 
 of you to give yourself time to bleed in the arm. 
 My heart, be assured, mine is not easy, till I am 
 where you are j therefore, send us a coach as 
 soon as you can : it shall find us ready whenever 
 it comes, if God bless us to be well. I wrote 
 more fully to this purpose in the morning, only 
 I am willing to hint it again, in case of its mis-
 
 231 
 
 carriage. I have sent up one maid this day, and 
 on Monday all follow. It seems to me the ladies 
 at Pet worth (1) are as particular to the Marquis 
 as they were to the Duke before : but the won- 
 drous things he tells, I may aim at, but shall 
 never guess, nor care to do it ; or any thing 
 else, but to move towards London, and meet my 
 better life, as I wish to see him, well and mine, 
 as I am his, and so to be to an old age ; but 
 above all, praying for hearts and minds fitly dis- 
 posed to submit to the wise and merciful dispens- 
 ations of the great God. I mean to keep your 
 friend Chesterfield's (2) letter ; and hope you 
 
 ( 1 ) " The ladies at Petworth" were probably the Countess 
 of Northumberland (Lady Russell's sister,) her daughter, 
 Lady Ogle, and her mother-in-law, the elder Countess Dow- 
 ager of Northumberland, sister to the Earl of Suffolk. 
 
 (2) Philip Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, whose son after- 
 wards married a daughter of Lord Halifax's by his second 
 wife, who was mother to the Lord Chesterfield, the author 
 of the Letters to his Son. 
 
 The letter here mentioned is not to be found, but the fol- 
 lowing letter from the safie correspondent to Lord Russell, of 
 a much earlier date, appears to the Editor worth preserving. 
 
 " June the 7th, Bretby, 1673. 
 
 " Since nothing can give me greater satisfaction than the 
 testimonies of your kindness, I think I need not tell you, how 
 much you obliged me by the favour of your last letter, which 
 as at first it gave me great concern for your indisposition, so 
 the latter part dissipated that trouble, by the assurance of 
 your perfect recovery, and brought me the relation of our 
 engagement with the Dutch, which I hear since was much 
 to the advantage of His Majesty's navy, I cannot say of 
 England, since many judicious persons, who love both then 
 
 Q 4
 
 will make good his character in all accidents of 
 your life. From the sharpest trials good Lord 
 preserve us, if it may be. I guess my lord will 
 be soon in town ; pray present my duty to him. 
 Our girls are very well : we were altogether at 
 the farm-house this day. They are plastering 
 the granary. Pray keep good hours, and take 
 care of (3) hackney coaches. Believe me 
 
 your obedient wife, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 LETTER XVIL 
 
 [From London to Woburn, February 1680.] 
 
 Tuesday night. 
 
 SINCE you resolve not to be here till Thursday, 
 this may come time enough to tell you we are all 
 well ; and I will say little more, guessing this as 
 
 King and country, do apprehend the ruin of our enemies, 
 likely to prove fatal to ourselves ; but I hope this is a vulgar 
 error : however, I am sure it is no ill prayer to desire God to 
 grant us what is necessary for us, since he knows better than 
 we that ask. Possibly this ejaculation may surprise you ; 
 but, dear friend, if the country *, a wet summer, and the 
 being forty years old, does not mortify a man, he must be of 
 a much stronger constitution than is, Sir, 
 
 " Your most faithful, and ever humble Servant, 
 
 " CHESTERFIELD* 
 
 " Pray let my obedient service be presented to the Lady 
 Vaughan." 
 
 (3) A word in the MS. not to be decyphered. 
 
 Se the reasons assigned for his retreat into the country, in the Me 
 Gratnont.
 
 233 
 
 likely to miss of coming to your hands, as to be 
 read by you, since I hope you lie at Dunstable 
 to-morrow. I shall defer answering any parti- 
 cular of your last till we meet, and then shall fail, 
 I doubt, of my part in some ; but it will be by 
 my incapacity, who can never be what I should 
 or would to my best and dearest life : but I ever 
 will submit. I saw Lord Bedford to-day at 
 Southampton House. Lord Essex has lost his 
 youngest son, The match is concluded with our 
 Madame (1) in France, and the King of Spain, 
 as Lady Newport says. I am in a little haste, 
 and am content to be so, because I think what I 
 have said is to no purpose : but I defy Lord Rus- 
 sell to wish for Thursday with more joy and 
 passion ; and will make him own he has a thou- 
 sand times less reason to do so than has his 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 For the Lord Russell, at Woburn Abbey, 
 Bedfordshire ; to be left with the Post- 
 master at Brick-hill. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 [From London to Woburn, 6th September, 1680.J 
 
 MY girls and I being just risen from dinner, 
 Miss Rachael followed me into my chamber, and 
 
 (1) " Our Madame," must mean the infant daughter of 
 Henrietta, Duchess of Orleans; then about seven or eight 
 years old.
 
 seeing me take the pen and ink, asked me what 
 I was going to do. I told her I was going to 
 write to her papa. So will I,' said she ; ' and 
 while you write, I will think what I have to say ;' 
 and truly, before I could write one word, she 
 came and told me she had done j so I set down 
 her words ; and she is hard at the business, as 1 
 am not, one would conclude, by the pertinence 
 of this beginning : but my dear man has taken 
 me for better and worse in all conditions, and 
 knows my soul to him ; so expressions are but 
 a pleasure to myself, not him who believes 
 better things of me than my ill rhetoric will 
 induce him to by my words. To this minute I 
 am not one jot wiser as to intelligence, (whatever 
 other improvements my study has made me,) but 
 I hope the afternoon's conversation will better 
 me that way. Lady Shaftesbury sends me word, 
 if her lord continues as well as he was this morn- 
 ing, I shall see her j and my sister was visiting 
 yesterday. I will suck the honey from them all 
 if they will be communicative. I have not seen 
 Allington. Mr. James had a gentle fit, no cold, 
 and is pretty well to-day j if it holds, he sends me 
 word. Pray talk of his nurse, that she that is, 
 may not be thought the occasion of my not liking 
 her. I have staid till Mr. Cheeke (1) is come 
 
 (1) A son of Sir Thomas Cheeke. He was married to a 
 daughter of Philip Sidney, Earl of Leicester.
 
 235 
 
 in, and he helps me to nothing but a few half 
 crowns, I expect, at back-gammon ; unless he 
 may read my letter, he vows he would tell me 
 none, if he knew any ; and doubting it is not 
 worth his perusal, I hasten to shut it up. Lord 
 Shaftesbury was alone, so his lady came not. I 
 hear my sister and Lady Harvey went thither 
 this afternoon j but she has not called here to- 
 night. Your birds came safe to feast us to-mor- 
 row. I am yours, my dear love, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 For the Loi'd Russell, at Woburn Abbey, 
 Bedfordshire ; to be left at Brick-hill. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, about February, 1681.} 
 
 FROM the opinion I have, that Lord Russell is 
 a very sincere person, I am very well pleased with 
 all the parts of his letter, that he came in good 
 time to his inn, and had really such kind re- 
 flections as he tells me of. I hope we shall enjoy 
 those dozen years he speaks of, and cannot for- 
 bear wishing to double them : as one pleasure 
 passes, I doubt not, but we shall find new ones j 
 our nursery will help to furnish us j it is in good 
 order, I thank God. Your father came this
 
 236 
 
 morning, and gave me the report of Devonshire 
 elections. Sir William Courtney and Rolle car- 
 ried it without polling : my brother (1) Robert 
 says they joined, but sister Allington says Par- 
 tridge has lost it by three or four hundred voices. 
 Cotton and the other carried it; Russell lost 
 it. (2) In Middlesex, Ranton and Roberts 
 have (3) it. Lord Suffolk had a letter sent him, to 
 let him know he need not wait : they sent it at 
 eleven o'clock at night. Lord (4<) Manchester's 
 was sent into the country to him. Lord Ayles- 
 bury acts as Lord Lieutenant in Huntingdon- 
 shire, for the Lord Sandwich (5); so does my 
 
 (1 ) The Hon. Robert Russell, one of the brothers of Lord 
 Russell. 
 
 (2) For the county of Cambridge. The sitting members 
 in this parliament were Sir Robert Cotton and Sir Levinz 
 Bennet. Those of the preceding parliament had been Fer- 
 dinand Russell and Edward Patrick, Esquires. 
 
 (3) Nicolas Ranton and Sir William Robertes. 
 
 (4) The Earl of Manchester had been Lard Chamberlain 
 to the King, and seems to have been sent to Lord Suffolk, to 
 explain or modify the letter he had received to dispense with 
 his coming into waiting as Lord of the bed-chamber to the 
 King. 
 
 (5) Lord Sandwich was a minor ; the son of Edward Earl 
 of Sandwich, who was blown up with his ship in the engage- 
 ment with the Dutch Fleet, 28th May, 1672. See Evelyn's 
 Diary, for his account of that transaction, and for Lore? 
 Sandwich's character, vol. i. p. 430.
 
 Lord Chamberlain (6), for the Duke of Grafton, 
 in Suffolk. And, at last, Lord Allington owns 
 
 (6) The Earl of Arlington. The Duke of Grafton was his 
 son-in-law ; his only child, the Lady Isabella Bennet, having 
 been married, at five years old, to the Duke of Grafton, 
 (son of the King and of the Duchess of Cleveland, ) at eight 
 years old. See Evelyn's Diary, vol. i. p. 432., who was pre- 
 sent at this first marriage, and likewise at a second mar- 
 riage, which took place between them in the year 1679, 
 'which he thus describes: " 6th November, 1679. Dined 
 " at the Countess of Sunderland's ; and was this evtn- 
 " ing at the re-marriage of the Duchess of Grafton to the 
 *' Duke, (His Majesty's natural son,) she being now twelve 
 ". years old. The ceremony was performed in my Lord 
 " Chamberlain's (her father's) lodgings at Whitehall, by 
 " the Bishop of Rochester, His Majesty present. A sudden 
 " and unexpected thing, when every body believed the first 
 " marriage would have come to nothing ; but the measure 
 " being determined, I was privately invited by my Lady her 
 " mother to be present. I confess I could give her little joy, 
 " and so I plainly told her ; but she said the King would 
 " have it so, and there was no going back. This sweetest, 
 * hopefullest, most beautiful child, was sacrificed to a boy 
 " that .had been rudely bred, without any thing to encourage 
 " them but His Majesty's pleasure. I pray God the sweet 
 *' child find it to her advantage ; who, if my augury deceive 
 " me not, will in a few years be such a paragon, as were fit 
 " to make the wife of the greatest Prince in Europe. I staid 
 " supper, where His Majesty sate between the Duchess of 
 " Cleveland, (the mother of the Duke of Grafton,) and the 
 " sweet Duchess the bride : there were several great persons 
 " and ladies present, without pomp. My love to my Lord 
 " Arlington's family and the sweet child made me behold all 
 " this with regret ; though as the Duke of Grafton affects 
 " the sea, to which I find his father intends to use him^ he 
 
 7
 
 238 
 
 he is for Cambridgeshire, which, with the King's 
 orders to stay at the Tower, when the Parliament 
 sits at Oxford, put him in very good humour on 
 Thursday last. I have not seen Charlton since 
 you went. Your own story of thieves, and so 
 many as we hear of every day, makes me very 
 desirous of your being at poor Southampton- 
 house again, in the arms of your 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 For the Lord Russell. 
 
 " may emerge a plain, useful, and robust officer ; and, were 
 " he polished, a tolerable person, for he is exceeding hand- 
 " some, by far surpassing any of the King's other natural 
 " issue." 
 
 In a fragment of a letter from Lord Russell to his wife, he 
 says, " Lord Sunderland, I am told, exclaims openly of my 
 " Lord Arlington, and says, he had his promise for his 
 " daughter's marrying of his son." It would seem there 
 were other pretenders to this infant heiress, by the following 
 mention made of her in Cartes' Extracts from the Life of 
 James II., published in Macpherson's State Papers : 
 
 July 13. 1672. " Buckingham proposed to the King, if 
 " he would break off the marriage with Lord Harry (created 
 " Duke of Grajton in 1677) and Arlington's daughter, to 
 " get Lady Percy (Lady Elizabeth Percy] for Lord Harry. 
 " The King answered that it was too late, the other being 
 " concluded. Buckingham, at the same time, offered to the 
 " Countess of Northumberland, (Lady Russell's sister,) to 
 " get the King to consent, that he should command the Duke 
 ' of York to mary her." See Macpherson, vol. i. p. 67-
 
 289 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 [From London to Oxford, March, 1681.] 
 
 I HOPE my dearest did not interpret amiss any 
 action of mine, from seven o'clock Thursday 
 night, to nine on Friday morning ; I am certain 
 I had sufficient punishment for the ill conduct I 
 used, of the short time then left us to spend to- 
 gether, without so terrible an addition : besides, 
 I was really sorry I could not scribble as you 
 told me you designed I should, not only that I 
 might please myself with remembering I had 
 done you some little service at parting, but pos- 
 sibly I might have prevailed for the laying by a 
 smart word or so, which will now pass current, 
 unless you will oblige a wife, after eleven years, 
 by making such a sacrifice to her now and then, 
 upon occasions offered. I hope, as I write this, 
 you are safe near Oxford (1), though it is not 
 noon ; but being to meet Lady Inchiquin at 
 dinner at Montague House, I thought this the 
 best time to dispatch this affair with pleasure. 
 
 (1 ) The parliament met this year at Oxford, on March the 
 21st; but, from its uncomplying temper with the wishes of 
 the court, was suddenly dissolved by the King on the 29th 
 of the same month.
 
 If any thing offers itself, fit to be inserted, I shall 
 gladly do it ; but I doubt it. Charlton going 
 to-day to his lady's at Barnet, he promised me, 
 if he knew any thing before he set out, he would 
 impart it. Lord Cavendish keeps a soldier at his 
 back (2) still. Vendome, another (3) nephew, 
 is come over ; so they say he shall take Lord 
 Cavendish's concern ; but fighting must be in 
 the end : what Lord Mordant has done can never 
 be put up ; nor he will not submit. We conclude 
 nothing but the great Earl of Aylesbury can 
 assist this matter : he must come up of necessity. 
 The report of our nursery, I humbly praise 
 God, is very good. Master (4-) improves really, 
 I think, every day. Sure he is a goodly child ; 
 the more I see of others, the better he appears : 
 I hope God will give him life and virtue. Misses 
 and their mamma walked yesterday after dinner 
 to see their cousin Alington. Miss Kate wished 
 
 (2) This must probably have been to prevent an intended 
 duel from some dispute at play. 
 
 (3) The Vendome here mentioned, was the grand Prieur 
 Vend6me, great-nephew to Cardinal Mazarin, and son of 
 Laura Mancini ; he was consequently cousin to the Duchess 
 of York, and to the Duchess of Mazarin. The nephew 
 mentioned as already here, was the Due de Nevers, brother 
 to the Duchess of Mazarin. See Lady Sunderland's Let- 
 ters, No. 8. 
 
 V 4) Her son, Wriothesley, second Duke of Bedford, born 
 1st November, 1680.
 
 she might see him (5) ; so I gratified her little 
 person. Unless I see cause to add a note, this 
 is all at this time from yours only entirely, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Look to your pockets : a printed paper says 
 you will have fine papers put into them, and 
 then witnesses to swear. (6) 
 
 LETTER XXI. 
 
 [JVow London to Oxford, March, 1681.] 
 
 I CANNOT express to my dearest, how pleasant 
 to me the sight of his hand is : yet I readily 
 excuse the seeing of it, when he cannot perform 
 it at a seasonable hour, or that he is pressed with 
 more weighty affairs, so that I may be assured 
 he will let me know if he be not well. We are 
 entertained with divers reports; yesterday's 
 were, that my Lord Salisbury had broken his 
 neck, and my Lord Shaftesbury was impeached, 
 which puts his poor lady into uneasinesses, though 
 we all conclude there is no reason to credit the 
 report. I find by a letter of Pordage's (1), that 
 you expect to hear of us every day : if there were 
 
 (5 ) A new-born son of Lady Alington's. 
 
 (6) The caution here given conveys a curious idea of the 
 suspicion and insecurity of the times. 
 
 (1) Pordage was the house-steward. 
 R
 
 242 
 
 any thing amiss, you should not fail ; but while 
 all is well, I thought we did enough. Truly it 
 was my fault the intelligence of lies (2) are not 
 sent ; I believed you might buy them at Oxford. 
 Your care to inform us of the King's speech was 
 more than needed ; we are better supplied than 
 you imagine, having read that in print before 
 you did, I believe. The Lord Mayor (3) reco- 
 vers. The Duchess of Buckingham (4) is likely 
 to be blind, a favour of her Lord's, which she 
 has been ever very thankful for ; but lately, some 
 friend, in kindness, endeavouring to inform her 
 judgment and reform her behaviour, reasoned it 
 with her, and represented her obligation to such 
 a husband, upon which the little wise woman 
 showed some resentment to her lord; but he 
 soon made her confess who this friend was, and a 
 grievous bustle there has been, but the poor crea- 
 ture is almost eaten up with her case. Our finer 
 ladies are not all alike satisfied : Lady (5) Arundel 
 
 (2 ) She means, probably, the newspapers of the day. 
 
 (3) The Lord Mayor, this year, was Sir Gilbert Gerard ; 
 the same who had headed a petition to the King, for calling 
 a parliament. 
 
 (4>) Mary, only child and heiress of Thomas Lord Fairfax, 
 the parliament general, married to George Villiers, the second 
 and last Duke of Buckingham of that family. 
 
 (5) Probably Lady Arundel of Trerice. She was the daugh- 
 ter of Sir Henry Slingsby, of the county of York, and the 
 widow of Sir Richard Manlevrier. After the death of Lord 
 Arundel she married Thomas Herbert Earl of Pembroke.
 
 243 
 
 goes not to Oxford, as she designed, but to 
 Northamptonshire ; and if she did not, Lady 
 Betty Felton threatens to mortify her above all 
 sufferance : for she vows she will not suffer Lord 
 Shrewsbury (6) to adore there any longer ; and 
 for my Lord Thanet (7), she says, the world shall 
 see how much more powerful her charms are, 
 than those of a great monarch. She is resolved 
 to make that conquest, and then he shall behave 
 himself, in court or parliament, as she appoints. 
 These things we hear ; they serve to pass our 
 time, whether true or false. I hope you present 
 my duty to my Lord, and gave him my reasons, 
 as I desired you, why I trouble him not with my 
 letters. The children are all well. We hear 
 the Lord Halifax is at Oxford ; if that be false, 
 let us know. My uncle Ruvigny has been in- 
 disposed with his ptysic : he has not supped 
 here yet j what he will to-night, I know not. I 
 think this is sufficient for one time, from your 
 
 obediently faithful wife, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Pordage's wife continues very ill. We have a 
 report that the King's lip was bit with a weasel 
 
 (6) Charles Talbot, Earl and afterwards Duke of Shrews- 
 bury, by William and Mary in 1691. 
 
 (7) Nicholas Tufton, Earl of Thanet, who married Eliza- 
 beth, third daughter of the Earl of Burlington. See Lady 
 Sunderland's Letters, No. 4.
 
 244 
 
 at Cornberry. My uncle, Mr. Charlton, Mr. 
 James, your two sisters, are all your servants ; 
 but not one word the more in this letter for 
 them. My duty to papa. * 
 
 * These last four words were written by the child. 
 
 LETTER XXII. 
 
 [From Stratton to Frimley, 1681.] 
 
 Thursday morning. 
 
 A MESSENGER, bringing things from Alsford 
 this morning, gives me the opportunity of send- 
 ing this by the post. If he will leave it at Frim- 
 ley, it will let you know we are all well ; if he 
 does not, it may let such know it as do not care, 
 but satisfy no one's curiosity in any other point ; 
 for, having said thus much, I am ready to con- 
 clude, with this one secret, first, that as thy pre- 
 cious self is the most endearing husband, I be- 
 lieve, in the world, so I am the most grateful 
 wife, and my heart most gladly passionate in its 
 returns. Now you have all, for this time, from 
 your 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Boy is asleep, girls singing a-bed. Lord Mar- 
 quis (1) sent a compliment yesterday, that he 
 
 (1) Of Winchester.
 
 2-45 
 
 heard one of the girls had the measles j and if I 
 would remove the rest, he would leave his house 
 at an hour's warning. I hope you deliver my 
 service to Mr. James. 
 
 For the Lord Russell ,- to be left at Frimley. 
 
 LETTER, XXIIL 
 
 [From Stratton to Frindey, 1681.]' 
 
 IT is so much pleasure to me to write to you,, 
 when 1 shall see you so soon after, that I cannot 
 deny myself the entertainment. My head willlie 
 the easier on my pillow, where I am just going to 
 lay it down, as soon as I have scribbled this side 
 of paper. All has been well here since you, our 
 best life, went. My nieces (1) came last night 
 from Tichfield, all but Betty (2), and Mr. Garafe 
 and Harborough. Sir Walter Young dined here 
 to-day ; as, I believe, he has told you, on the 
 road he meant to lie at Harfbrd Bridge to-night, 
 and so to London to-morrow : he was not tempted 
 
 (1 ) The daughters of her eldest and favourite sister, Lady 
 Elizabeth Wriothesley, married to Edward Noel Viscount 
 Campden, created Earl of Gainsborough in 1682. They 
 were then living at Tichfield, in Hampshire, which had been 
 the seat of the Lord Treasurer Southampton. 
 
 (2) Elizabeth Noel, their third daughter, afterwards mar- 
 ried to Mr. Norton. 
 
 R 3
 
 to make one at our ball ; but we have had one 
 without him, very formally. I need not tell you 
 1 received your letter; Will Wright's (3) coming 
 shows it : nor I need less say any thing to ac- 
 quaint your dear self the joys it brought with it, 
 from the expressions in it to poor unworthy me : 
 some alloys possibly I found, but I defer that 
 matter till Friday, when I hope once more to be 
 blessed with the sight of what I love best. Good 
 night, dearest life : love your 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 I have sent you Mrs. Lacon^s letter to read, 
 not thinking it worth your reading at Stratton. 
 For the Lord Russell, at Frimley. 
 
 LETTER XXIV. 
 
 [From Stratton to London, 20th September, 1681.] 
 
 To see any body preparing, and taking their 
 way to see what I long to do a thousand times 
 more than they, makes me not endure to suffer 
 their going, without saying something to my 
 best life ; though it is a kind of anticipating my 
 joy when we shall meet, to allow myself so much 
 before the time : but I confess I feel a great deal, 
 that, though I left London with great reluctance, 
 
 (3) A groom.
 
 247 
 
 (as it is easy to persuade men a woman does,) 
 yet that I am not like to leave Stratton with 
 greater. They will tell you how well I got 
 hither, and how well I found our dear treasure 
 here : your boy will please you ; you will, I think, 
 find him improved, though I tell you so before- 
 hand. They fancy he wanted you ; for, as soon 
 as I alighted, he followed, calling Papa ; but, I 
 suppose it is the word he has most command of ; 
 so was not disobliged by the little fellow. The 
 girls were fine, in remembrance of the happy 
 29th of September (1) ; and we drank your 
 health, after a red-deer pie ; and at night your 
 girls and I supped on a sack posset : nay, 
 Master (2) would have his room ; and for haste 
 burnt his fingers in the posset ; but he does but 
 rub his hands for it. It is the most glorious 
 weather here that ever was seen. The coach 
 shall meet you at the cabbage-garden : be there 
 by eight o'clock, or a little after j though I 
 guess you can hardly be there so soon, day 
 breaks so late ; and indeed the mornings are so 
 misty, it is not wholesome to be in the air so 
 early. I do propose going to my neighbour 
 Worsley to-day. I would fain be telling my 
 heart more things any thing to be in a kind of 
 
 (1) The birthday of Lord Russell. (2) Her son. 
 
 R 4
 
 24.8 
 
 talk with him ; but, I believe, Spencer stays for 
 my dispatch : he was willing to go early ; but 
 this was to be the delight of this morning, and 
 the support of the day. It is performed in bed, 
 thy pillow at my back ; where thy dear head shall 
 lie, I hope, to-morrow night, and many more, 
 I trust in His mercy, notwithstanding all our 
 enemies or ill-wishers. Love, and be willing to 
 
 be loved, by 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 I have not seen your brother; yet I wisb 
 matters go well. 
 For the Lord Russell. 
 
 LETTER XXV. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, 3d October, 1681.] 
 
 Saturday night. 
 
 I HAVE deferred so late to write, that now I 
 have little time to do it in : my intention was 
 good, hoping still to learn some sort of tattle 
 might entertain you, but nothing comes ; yet 
 Mr. Montague is but just gone. Now the com- 
 pany is gone to Stockbridge, he has a little lei- 
 sure to pay his civilities : he says Lord Caven- 
 dish comes next week : he has got 5001. returned 
 him by old Devon (1), as I understand. Your 
 
 ( 1 ) To what this alludes the Editor knows not. See, on 
 the subject of Lord Cavendish and his father, Lady Sunder- 
 and's Letters, No. 1.
 
 24,9 
 
 father went this morning ; and Lady Margaret 
 also. The King comes not till Friday. The 
 ladies' quarrel is the only news talked of: Lady 
 Betty (2) lies a-bed and cries. Lord Newport 
 came yesterday morning, and says he never saw 
 the King more enraged ; he sent to Lord Suffolk 
 to chain up his mad daughter, and forbid her 
 the Court j so at present neither Lord nor Lady 
 Suffolk see her ; and little Felton (3) is leaving 
 her. Our family, I thank God, is well, as you 
 left it. I hear your cousin, Tom Newport, is 
 very ill of a fever. Mrs. Pelham (4) is brought 
 to bed of a fair daughter ; so the sport is begun 
 in our Square. Lord Shaftesbury had a good 
 night : Charlton waited on his wife out of town 
 yesterday : so that you are to imagine it a little 
 
 (2) Lady Betty Felton, before mentioned in these letters. 
 It is impossible now to discover what the " ladies' quarrel," 
 nor who were the other ladies engaged in it. Lord Cavendish is 
 mentioned in Lady Sunderland's letters, as one of Lady Betty 
 Felton's admirers and followers. She seems to have been 
 the fine lady of her day. Her reign was short, for she died 
 at twenty-five, the very year this letter was written, leaving 
 an only daughter, afterwards married to John, the first Earl 
 of Bristol, of the family of Hervey. 
 
 (3) Her husband. 
 
 (4) Mrs. Pelham was a daughter of Sir William Jones, 
 married to Mr. afterwards Sir Thomas Pelham, created by 
 Queen Anne Lord Pelham, in 1706.
 
 250 
 
 dull in our quarters : it is not so to me at this 
 present, but will be as soon as I have signed, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 For the Lord Russett 9 at Stratton^ 
 in Hampshire ; to be lefttuith the 
 Postmaster at Basingstoke. 
 
 LETTER XXVI. 
 
 [From Stratton to London, 20th October, 1681 ..T 
 
 Saturday night. 
 
 THE hopes I have, my dearest life, that this: 
 will be the concluding epistle, for this time 
 makes me undertake it with more cheerfulness 
 than my others. We are very busy in preparing, 
 and full of expectation to see a coach come for 
 us : just at twelve this morning I heard one, was 
 not altogether so welcome as Mr. Whithead will 
 be : it proved Lady Worsley (1) j but Miss, who 
 had me by the hand, would not quit it, but led 
 me to her dinner, and told my Lady Worsley, I 
 said I would dine with her 5 then she would 
 
 (1) Sir James Worsley, of Pilewell, in Hants, married 
 Mary, daughter of Sir William Stewart, of Harteley Man- 
 duit, in the same county.
 
 251 
 
 dine there too ; and Miss consented she should : 
 so we took your table to my chamber, and 
 pleased all parties, I hope, I being so, now it is 
 over. I put her to work as soon as we had eaten. 
 We laid up all your pears : I intend them to go 
 by Monday's carrier. Your hawks we know not 
 what to do with, but stay they must, I say, till 
 we are gone, and horses come back ; but your 
 new dog, I hope you will think of, for what to 
 do with him I know not : I have a mind to have 
 him led along with the waggon; for then he 
 will be safe going through towns, and Betty 
 Forster may take care of him at nights ; but I 
 hope you will tell us your mind to-morrow, if 
 you can think of any thing but parliamentary 
 affairs. I pray God direct all your consultations 
 there, and, my dearest dear, you guess my 
 mind. A word to the wise. I never longed 
 more earnestly to be with you, for whom I have 
 a thousand kind and grateful thoughts. You 
 know of whom I learned this expression. If 
 I could have found one more fit to speak the 
 passion of my soul, I should send it you with 
 joy ; but I submit with great content to imitate, 
 but never shall attain to any equality, except 
 that of sincerity : and I will ever be (by God's 
 grace) what I ought, and profess, thy faithful, 
 affectionate, and obedient wife, 
 
 R. RUSSELL,
 
 252 
 
 I seal not this till Sunday morning, that you 
 might know all is well then. Miss sends me word 
 she is so, and hopes to see papa quickly ; so does, 
 one more. 
 
 For the Lord Russell, at Southampton** 
 house, London. 
 
 LETTER XXVII. 
 
 {From Stratton to London, November, 1681. J 
 
 Monday, 10 o'clock. 
 
 I HAVE felt one true delight this morning al- 
 ready, being just come from our nurseries, and 
 now am preparing for another : these being my 
 true moments of pleasure, till the presence of 
 my dearest life is before my eyes again : how I 
 long for it, I will not go about to tell you ; nor 
 how I take your abusing me about my perfec- 
 tions: you should leave those things to your 
 brother to say, when occasion serves. On Fri- 
 day, he may know how soon he may be put to 
 his best language (1); for Wednesday is the 
 day of trial, and the report to be made on 
 
 ( 1 ) This seems to have been, either in jest or in earnest, 
 some intended proposal of marriage to be made by Mr. James 
 Russell.
 
 253 
 
 Friday ; but now we have choice of old and 
 young. There is a young, handsome, well-na- 
 tured, discreet gentlewoman, solely at the dis- 
 posal of Mr. W. with 70001., a Lady Nines' 
 daughter, here in the west. I name her, be- 
 cause possibly you may see somebody may have 
 known something of them ; and this coming by 
 the carrier I thought it would make no dis- 
 covery. I put a note into the box of pears last 
 night, intending then not to write to-day ; but 
 I have no power to let it alone 5 and, as an in- 
 ducement to myself to make it more reasonable, 
 I consider I need not send again to-morrow to 
 Basingstoke, since you will have both on Wed- 
 nesday morning j that is, unless there should be 
 any change, as I trust in God there will not ; 
 so that look for no news by the post : if there 
 be cause you shall hear. The pears, I sent you 
 word how they are distinguished : all the south 
 are in papers and linen. I am something dis- 
 couraged as to good news, you having had Sir 
 William (2) so long, and give me not a word of 
 comfort ; nor, truly, I found none in the news- 
 letter, but increase of witnesses against Lord 
 Shaftesbury. My service to the ladies that met 
 you. Poor Lady Shaftesbury writes me word, 
 
 (2) Sir William Jones, who had been Attorney-General.
 
 254. 
 
 she finds her brother (3) the same man. No 
 fault must be found with the ministers, though 
 they feel the sad effects of their malice and 
 cruelty. The carrier is ready to go : he pro- 
 mises, by twelve o'clock to be with you. Yours 
 entirely, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Miss brings me her mite ; but there has been 
 almost wet eyes about it, she thinks it so ill 
 done. (4) 
 
 LETTER XXVIII. 
 
 [From Stratton to London, November 22. 1681.] (1) 
 
 As often as you are absent, we are taught, by 
 experience, who gives life to this house and 
 family ; but we dodge on in a dull way, as well 
 as we can. Our eldest master (2) walks con- 
 tentedly to Micheldever (3) and back again, 
 then talks with Richard ; then sits down to a 
 
 (3) The Hon. Robert Spencer, frequently mentioned in 
 these letters. 
 
 (4-) A letter from the child is enclosed. 
 
 (1) This letter is addressed " For the Lady Attington" 
 but on the fold of the paper is added the word " 'yourself' 9 
 
 (2) Mr. James Russell. 
 
 (3) A village in the neighbourhood.
 
 woodcock and toasts : but the highest gusto I 
 find he has, is going to bed at ten, and expect- 
 ing to sleep there till eleven next morning, 
 without being disturbed ; which he was in fear 
 not to do when you are at home ; and he com- 
 plains, you are not content to wake him, but 
 throw off his clothes to boot. I think he ex- 
 pects a return to his visit before he makes 
 another. (4) This is a day of care ; for Richard 
 is gone upon Dun, both to the He and She : so 
 at night we expect to know something ; then he 
 will spur up that way, I suppose. If the moun- 
 tain come not to us, Mahomet will go to it. I 
 just come from our little master: f he is very 
 well j so I left him, and saw your girls a-lacing. 
 Miss Kate says, Sure papa is upon the road* I 
 wish for Wednesday, that I may know if I am 
 to hope he will be so this week. If you should 
 buy the new stuff for my closet, do not let them 
 make chairs ; for now I think cane will do best 
 in so little a room. Pray remember the door be 
 turned against the wood places to my chamber. 
 One remembrance more, my best life : be wise 
 as a serpent, harmless as a dove. So farewell, 
 for this time. Yours, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 
 
 (4>) This, and what follows, again alludes to the proposal 
 of marriage mentioned in the last letter.
 
 256 
 
 Mr. James and I desire Thomson (5) every 
 week. (6) 
 
 For the Lady Allington. 
 
 (5) Probably a newspaper of the time. 
 
 (6) The reader may, probably, like to see a letter of Lord 
 Russell's, written soon after the date of this : 
 
 " November 26th, 1681. 
 
 " I suppose you received mine of Thursday. I hope this 
 " will be the last time for this bout of troubling you in this 
 " kind ; for, on Tuesday, God willing, I intend to set out to 
 " go to my dearest dear's embraces, which, upon my word, 
 " I value now as much as I did ten, eleven, or twelve years 
 " ago, and more than any the town can afford, now you are 
 " out of it. On Monday we intend to be at Westminster, to 
 " be bail for my Lord Shaftesbury, in case it be demanded ; 
 " and I hear the Lieutenant of the Tower has order to bring 
 " him, Lord Howard*, Willmore f, and Whitaker: so that 
 " it is concluded they will be all released, although some talk 
 " as if they would bring fresh matter ; but I do not believe 
 " it. It is thought by some of your friends, where we dined 
 " together when you were in town, that the fair man J was 
 " the person most troubled at Thursday's business ; and, 
 " really, by his looks, and what he said to-day in my hear- 
 " ing, one would have thought so. If the coach can 
 
 * Lord Howard of Escrick. He had been committed to the Tower, in 
 June, 1681, for being the supposed author or contriver of the treasonable 
 pamphlet, for which Fitzharris, (the son of Sir Edward Fitzharris, of Ire- 
 land,) had been executed in the previous July. 
 
 J- Willmore was the foreman of the Middlesex jury, who had returned a 
 bill of " Ignoramus" against Colledge, (the Protestant Joiner) ; which, 
 however, had not saved him from being convicted by a more complying 
 jury at Oxford, and executed on the 31st August of this year. 
 Was this the Duke of Monmouth?
 
 25 J 
 LETTER XXIX. 
 
 [From Stratton to London, September 25. 1682.] 
 
 1 STAID till I came from church, that I might 
 as late as I could, tell you all your concerns 
 here are just as you left them. The young man 
 as mad, winking at me, and striking with his 
 drumstick whatever comes to his reach. (1) If 
 I had written before church, whilst my morning 
 draught was in my head, this might have enter- 
 tained you better ; but, now those fumes are 
 laid, I find my spirits more dull than usual, as I 
 have more cause ; the much dearer and plea- 
 santer part of my life being absent from me : I 
 leave rny Lord Russell to guess who that is. I 
 had a letter last post from Mrs. Lacon : pray 
 tell her so, and that you had the paper about the 
 
 " conveniently come to Hertford Bridge on Tuesday, let it : 
 " else Will Wright will ride upon great Dun, and lead little 
 " one. 
 
 " I come, just now, from eating oysters with your sister, 
 " which shall be all my supper; and I hope to get to bed 
 " earlier than I have been able to do hitherto. My father 
 " is not come to town. Farewell my dearest : kiss my little 
 " children from me ; and believe me to be, as entirely as I 
 4t am, yours, and only your 
 
 tc RUSSELL." 
 
 (1) Her son, 
 
 s
 
 258 
 
 King of Poland (2) ; for she is very inquisitive 
 to know, it being so new, she says Charlton had 
 not seen it. I know nothing new since you 
 went ; but I know, as certainly as I live, that I 
 have been, for twelve years, as passionate a lover 
 as ever woman was, and hope to be so one twelve 
 years more j happy still, and entirely yours, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 For the Lord Russell, at Southampton 
 House., London. 
 
 LETTER XXX. 
 
 [From London to Stratton, October 23. 1682.] 
 
 IF this meets my best life in London, it may 
 let him know, that this Tuesday morning, at ten 
 o'clock, all his concerns that I know of at poor 
 Stratton were as he left them : no other com- 
 plaint than they had then, sorry for absence ; 
 and Miss (who says she was like to cry) wishing, 
 as she did then, for your coming home again : 
 but truly I do not know my real wishes on that 
 subject, nor why, I need not explain to my dear 
 man, who may guess at all my thoughts, the 
 
 '2) This was, probably, a report, that the Duke of York 
 
 be made King of Poland, 
 was to
 
 259 
 
 most secret in my heart ; and if he does it justly, 
 will know more by it than by my words, which 
 are very ill expressions of my sense of obliga- 
 tions to his Lordship. Yesterday Noel (1) sent 
 the coach for master (2) ; so he is a-going this 
 morning : and intending last night not to go till 
 ten o'clock, I took my rest j but it seems he is 
 to go by Winchester, and so is hastening sooner ; 
 and this letter is going by him j and he is by me 
 hurrying, as young folks are, about a journey. 
 And what I say I do not well know j but Mr. 
 Russell's indulgence in all kinds to me I am 
 well acquainted with. I desire to be all I 
 ought, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 For the Lord Russell, at Southampton 
 House, London. 
 
 (1) Her brother-in-law. (2) Probably Mr. James Russell.
 
 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 
 
 TO AND FROST 
 
 LADY RUSSELL. 
 
 s 3
 
 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 
 
 TO AND FROM 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 {To Lady Vaughan, January 20. 1659.] (1) 
 
 Right Honourable, 
 
 THE continual discourses of these parts are most 
 concerned in the great expectations from the 
 north j and because your Ladyship should 
 receive the satisfaction of these affairs, I must 
 begin my relation where I ended in my last, 
 about the concerns of Monckj which, if it con- 
 
 (1) The editor has been unable to discover the writer of 
 this letter, signed only with the initials of E. A., and ad- 
 dressed, from London, to Lady Vaughan, then living in 
 her father-in-law's (Lord Carberry's) house in Wales. It 
 gives an interesting and curious account of the agitation and 
 uncertainty that prevailed in London during the march of 
 Monck from Scotland. 
 
 8 4
 
 tinues, will prove a subject for volumes, rather 
 than letters. He is credibly reported to have 
 been, on Wednesday night last, at Harborough, 
 a town, as I think, not far from Leicester. 
 There is no certain day appointed for his being 
 here. His army is much increased, and (2) 
 move slow. He brought not above 
 five thousand horse and foot out of Scotland ; 
 and a week ago he mustered ten thousand and 
 five hundred, and adds daily to his number. He 
 is much solicited by the most considerable per- 
 sons, to stand for a free Parliament. He has 
 sent directions for his old lodgings to be taken 
 up for him in Fleet-street, near the Conduit, 
 though there are great preparations made to 
 receive him at the Prince's lodgings at White- 
 hall. The two extremes, of the greatest hap- 
 piness or the greatest misfortune to this already 
 most miserable nation, are couched in his breast. 
 The debate continues still between the City and 
 Parliament ; and the same grudge between the 
 Parliament and the secluded Members ; and 
 every one of these courting Monk to their own 
 interest. The Parliament have sent Scot and 
 Robinson as envoys, with a present of ready mo- 
 ney, (a scarce commodity in these times,) and 
 yearly allowance of a thousand pounds for him 
 
 (2) A word here torn out of the MS.
 
 265 
 
 and his heirs ; and have allowed of all his actions 
 from the beginning of this last business. Some 
 eminent persons of the secluded Members are 
 gone to Monk, to address themselves to him, 
 to-be a means to preserve their interest in Par- 
 liament. The City have employed some of the 
 most considerable of the Common Council to 
 court him to their assistance. It is thought, 
 there will be the surest pay and the best security. 
 I cannot omit the inserting a few lines, which 
 are said to be put on the Parliament-house door ; 
 viz. 
 
 Till it be understood 
 What's under Monck's hood, 
 
 The citizens pull in their horns. 
 Till ten days be out, 
 Old Will has the gout, 
 
 And the Parliament sits upon thorns. 
 
 But Monck does wisely, if he continues his 
 resolution of quartering in Fleet-street, to keep 
 the peace between those two great bodies, the 
 City and Parliament. It is reported that Fairfax 
 is up ; and Roister expected upon the same 
 account in Lincolnshire. I have presented your 
 Ladyship with an enclosed letter from Exeter, 
 which was concealed by the Speaker, till Mr. 
 Bamfield, of those parts, and Recorder of that 
 town, and lately Speaker of Dick's Paliament, 
 brought it to light. Gloucestershire, Warwick- 
 shire, and Northamptonshire, with many others
 
 266 
 
 adjoining, it is believed, will be of the same 
 opinion. Sallaway was two days ago committed 
 to the Tower, but not discharged of the House, 
 and is since, they say, at liberty ; Sydenham at 
 the same time expelled the House. It is perceived 
 how great the enmity is between themselves, 
 daily impeaching one another. The soldiery 
 for the guard of the Tower were, on Wed- 
 nesday last, changed. There was an unfortunate 
 accident happened this week, by a quarrel 
 between the Earl of Chesterfield and Dr. Wooles- 
 son, at Hammersmith, where the Earl killed 
 him in the place, and is fled. I shall refer the 
 particulars of it to the relation of my Lord, who, 
 I am confident, hath been acquainted with the 
 whole passage. The Speaker's parole of ten 
 days will be shortly expired ; and, it is reported, 
 he will sit in the House on Monday next. There 
 is no mention this last week of the nine worthies 
 but what is daily cried in ballads up and down 
 the streets. I shall most humbly desire the pre- 
 sentation of my most humble service to the most 
 honoured Lord your father, and your Lady 
 mother and your sisters, and my most humble 
 service to your Ladyship. 
 
 I remain, 
 My most honoured Madam, 
 
 Your Ladyship's most humble 
 
 Servant to command, 
 January 20th, 1659. E. A.
 
 207 
 LETTER II. 
 
 The Honourable Henry Sidney (1) to Lady Vaughan. 
 
 London, Feb. 2. 1670. 
 
 IF my Lady Vaughan had persisted any 
 longer in her silence, I was chosen by her friends 
 at Charing Cross to chide her ; and though her 
 writing once to her poor, beggarly, ill-favoured 
 sister (2) has taken away my commission to 
 rebuke her, it shall not hinder me, having had 
 once orders, to write to her, hoping that my 
 letters may be as welcome as Mr. Mudiman's: 
 and, in order to making them so, I will begin my 
 
 \ 1 ) He was the fourth son of Robert Earl of Leicester, 
 and brother to Algernoon Sydney. He was one of the seven 
 who signed the association for inviting over King William, 
 and was by him created Earl of Romney, in 1689. He is 
 the Beau Sydney of the Memoires de Grammont. Of his 
 passion for the first duchess of York, we have the authority 
 of a graver historian than Count Anthony Hamilton. Sir 
 John Reresby says, " His Royal Highness the Duke and his 
 " Duchess came down to York, when it was observed, that 
 ' Mr. Sidney, the handsomest youth of his time, and of the 
 " Duke's bedchamber, was greatly in love with the Duchess ; 
 " and, indeed, he might well be excused ; for the Duchess, 
 " daughter of the Chancellor Hyde, was a very handsome 
 " personage, and a woman of fine wit. The Duchess, on 
 " her part, seemed kind to him, but very innocently." 
 
 Reresby s Mem. Aug. 6. 1665. 
 (2) Lady Northumberland.
 
 2C8 
 
 gazette by informing you that Sir William 
 that worthy, ancient gentleman ! pushes his 
 addresses to his widow with his wonted vigour, 
 and with so good success, that he is become my 
 greatest envy, who cannot carry the hopes of my 
 poor friend for his widow with half so much 
 encouragement. I am almost at my wit's ends 
 about it ; and I doubt I shall at last utterly 
 despair, and make doleful ditties on the cruelty 
 of your sex. We say in town that her cousin 
 Tishy is not half so cruel to (3) Mr. Cheek ; 
 but that the wedding-clothes are making, and 
 that, by consent of parents, all things are to be 
 accomplished, and had been so already, but for 
 the unfortunate death of poor Mr. Oliver, my 
 Lady Manchester's chaplain, who slept sweetly 
 in the Lord on Saturday night last, and has 
 occasioned so great mourning in that family, 
 that ombre and weddings have been forbid for 
 a week. On the other side, my lord chamber- 
 lain (4) has been in mortification for the loss of 
 his poor brother, Hatton Rich (5), who, not 
 
 (3) Mr. Cheek, son of Sir Thomas Cheek, of Pergo, in 
 Essex, was Lady Manchester's brother. He married 
 Dorothy Sidney, daughter of Philip Earl of Leicester, and 
 niece to the writer of this letter. 
 
 (4) Edward Montagu, Earl of Manchester. 
 
 (5) One of Lord Manchester's former wives (for he had 
 no less than five ) was a sister of Rich Earl of Holland.
 
 269 
 
 making a very Christian end, has been the oc- 
 casion of great grief to all his pious relations. 
 He has bequeathed all his worldly goods to his 
 nieces by my last Lord of Warwick, and has 
 left nothing to my Lord Mandeville (6) and 
 Mr. Roberts, which is much wondered at by all 
 that know those two worthy gentlemen. To 
 go on with dismal stories, your Ladyship must 
 know, that one Major Gary, (brother to a young 
 maid of honour of the same name,) coming in a 
 good ship out of Holland, did not like his pas- 
 sage ; but whether it was that he thought to 
 swim sooner to shore, or that he was in love 
 with some sea-nymph, he took his career from 
 the side of the ship, and leapt into the sea very 
 frankly, though with the same usage others find 
 upon that element, for we hear no more of him ; 
 and it is shrewdly suspected Neptune has put 
 him into Bedlam, in his kingdom, since we were 
 so unkind as not to do so much for him here. 
 The expedition of Wild-street, I am sure, is too 
 famous not to have reached you long since. 
 There are very few more steps yet made into 
 the discovery of it ; but, I doubt not, He that 
 revenges murder will shortly bring all to light, 
 and them to condign punishment who have had 
 their hands in the blood of the innocent. My 
 
 (6) The Earl of Manchester's son.
 
 270 
 
 Lady Northumberland is grown so flippant since 
 her adventure at court, (of which she has already 
 informed your Ladyship,) that now she trips it 
 every day in St. James's Park, meets the person 
 you wot of, and ogles and curtsies do pass at 
 that rate, that her friends, knowing not what 
 to make of it, only pray that her honour may 
 be safe. Now comes the difficult matter to 
 know from whom this letter comes : that is to 
 be a secret, only it is one that kisses my Lady 
 Vaughan's hands, and Mr. Russell's, and will 
 come himself and let them know. In the mean 
 time they may guess as they please, but shall 
 have no more light from me, but that the two 
 first letters are, H. S. 
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 \Lady Russell to the Countess of Ogle*] 
 
 April 1. 1679. 
 
 MY Lord of Essex (1), on Saturday morning, 
 sent me your Ladyship's letter. In it I find the 
 change you have made in your condition. You 
 
 ( 1 ) The Earl of Essex was the uncle, by marriage, of Lady 
 Ogle, his wife being Elizabeth, sister of Jocelyn Percy, the 
 last Earl of Northumberland, Lady Ogle's father. The early
 
 271 
 
 have my prayers and wishes, dear Lady Ogle, 
 that it may prove as fortunate to you as ever it 
 
 history of this great heiress seems to have been very unfor- 
 tunate. We see by this letter, that, on her first marriage 
 with Lord Ogle, contracted in childhood, her mother had not 
 been consulted by the rest of her family. When Lord Ogle's 
 death, within a twelvemonth after, set her again free, she was 
 again made a prey to interested motives. Her second mar- 
 riage with Mr. Thynne, in 1681, seems to have been at once 
 offensive to most of her own family, and not much desired by 
 herself, as she could not have been very averse to the atten- 
 tions paid her by Count Koningsmarck, when he imagined 
 the base and wild possibility of gaining possession of her by 
 the murder of Mr. Thynne. Evelyn, in his Diary, gives the 
 following account of a conversation with Lord Essex, on the 
 subject of this second marriage with Mr. Thynne, attributing 
 motives to her grandmother which, if known to be true, might 
 have inspired some hopes of success, by lawless means, to a 
 profligate libertine, such as we know Count Koningsmarck 
 to have been. 
 
 15th Oct. 1681. " I dined with the Earl of Essex, who 
 " after dinner, in his study, where we were alone, related to 
 " me how much he had been scandalized and injured in the 
 " report of his being privy to the marriage of his lady's niece, 
 " the rich young widow of the late Lord Ogle, sole daughter 
 " of the Earl of Northumberland ; showing me a letter of 
 " Mr. Thynne's, excusing himself for not communicating 
 " his marriage to his Lordship. He acquainted me also with 
 " the whole story of that unfortunate Lady's being betrayed 
 " by her grandmother, the Countess of Northumberland, and 
 " Colonel Brett, for money ; and that, upon the importunity 
 " of the Duke of Monmouth, he had delivered to the grand- 
 " mother a particular of the jointure which Mr. Thynne 
 " pretended he could settle on the Lady; yet he totally
 
 272 
 
 did to any, and that you may know happiness to 
 a good old age : but, Madam, I cannot think you 
 can be completely so, with a misunderstanding 
 between so near a relation as a mother ; and, 
 therefore, (in pursuance of my wish,) I must do 
 you all the service in my power. But, surely, 
 Madam, it must be chiefly your own act ; and 
 you cannot pursue, in my opinion, so commend- 
 able a design too eagerly. No applications can 
 now be too earnest to obtain her pardon, nor 
 could have been to have prevented the misfortune 
 of her displeasure, whose tender kindness you 
 cannot but be convinced of; and, consequently, 
 Madam, that all her advice could have no other 
 aim and end but your being happy ; and reason- 
 ably concluding the freeness of your choice was 
 likely to make you so, she could not think your 
 avoiding to see so many, alike qualified to make 
 their addresses to you, was the way to make you 
 so impartial in your judgment (as you say, in 
 your letter, you believe you have been). I hope 
 it will prove the best for you ; but I cannot make 
 use of your argument to her, not thinking it of 
 
 " discouraged the proceeding, as by no means a competent 
 " match for one that, both by birth and fortune, might have 
 " pretended to the greatest Prince in Christendom : that he 
 " had also proposed the Earl of Kingston, or the Lord 
 " Cranburn, but was by no means for Mr. Thynne." 
 
 See Note (6) to p. 17 '1. of these Letter*.
 
 273 
 
 force to persuade her to .what you desire, and 
 know none so probable as your own constant 
 solicitations, which will, I hope, prevail with her 
 good-nature. I am certain I do passionately 
 desire it, and shall infinitely rejoice to be a wit- 
 ness of it, as must all those that are as sincerely 
 as I am, 
 
 Yours. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 Thus endorsed by Lady Russell : " Copy of a 
 Letter sent me when the Duke of Monmouth 
 went in." (1) 
 
 November 2Q. 1683. 
 Madam, 
 
 I KNOW you are too much a Christian and a 
 friend, not to rejoice at the happiness of your 
 friend and at the unexpected turn of affairs we 
 have had of late : yet I cannot but think it will 
 be a vast renewing of a grief that is but too well 
 founded, when you think that if either he had 
 gone out of the way, or his business had been de- 
 
 ( 1 ) Query, if this letter is from Sir Robert Atkyns, wha 
 published " A Defence of the late Lord Russell's Innocency." 
 To which was prefixed, two letters on the subject of his trial. 
 
 T
 
 274 
 
 Jayed till now, he might have been in the same 
 condition with the rest. But you must endeavour 
 to put all such reflections out of your mind ; the 
 will of God is now declared, and it is not possible 
 to recall what is past. The greatest comfort you 
 are now capable of is, the evidence that the 
 world has now of your Lord's innocence, and of 
 the falsehood of his accusers. I am told that 
 the Duke of Monmouth has said to the King, 
 that he lost in him the best subject he had, and 
 does in all things confirm every tittle that he left 
 behind him ; so that it is generally said that they 
 repent the taking his life at Whitehall. If any 
 intimation of this kind is made to your Ladyship, 
 all that you can beg upon it is leave to publish a 
 book concerning him, and, when that is granted, 
 the writing of it shall not stick long. But per- 
 haps things will not be so soon ripe for this, and 
 it will not be fit to precipitate it by making too 
 early an attempt at it. No fine was set yester- 
 day, neither on Mr. Derby (1), for printing the 
 speech, nor on Mr. Jonson (2), for Julian, though 
 both was expected. 
 
 (1) The printer of Lord Russell's last Speech. The fine 
 imposed on him was only 20 marks, which, as Burnet ob- 
 serves, in a letter to Lady Russell, was either too little or 
 too much. 
 
 (2) The Reverend Samuel Jonson had been for some 
 jirae Domestic Chaplain ta Lord Russell; A short time after
 
 275 
 
 I am, as I ought to be, sensible of the great 
 zeal and concern of your Ladyship. I do also 
 very humbly thank you for ordering some of the 
 prints to be brought me ; for every shadow of 
 him must be ever very dear to me, and I will 
 ever consider myself as a property of yours, and 
 as one that is wholly devoted to serve you and 
 your children to the last of my life ; for I am, 
 with the most perfect duty possible, 
 
 Your Ladyship's 
 
 most humble. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 Lady Russell, in answer to the foregoing, endorsed 
 by her : My Letter to f. f. f. 
 
 Sir, 
 
 WHEN you consider who this comes from, one 
 amazed with grief, and so lately deprived of as 
 much good as this world can give, you will not 
 wonder at any errand this paper can bring with 
 it. The occasion of your being troubled by me, 
 is from the sight of a letter my Lord of Bedford 
 
 his death, Jons on was seized, and committed to the Gate- 
 House prison, as the author of Julian the Apostate, a treatise 
 against the then fashionable doctrines of passive obedience 
 and nen-resistance. See an account of his life and further 
 sufferings in the same cause, in the Biographia Britannica at 
 his article.
 
 276 
 
 and I have had from a friend of yours : I guess 
 I need not name him. I have not words to ex- 
 press how sensibly we were touched with it ; 
 but this effect it has had upon me to conclude, 
 one so generously kind and compassionate to the 
 distressed condition of this excellent man, can 
 find no fault with me for any request I can 
 pretend to make, though you may find it fit to 
 deny it. Sir, there is a paper called an Antidote 
 against Poison (I), which I suppose you have 
 seen, or will soon do so. it is cried up to be 
 written with much spirit, and a great deal above 
 any other written upon this dismal occasion. 
 Now the favour 1 ask (and sure it will be an 
 infinite addition to the obligation before acknow- 
 ledged) is, that I might receive your opinion 
 concerning it, as to the law part particularly, the 
 evidence is so justly set down, as the trial itself 
 shows. It would particularly be of great use 
 and honour to the memory of a worthy man 
 malice endeavours to blast. This should lie by 
 me, to show as occasion serves, and you shall 
 approve. As to the privacy of the matter, I do 
 
 (1) This was the pamphlet which Sir Robert Atkyns 
 answered in his " Defence of the late Lord Russell's Inno~ 
 cency," He published likewise, The Lord Russell's Innocency 
 further defended" in answer to another work, called " The 
 Magistracy and Government of England vindicated* In 
 Three Parts. By Sir Bartholomew Shower."
 
 277 
 
 engage, upon my honour, and all can bind a 
 Christian, I will be secret ; and if you send any 
 paper written in your own hand, I will transcribe 
 it myself, and either consume the paper, or send 
 it you back, as you shall direct. I have used 
 such caution in this, that my Lord Bedford 
 himself knows not I either have, or mean to 
 write to you. Whatever friends I have, Sir, I 
 am made so well acquainted with your worth, 
 that I profess I will ever covet, when I may 
 have it, your counsel and advice, in the concerns 
 of her you have obliged to be, Sir, your humble 
 servant, though my present circumstances make 
 me one of the most afflicted in the world. 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 [The Reverend John Howe to Lady Russell.] (1) 
 
 Utrecht, February 9. 1686-7. 
 I DOUBT not, Madam, but you believe me sin- 
 cerely willing to serve any relative of your 
 
 ( 1 ) This letter is already mentioned in the preceding ac- 
 count of Lady Russell. The Lady in question was the widow 
 
 of Lloyd, Esquire. She married Mr. afterwards Lord 
 
 Edward Russell, the following year. He was long one of 
 the members for the county of Bedford, and was appointed 
 Lord Lieutenant, &c. of the county of Middlesex during the 
 minority of his nephew, Lady Russell's son. He died with- 
 out children, in 1714. 
 
 T 3
 
 Ladyship, or of the honourable family I am 
 about to mention; and shall, therefore, forbear 
 every thing of apology for the trouble I now 
 give you. If your Ladyship think it not unfit 
 to give me a character of my Lord of Bedford's 
 (now) eldest son, and it prove as good on his 
 part (which what I already know leaves me little 
 place of doubt for), as I am sure it will be true 
 on your Ladyship's, supposing he have not de- 
 termined still to live single, or be not otherwise 
 pre-engaged, I might, perhaps, (though I can 
 only promise faithful endeavours,) improve it to 
 his advantage, with an English Lady, my present 
 neighbour, so very deserving in respect of all 
 personal qualifications, family, and fortune, as to 
 be capable of contributing what can be expected 
 from such a relation, to the making a person, 
 suitable to her, very happy in it. It would be 
 requisite, to qualify me for attempting any thing 
 herein, that I be able to give an account, besides 
 his strict sobriety, of his seriousness in religion, 
 without being addicted (to the degree of 'bigotry) 
 unto any the distinguishing modes of it used 
 among sober-minded Protestants ; and (which is a 
 great essential) of thatgoodness of temper, wherein 
 is a composition of prudence and kindness, that 
 shall neither incline to a fond levity, nor too 
 morose sourness ; together with his certain estate, 
 without reference to such possibilities, as, which
 
 279 
 
 .God forbid they should, signify any thing, either 
 in reality or expectation. I doubt not I might 
 receive very liberal encomiums of this noble 
 person from other hands ; but if I should ever 
 mention such a thing to the Lady herself nothing 
 could give me so great a confidence therein as I 
 should receive from your Ladyship's testimony ; 
 nor can any thing (upon what I know of her just 
 and high honour for your Ladyship) signify so 
 much with her. I apprehend it will be the less 
 inconvenient for your Ladyship to give your sense 
 upon this subject, that there will be no need, in 
 doing so, again to mention his name, and that 
 mere silence will serve as to any part (if there 
 should be any) wherein your Ladyship cannot 
 allow yourself to be positive ; and it would be the 
 more convenient, for that I doubt not your Lady- 
 ship can say all that will be for the present re- 
 quisite, without making any enquiries from a third 
 person, which, as yet, would not be seasonable. 
 
 Your Ladyship so well understands how little 
 reason there is the great and wise Lord and 
 Kuler of all things should make the state of 
 things perfect and unexceptionable, in a world 
 not intended for perpetuity, and designed to be 
 a place of discipline, for the exercise and im- 
 provement - of virtue and religion, not of full 
 rewards for them ; and you are so fully persuaded 
 that the rewards of the other state will be. su> 
 
 T 4
 
 280 
 
 ficiently ample for all the sufferings and sorrows 
 wherewith sincerity is often attended in this, 
 that I need wish no more for your Ladyship's 
 present continual support and consolation than 
 that you may have the constant living sense of 
 what you already know j which I cease not to 
 pray for to your Ladyship, together with the 
 fulness of all blessings, upon the most hopeful 
 plants under your care ; as greatly becometh, 
 Most honoured Madam, 
 
 Your Ladyship's most obliged, 
 And most faithfully devoted humble Servant, 
 
 JOHN HOWE. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 \JLo.dy Russell to the Rev. John Havoc, February, 1687.] 
 
 LET me assure Mr. Howe I do not write this 
 with indifference, upon several accounts. I re- 
 ceive your letter as a kind testimony of your 
 remembrance, which I value very much ; and yet 
 I feel myself more engaged by your zeal to do 
 good to that family I have known so true content 
 in, and am entirely dedicated to. It is honour- 
 able and worthy in the whole, and every branch 
 of it have their peculiar virtues ; but every 
 highest respect (meaning that sex we are to 
 speak of) is placed, where my best and blessed
 
 281 
 
 friend placed his. This may possibly be a bar to 
 your concluding, that what I may say should be 
 received as impartially given ; though yet I think 
 it may, since I am sincerest in searching where 
 I desire to find the fewest faults. Some, in this 
 imperfect state, must be found in man ; but I do 
 sincerely believe the person is highly qualified 
 to make one happy in the nearest relation we 
 can have upon earth. I would for no advantage 
 to myself, or friend, deceive any ; especially by 
 false acts, be an instrument to lead one eminently 
 confident into error, and so desperate a one, out 
 of which there is no recovery. But where there 
 is great honour, truth, courage, and great good- 
 nature, what supposition can there be that, 
 when joined with a prudent and virtuous woman, 
 they should not feel the felicity of the happiest 
 state of life. Self-interest does not bribe me to 
 say this, since now the drudgery of living only 
 remains to me ; but, in my pleasant days, so 
 near a relation, so very deserving, must have 
 been gladly received, and even now must be 
 owned a kind Providence; and would undoubt- 
 edly not fail to be so by the obliged family, 
 which, I can pronounce, is the easiest to con- 
 verse or live with that ever I have known, or 
 could observe. There is one particular, that, 
 without making enquiries from a third person, 
 (which you are of opinion would not yet be sea-
 
 282 
 
 sonable,) I can give no report ofj that is, their 
 certain estate. I am entirely ignorant in that 
 point ; but do imagine Mr. Ashurst not quite so. 
 I am very nice of enquiring into those particulars, 
 of all others : but I know they have an equal and 
 just father, and what is once promised will be 
 punctually performed. Proceedings of this nature 
 can move so slow at such a distance, that more 
 than I have said I do not take to be necessary, 
 in order to your friendly attempting to facilitate 
 a happy union. When the lady is again in Eng- 
 land, I shall be early in paying my respects, and 
 with great integrity acquitting myself of any part 
 in this affair that can fall upon me ; or, if it 
 sinks into nothing, ever retain the sense of your 
 good-will and forwardness to dispose the lady 
 towards it ; and shall as little fail to acquaint my 
 Lord Bedford, whose mind is ever prepared to 
 all real acknowledgments when he feels himself 
 obliged. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 [Lady Edward Russell (I) to Lady Russell."] 
 
 Russell-street, July 6th, 1690. 
 BECAUSE our God is God, and not man, there- 
 fore we, who have deserved unmixed wrath, do 
 
 (1 ) This is the lady mentioned in the two foregoing letters.
 
 283 
 
 hitherto sing both of mercy and judgment. The 
 Lord has arisen, his enemies are scattered, and 
 they that hate him are fled before him. It is, 
 indeed, almost incredible what we have an ac- 
 count of, by an express that came to-day from 
 Ireland. King James's army is so routed, that it 
 is concluded he can never rally again. He fled 
 himself to Dublin ; where he found his reception 
 so unexpectedly cold, that he durst not trust 
 himself among his former friends there, but re- 
 tired immediately into the county of Connaught, 
 to a town that I did not hear named. I have not 
 heard what numbers he has lost : I suppose, not 
 many ; for they ran so fast, death itself could not 
 overtake them. We have, however, taken Ha- 
 milton (2) prisoner; and Lord Dungan and Lord 
 Carlingford are dead. On our side not so much 
 as an ensign killed, of the inferior officers j yet 
 it has pleased God to suffer a musket-shot to put 
 
 (2) Count George Hamilton, the elder brother of Count 
 Anthony Hamilton, who has given us many particulars of 
 his brother's early life, in his incomparable memoirs of their 
 brother-in-law, the Count de Grammont. Count George 
 Hamilton, as we are there informed, married la belle Jennings. 
 She was an elder sister of Sarah Duchess of Marlborough ; 
 and after Count George Hamilton's death, married George 
 Talbot, Earl of Tyrconnel. See frequent mention of her, 
 under the name of Lady Tyrconnel, in the letters of the 
 Duke to the Duchess of Marlborough, in Coxe's Life of the 
 Duke of Marlborough.
 
 284 
 
 an end to the glorious days of the great and re- 
 nowned Schomberg. (3) He fell not in battle, 
 but received a wound in his throat, as he was 
 giving orders over a wall. Walker of London- 
 derry standing near, was shot and killed at the 
 same time. The Duke of Ormond writes, that 
 it is thought Duke Schomberg's wound was not 
 mortal, but that he rather died of his fall, for he 
 pitched exactly on his head ; however it was, he 
 never rose again. The King was once more so 
 near danger, that a bullet grazed upon the side 
 
 (3) Frederick Duke of Schomberg was of a noble family, 
 originally of the Palatinate. He first signalised himself under 
 Frederick Henry Prince of Orange ; after whose death he 
 engaged in the service of France, commanded in Spain the 
 Portuguese army in alliance with France, and afterwards the 
 French army in Catalonia, with such success, that, although 
 a Protestant, he received the baton of a Mare"chal of France 
 in 1675. 
 
 On the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, he was suffered 
 to leave France, on condition of going to Portugal. He af- 
 terwards got liberty to remove to Germany, and commanded 
 as Generalissimo for the Elector of Bavaria. In the year 
 1688, he came over to England with King William, by whom 
 he was immediately created Earl of Brentford, Marquis of 
 Harwich, and Duke of Schomberg, with limitation, first to 
 his youngest, and then to his second son, both of whom suc- 
 ceeded to his titles ; but the first died in Italy, of wounds re- 
 ceived in the battle of Marsaglia against the French, and the 
 second dying without male issue, in 1719, the title became 
 extinct. The Duke of Schomberg had been sent by King 
 William to Ireland in the year 1689.
 
 285 
 
 of his boot, and passed him by. They say he 
 has extremely exposed his person in this action. 
 Once he was going towards the enemy at the 
 head of a very small party of guards, which Lord 
 Scarborough being aware of, strictly commanded 
 that not a man should stir : his orders were so 
 well obeyed, that the King, having advanced a 
 little way, turned about, and found he was alone, 
 so was forced to return to his company. Mon- 
 sieur Callimot is wounded, but, it is hoped, not 
 mortally. We have taken several field-pieces 
 from the enemy ; and were upon a hot pursuit 
 when the express came away. It is thought, by 
 this time, the King has got to Dublin ; where, 
 to be sure, he is, or will be very welcome to great 
 numbers of miserable Protestants, whom, when 
 King James went out to fight, he left enclosed 
 in churches and other public places : what he 
 designed further to do with them, God has gra- 
 ciously prevented. Hamilton, who is taken pri- 
 soner, says, they have a recruit, under the com- 
 mand of Sarsfield, consisting of eleven battalions, 
 and three regiments of horse. Kirk and his army 
 were not concerned in this action : it is said the 
 King considers him according to his merit. The 
 King's wound heals, and is scabbed over; so 
 that he is out of that danger, and, I trust, will 
 be preserved from all other. He is as busy as if 
 he had never been hurt j holds his bridle with his
 
 286 
 
 right hand, and fights with his left. He is as 
 merciful as he is brave. He has caused Hamil- 
 ton's wounds to be dressed ; and treats him more 
 like a friend than a traitor and a rebel. 
 
 Mr. Russell (4) is come in, and contradicts 
 some of my news, adds to some, and tells some 
 that I had not heard before ; and all this I am to 
 do by his direction, in so little time, that I fear 
 I shall not write intelligibly. In the first place, 
 he adds, that Monsieur Callimot is shot through 
 the thigh ; next, he contradicts that of Dr. 
 Walker's death : all the letters had it, and it was 
 generally believed in our army. The Secretary 
 of War himself, upon whose letter Mr. Russell 
 goes, says, in the beginning of it, that he is dead, 
 but at last contradicts it, saying only thus, he 
 was ridden over and stript, but is well enough. 
 How this happened I cannot imagine, for he 
 does not say how he came to lie so low. That 
 same letter gives a very full account of Duke 
 Schomberg's death. Thirty of King James's men 
 made so good resistance, that all of them were 
 killed upon the spot but five. These, endea- 
 vouring to make their escape that way, where 
 they might most easily pass through our army, 
 took the way that led to a little village, where 
 
 (4-) Admiral Russell, afterwards created Earl of Orford. 
 He was then a Commissioner of the Admiralty.
 
 287 
 
 the Duke was giving out orders : as they passed 
 through it, they saw him, and taking notice of 
 his blue ribbon, shot the fatal bullets at him that 
 put an end to his life. 
 
 I must contradict what I said, of our not 
 having lost any men in this fight ; for several 
 officers in Count Solmes's blue regiment fell at 
 the first encounter. They passed the river first, 
 and bore alone the shock of all the enemy's horse 
 before ours could come to their assistance, but 
 they could not be broken. The Inniskillen men 
 did not behave themselves so well : they made a 
 brisk attack at first, but maintained their ground 
 so ill, that, in retiring, they had like to have 
 put the Dutch regiment of guards into great con- 
 fusion. Indeed, we had all like to have been in 
 confusion by their means ; for one of them, by 
 mistake, was ready to have shot the King, when 
 he cried out, " What ! don't ye know your 
 friends from your foes?" and so prevented the 
 blow. They could not persuade the King to 
 hide his George, which increases his danger, as it 
 aggravates the Inniskillen men's dulness. The 
 bullet that I said touched his boot, was not 
 from a cannon, but from a long gun. We have 
 taken 7000 arms, all supposed to be French : 
 they are good prize, for we wanted them ex- 
 tremely. The arms of two regiments of the 
 enemy were found heaped up on the ground.
 
 288 
 
 Monsieur la Meloniere was sent by the King to 
 Tradagh, to summon them to a surrender, and to 
 tell them, that if they delayed till his cannon 
 came up, he would give no quarter. We expect 
 to hear their answer by the next express. King 
 James is gone from Dublin to Athlone ; that is 
 the name of the town I had not heard when I 
 began my letter : it is 49 miles from Dublin : 
 it is not a strong place, and, therefore, it is sup- 
 posed, he will go from thence to Gal way, which 
 is 36 miles from Athlone, where he may better 
 defend himself. Lord Portland writes, that 
 thirty Danes have behaved themselves to a 
 miracle ; but does not say on what occasion. I 
 hear nothing of the praises of any of the English ; 
 indeed, all the praise belongs to God, and not 
 to any other. He has wrought this great sal- 
 vation for us, not for any worthiness in us, but 
 because it pleased him. For his own name's 
 sake has he done this, and because his mercy 
 endures for ever. Therefore, all our joy ought 
 to be in the Lord, and we ought to rejoice with 
 trembling ; for still he holds the rod over us, so 
 that we dare not say the bitterness of death is 
 past. Indeed, we have cause to walk humbly, 
 while that insolent French enemy insults over 
 us, and makes us prisoners, as it were, in our 
 own island. There is nothing that I know of, 
 but the providence of God, that hinders them
 
 289 
 
 from acting all manner of violence upon our 
 coasts. Plymouth lies naked before them, not 
 so much as a governor in the town, nor militia 
 up in the country : our fleet skulked into har- 
 bour, and they, for the present, at least, absolute 
 masters of the seas. Yet they are chained up 
 by a Power above theirs, who causeth the wrath 
 of man to praise him, and the remainder thereof 
 he restrains. Blessed be his name, that both we 
 and our enemies are in his hands! The Lord 
 enable us to lie very low before him, in a sense 
 of our own nothingness ; for what are we, when 
 He comes to contend with us ! We shall be de- 
 livered from these, as well as from those adver- 
 saries in Ireland, when He pleases ; and if not, 
 let Him do to us as seems good in his sight. 
 
 One thing Mr. Russell bids me add: he 
 sees it is the opinion of some of the great men 
 in town, that if they print that passage of my 
 Lord Scarborough's, forbidding his men to fol- 
 low the King, it will need a comment ; for 
 though it argues, they say, great presence of 
 mind in my Lord to do what he did, yet the 
 common people will not easily understand it. 
 The Papists already say that the King's guards 
 would not fight against King James : that is the 
 use they make of it. If either Lord Portland's 
 or Sir Robert Southwell's letter be printed, as 
 Mr. Russell thinks they will, he will to-morrow, 
 
 u
 
 by the post, send your Ladyship one of them. 
 Major Parker was killed on King James's side, 
 which I did not know, when I named the other two. 
 Lord Torrington (5) is expected in town to- 
 night, when the tide serves. He lays all the 
 fault on the Commissioners of the Admiralty. I 
 wish I knew where to lay that of having tired 
 your Ladyship with an impertinent tedious letter, 
 full of contradictions, and every thing, bating 
 the good news, that can make it need a pardon : 
 but all this must lie (till that takes it off) on, 
 
 Madam, 
 
 Your Ladyship's most obliged, affectionate 
 Servant and Sister, 
 
 F. R. 
 
 (5) Arthur Herbert, descended from Lord Herbert, of 
 Cherbury. He had commanded the Dutch fleet which 
 brought over King William ; for which, and other services at 
 the Revolution, he was created Earl of Torrington. He was 
 now first Commissioner of the Admiralty, and commanded in 
 chief the English and Dutch fleets, in the unfortunate engage- 
 ment off Beachy Head, which (as is known) took place the 
 very day before the battle of the Boyne. He had received 
 positive orders to fight the French fleet wherever he met with 
 it, and therefore engaged 82 ships with 56. In spite of this 
 overwhelming inferiority, he succeeded in saving from de- 
 struction the fleets committed to his charge. But England, 
 even then, before the unexampled triumphs of the last twenty 
 years of her naval history, could not brook a failure of victory. 
 Lord Torrington was deprived of his command, and com- 
 mitted to the Tower. He was afterwards tried by a court- 
 martial and acquitted, but never again employed. He died 
 without children in 1716, and his title became extinct.
 
 291 
 
 Young Lady Drogheda (6) was here to-day, 
 and says the man that brought the express yes- 
 terday saw her house on fire ; yet, poor lady, 
 she is unwilling to believe it. 
 
 For the Right Hon. the Lady Russell, 
 at Woburn Abbey. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 [Lady Russell to Rachael Lady Cavendish, 1692.] 
 
 I DID not think to have scribbled so soon, 
 again to you ; but the letters I receive telling 
 me so much of your sister's being to marry my 
 Lord Rosse, (Roos,) I am not easy you should 
 be a stranger to what ground there is for it, 
 which is a very little yet. Two or three days 
 before I left London, Lady Northampton pro- 
 posed it. I took a little time to consider, and 
 then told her I would entertain it, if my Lord 
 would like my terms ; and so I left it, making 
 no great account of it : yet, if I had had a good 
 opportunity, I had told you, but did not think 
 it worth the while to ask you an audience for it. 
 I did ask Lady Devonshire what sort of youth he 
 
 (6) Jane, daughter and heiress of Arthur Viscount Loftus, 
 of Elye. 
 
 u 2
 
 was. I heard, about a week after I was in the 
 country, Lord Rutland wrote word that he took 
 my offer for a civil put-off; but this day I have 
 a renewing : he is very eager, and seems to be 
 very generous. As I know more, you shall; 
 but, if you are asked, say if there be any such 
 thing, 'tis in no forwardness, you believe. I 
 hardly see what I write, and my eyes won't 
 endure to do it by a candle. I hate repetition 
 also. 
 
 Your affectionate Mother, 
 Sunday. R. RUSSEL. 
 
 For Lady Cavendish. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 [Lady Russell to ike Marchioness of Hartingfon.'] 
 
 Oxon, 22d April, 1697. 
 HAVING no thought that my dear child had 
 any thing to say to me would ask a present 
 return, your letter being brought to me when it 
 was candle-light, I put by reading it till this 
 morning, when it is time to give my answer ; 
 so that you did not write more in haste than 
 I must : but, indeed, there is no hesitating for 
 the answer I shall make to you. I will affirm, 
 no mother ever was or can be more inclined than
 
 myself to approve of all compliance in you to 
 my Lord Duke and Lady Duchess ; but, in our 
 present case, I must (with pardon) be excepted, 
 in regard as I think both to you and myself. 
 You brought your child too hardly into the 
 world to let me be willing (as I have no doubt 
 my Lord and Lady would not more than I) 
 that you should be without all the best helps to 
 be had, and to see the success myself j and that 
 would be of troublesome consequence to all 
 parties concerned. But I am so tender that 
 there should be no disorder in my Lord Duke's 
 affairs upon my account, or to give me satis- 
 faction, that I offer this : if Lord Hartington 
 and you will take such conveniences as I can 
 give at Southampton-House, then, when the 
 family leaves Barckly-House, if your Lord and 
 you will choose where to plant there yourselves 
 and nursery, you shall be welcome to me, till 
 you are (as I trust you shall be) happily past 
 the hazard of one in your condition. When you 
 are at my house, I will be leaving Oxford as 
 soon as you can desire me to come to you. You 
 will acquaint my Lord and Lady with what I 
 have said ; and if they believe (what is very 
 true) that I feel nothing gratifies me in this 
 world, but from, my children, this is a natural 
 consequence, to desire to please myself in 
 every thing I can compass. If I had more time, 
 
 u 3
 
 I need say no more. Your repeated injunctions 
 not to lose this post have hastened this sooner 
 by one day, the carrier going to-morrow. From, 
 dear Child, 
 
 Your ever affectionate Mother, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 Pray present my humble service to my Lord 
 Duke and Lady Duchess ; your own Lord, my 
 best services j and blessing to the young person. 
 
 I think the least trouble to you will be, that 
 my Lord and Lady Devonshire read what I 
 say. 
 
 For the Right Honourable the Marquesse of 
 Harrington, at Barckty-House, London. 
 
 LETTER XL 
 
 [Lady Russell to Wittiamjirst Duke of Bedford (1), 1699.] 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I BEG your Grace's patience to read, rather 
 than to hear me speak, for fear of being heard ; 
 and what I have to say, I extremely desire may 
 be a secret, it being highly to my son's ad- 
 
 (1) This is the letter referred to in the account of Lady 
 Russell's life.
 
 295 
 
 vantage it should be so. I do affirm this, my 
 Lord, that no child you have is more tender 
 than I am to tell you any thing that may trouble 
 or discompose you. I hope what I have to say 
 will not, when you have well considered my 
 proposal. But first I must open the case. 
 
 Your grandson, although he has not lost at 
 play, as the world has taxed him, nor any thing 
 at all at Paris, yet, my Lord, he has been so 
 faulty as to play in Italy for bigger sums than 
 he ought to have done, and has been so unfor- 
 tunate as to lose ; and, not to mince the matter 
 to your Grace, who ought to be told the truth, 
 he has lost, from the time he went out of Eng- 
 land, to the time he came to Paris, three thou- 
 sand pounds, and some odd hundreds. He is 
 so afflicted for this folly, I dare not aggravate 
 his trouble. He dreads your Grace's knowing 
 of it ; and he might certainly have prevailed 
 with me to have kept his secret, if I could have 
 preserved his honour, and have done it. I do 
 all I can to assure him your indulgence will not 
 suffer you to be sharp in your anger, when that 
 can bring no remedy. The fault is committed ; 
 and, if he keep steady to his resolutions, I hope 
 the grief he has felt will be for his future good, 
 all the rest of his life. But the business now is, 
 how to pay the money, and do it so secretly, 
 that the inquisitive town shall not make it their 
 
 u 4
 
 talk and scorn, and he be exposed, as he calls it, 
 as an easy gentleman, that can be cheated of his 
 money. Your grandson has been so cunning in 
 managing this matter, that Mr. Sherard does 
 not know of more money lost than between four 
 or five hundred pounds. Mr. Hicks knows of 
 near a thousand j and he came to the knowledge 
 of that sum by seeing the poor young creature 
 so sad and oppressed, and so sunk with it, that 
 he really feared his life ; which made him beg 
 so hard to know what afflicted him so heavily, 
 that at last he confessed the truth, crying out for 
 the sorrow he should give his parents. Mr. 
 Hicks was so compassionate and generous as to 
 be bound for the money ; and so it was kept a 
 secret. Your Grace nor I were not to know it ; 
 and Mr. Hicks now stands bound for it. 
 
 I know your Grace is paying a great deal of 
 money for Lord Robert (2), and cannot, if you 
 would, give him the money : but there is no 
 cause to ask it j if your Grace will but give me 
 credit, I will not doubt but to overcome the 
 business to his comfort. Your Grace knows my 
 estate is settled ; I kept a power to charge it, 
 but have taken up as much as I can, and be 
 
 (2) Lord Robert Russell, his fourth son. He married 
 Letitia, widow of Thomas Cheek, Esquire, and died without 
 children.
 
 297 
 
 honest. So if I could find credit, I dare not use 
 it, since I should not live or die with comfort : 
 and, besides that, all writings, since my father 
 died to this time, must be considered by the 
 lawyers ; and that will make a great noise. 
 
 Now, I propose this : that my son and 
 myself shall be principals in a bond for three 
 thousand pounds. I will find the money ; and 
 if your Grace will join as surety with us, I cannot 
 but hope to compass it ; and without you grant 
 to do so, I am at my wit's end what to do. To 
 the best of my judgment, your Grace can never 
 have any more trouble than to sign the bond. 
 If my son and myself live, our rents will, in 
 some reasonable time, pay it off: if I die, what 
 I leave is engaged, and my son bound also. If 
 he outlive your Grace, it will be paid, where it 
 properly ought to be, out of his own estate. If 
 my son should die, my estate will then return to 
 me, and be unsettled ; so I should be but too 
 well enabled to pay it ; and I being principal, 
 your Grace but surety, it can at no time come 
 to be paid by you. I thought, after having 
 struggled through so great a debt as your excel- 
 lent son left me to pay, and without even having 
 any friend bound for me, I hoped, I say, I should 
 never have asked it; but it is God's will it 
 should be as it is : and who should I apply to 
 besides yourself? If you will be so good to
 
 298 
 
 pity him, and be bound with him and me, it will 
 be an unspeakable consolation to him and me, 
 and preserve his credit. If your Grace dares 
 trust me, none but Spencer (3) shall know of the 
 money being taken up ; nor he shall not how it 
 is laid out, but that your Grace helps us for 
 present use. If you refuse, I know not what to 
 do, but must try my friends ; for I must, if it 
 be possible, help my child this one time, and no 
 more. I hope I have expressed myself that 
 your Grace may understand my meaning to be 
 this : I will find the three thousand pounds, 
 and be bound, and also my son, only to give us 
 credit, I beg your Grace will be so good as to 
 be bound with us : it will give a mighty ease to 
 the mind of your dutiful daughter, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 Friday, 22d December, 1699. 
 
 LETTER XII. 
 
 \JLady Russell to King William.'] 
 
 Endorsed by Lady Russell : " My Letter to 
 " the King, some days after Lord Bedford 
 " died, which was on 7th September, 1700." 
 
 I AM first to ask your Majesty's pardon, for 
 the liberty I take to trouble you with a letter ; 
 
 (3) The Honourable Robert Spencer, her cousin.
 
 299 
 
 but I think it a dut incumbent upon me, after 
 acquainting your Majesty of the Duke of Bed- 
 ford's death, as he has left me his executor ; his 
 George is in my custody, and I beg to receive 
 your Majesty's commands, whether it be your 
 pleasure that my son should immediately bring 
 it over to you, or that it shall remain in my pos- 
 session, till we are blessed with your Majesty's 
 return to England. My ignorance in things of 
 this nature makes me presume to beg the honour 
 of your commands, that I may not be wantfng 
 in the duty and respect that I shall always pay 
 to your Majesty ; and since, Sir, I presume on 
 your goodness to forgive a woman's troubling 
 you, be pleased to permit me, with great sub- 
 mission to your better determination, to make a 
 request in favour of my son, that if you would 
 please to think him worthy of the honour to 
 wear a Garter his grandfather so long enjoyed, 
 not only my son, but I know the whole family 
 would always look upon it as a mark of your 
 grace and favour to them j and if any thing 
 could make them show a greater zeal for your 
 service than they now do, it would be the honour 
 you bestow on this young man, who, I hope, will 
 live to serve your Majesty with a duty and faith, 
 fulness becoming the son of such a grandfather, 
 and father. And here, Sir, I must put a con- 
 clusion to my Jetter, still begging your Majesty's
 
 300 
 
 pardon, if I have presumed to do what I ought 
 not to have done ; and that you will please lo 
 look upon me as the most faithful of 
 Your Majesty's 
 Most obedient Subjects and Servants. 
 
 LETTER XIII. 
 
 \_Lady Russell to Sir Jonathan Trelaiuney (1) Bishop of 
 Exeter, 1709.] 
 
 My Lord, 
 
 I AM much obliged to your Lordship for the 
 account you give me of your transactions with 
 
 ( 1 ) " He was a younger son of Sir Jonathan Trelawney, 
 " of Pelynt, in Cornwall; but his elder brother dying in 
 " 1680, he inherited the title of Baronet. He was a man 
 " of polite manners, competent learning, and uncommon 
 knowledge of the world. He was a true son and friend of 
 the church ; and exerted himself with courage and alacrity, 
 with magnanimity and address, in defence of her just 
 rights and privileges. He was friendly and open, generous 
 and charitable ; was a good companion and a good man. 
 He was successively bishop of Bristol, Exeter, and Win- 
 chester." See Granger's Biographical Dictionary, vol. iv. 
 p. 521. 
 
 While Bishop of Exeter, he was one of the seven sent to 
 the Tower, 1 688 ; yet we are sorry to observe, from the tone 
 of Lady Russell's letter, that she thought he had not abounded 
 in Christian charity towards the vicar of Tavistock.
 
 301 
 
 Mr. Remolds, and the vicar of Tavistock, esteem- 
 ing the pains you have taken in being so par- 
 ticular, both as a respect, and as proceeding 
 from the same motive that inclined me to speak 
 with your Chancellor, which was, that this 
 matter might be amicably composed. The late 
 Duke of Bedford was a person of great justice, 
 moderation, and courtesy, from which, if he ever 
 swerved, I dare say, it was only through misin- 
 formation ; but > in managing his business, he 
 was regular to his method, doing it all generally 
 by his officers, and very reserved to his friends 
 and relations. I never knew any thing of this 
 difference till some time after his Grace's death, 
 that Mr. Reinold's, his chief steward, applying 
 himself to me, among other things, acquainted 
 me therewith, which he did upon occasion of a 
 letter he had lately received from the vicar, 
 wherein he gave him to understand that your 
 Lordship had renewed your prosecution, and 
 that he was under some apprehensions my son 
 would not support him as his grandfather would 
 have done ; to which, out of pity to the grief 
 and fear he expressed, I ordered the steward to 
 reply to this effect : That my son being at 
 Newmarket, he could give him, at present, no 
 answer from him ; but I bid him tell him, from 
 me, that I did not doubt but my son would assist 
 him in all things that were just and reasonable ;
 
 302 
 
 and, resolving to get a relation of it as soon as I 
 could from your Lordship's side, I found means 
 to discourse with Doctor Edisbury, your chan- 
 cellor, of which, I suppose, he has given you a 
 better account than I can. Had I not observed, 
 that most of the differences that are, arise from 
 not having patience, or not using proper means 
 to be truly informed, I should have thought you 
 had singled out this man ; but by the course I 
 took I soon understood your orders were general. 
 I agree, my Lord, the vicar ought to observe 
 the rubric, and obey all your canonical injunc- 
 tions ; I am sensible what good effect singing 
 psalms musically has had, in several parishes ; 
 and I am sorry a man, especially in so populous 
 a place, should need to be ordered to read 
 prayers Wednesdays and Fridays, In short, my 
 Lord, neither I, nor any that I can persuade, 
 will assist in opposing your just authority ; and 
 saving that we are not of their mind who would 
 lay pains and penalties upon people for not con- 
 forming to its worship, we are, as much as any, 
 for supporting the Church of England, and 
 encouraging communion with it. 
 
 I am satisfied, my Lord, there are many would 
 be very inconsiderable, were it not for being 
 fierce of a party ; and for that end they .keep up 
 a dissension, when the reason of it is ceased : 
 but I wish those whom I am concerned for to
 
 303 
 
 value men according to their worth, and not for 
 being of a party, and to be assured irreligious 
 and immoral men, of whatever party they are, 
 or whatever they profess, can never be true to 
 friend or country, wanting the principles that 
 should make them so. It highly imports my 
 son to enquire into the things your Lordship 
 relates of an officer of his ; and if what he writ 
 to one of the gentlemen you mention be extant, 
 and were put into my son's hands, it would be 
 an undeniable proof, and put the matter past all 
 out-facing. I cannot conclude, before I give 
 your Lordship my thanks for your obliging 
 letters, and your favour to the vicar, upon our 
 account. My son will order his steward to 
 advise him to be more observant for the future, 
 and to let him know he must expect no coun- 
 tenance from him, if he be irregular. I am, 
 
 Your Lordship's. 
 
 LETTER XIV. 
 
 \Lady Russell to her Son the Duke of Bedford.~\ 
 
 Stratton, July, 1706. 
 
 WHEN I take my pen to write this, I am, by 
 the goodness and mercy of God, in a moderate 
 and easy state of health a blessing I have thank- 
 fully felt through the course of a long life, which, 
 (with a much greater help,) the contemplation
 
 of a more durable state, has maintained and up- 
 held me through varieties of providences and 
 conditions of life. But all the delights and 
 sorrows of this mixed state must end ; and I feel 
 the decays that attend old age creep so fast on 
 me (1), that, although I may yet get over some 
 more years, however, I ought to make it my 
 frequent meditation, that the day is near, when 
 this earthly tabernacle shall be dissolved, and 
 my immortal spirit be received into that place 
 of purity, where no unclean thing can enter ; 
 there to sing eternal praises to the great Creator 
 of all things. With the Psalmist, I believe, " at 
 His right hand there are pleasures for ever- 
 more :" and what is good and of eternal duration, 
 must be joyful above what we can conceive ; as 
 what is evil and of like duration, must be des- 
 pairingly miserable. And now, my dear child, 
 I pray, I beseech you, I conjure you, my loved 
 son, consider what there is of felicity in this 
 world, that can compensate the hazard of losing 
 an everlasting easy being j and then deliberately 
 weigh, whether or no the delights and gratifica- 
 tions of a vicious or idle course of life are such, 
 that a wise or thoughtful man would choose or 
 submit to. Again, fancy its enjoyments at the 
 height imagination can propose or suggest 
 
 ( 1 ) Lady Russell was now past seventy years of age.
 
 805 
 
 (which yet rarely or never happens, or if it does, 
 as a vapour soon vanishes) ; but let us grant it 
 could, and last to fourscore years, is this more 
 than the quickest thought to eternity ? Oh, my 
 child ! fix on that word, eternity ! Old Hobbs, 
 with all his fancied strength of reason, could 
 never endure to rest or stay upon that thought, 
 but ran from it to some miserable amusement. 
 I remember to have read of some man, who 
 reading in the Bible something that checked 
 him, he threw it on the ground ; the book fell 
 open, and his eye fixed on the word eternity, 
 which so struck upon his mind, that he, from a 
 bad liver, became a most holy man. Certainly 
 nothing besides the belief of reward and punish- 
 ment can make a man truly happy in his life, at 
 his death, and after death. Keep innocency, 
 and take heed to the thing that is right ; for 
 that shall bring a man peace at the last peace 
 in the evening of each day, peace in the day of 
 death, and peace after death. For my own part, 
 I apprehend, I should not much care (if free 
 from pain) what my portion in this world was, 
 if a life to continue, perhaps one year 01 
 twenty, or eighty ; but then, to be dust, not to 
 know or be known any more, this is a thought 
 has something of horror in it to me, and always 
 had ; and would make me careless, if it were to 
 be long or short; but to live, to die, to live 
 
 x
 
 306 
 
 again, has a joy in it ; and how inexpressible is 
 that joy, if we secure an humble hope to' live 
 ever happily ; and this we may do, if we take 
 care to live agreeably to our rational faculties, 
 which also best secures health, strength, and 
 peace of mind, the greatest blessings on earth. 
 Believe the word of God, the Holy Scriptures, 
 the promises and threats contained in them : 
 and what most obstructs our doing so, I am per- 
 suaded, is fear of punishment. Look up to the 
 firmament, and down to the deep, how can any 
 doubt a divine power ? And if there is, what can 
 be impossible to infinite power ? Then, why an 
 infidel in the world ? And if not such, who then 
 would hazard a future state, for the pleasure of sin 
 a few days ? No wise man, and, indeed, no man 
 that lives and would deserve to see good days ; 
 for the laws of God are grateful. In his Gospel, 
 the terrors of majesty are laid aside, and he 
 speaks in the still and soft voice of his Son in- 
 carnate, the fountain and spring whence flow 
 gladness. A gloomy and dejected countenance 
 better becomes a galley-slave than a Christian, 
 where joy, love, and hope should dwell. The 
 idolatrous heathen performed their worship with 
 trouble and terror j but a Christian, and a good 
 liver, with a merry heart and lightsome spirit : 
 for, examine and consider well, where is the 
 hardship of a virtuous life ? (when we have mo-
 
 307 
 
 derated our irregular habits and passions, and 
 subdued them to the obedience of reason and 
 religion.) We are free to all the innocent gra- 
 tifications and delights of life; and we may 
 lawfully, nay, further, I say we ought to rejoice 
 in this beautiful world, and all the conve- 
 niences and provisions, even for pleasure, we 
 find in it; and which, in much goodness, is af- 
 forded us to sweeten and allay the labours and 
 troubles incident to this mortal state, nay, inse- 
 parable, I believe, by disappointments, cross ac- 
 cidents, bad health, unkind returns for good 
 deeds, mistakes even among friends, and what 
 is most touching, death of friends. But in the 
 worst of these calamities, the thought of a happy 
 eternity does not alone support, but also revive 
 the spirit of a man ; and he goeth forth to his 
 labour with inward comfort, till the evening of 
 his day, (that is, his life on earth,) and, with the 
 Psalmist, cries out, " I will consider the heavens 
 " even the work of thy fingers, the moon and 
 " the stars whicli thou hast ordained. What is 
 " man that thou art mindful of him, or the son 
 " of man, that thou shouldest so regard him ?" 
 Psalm viii. " Thou madest him lower than the 
 " angels, to crown him with glory." Here is 
 matter of praise and gladness. " The fool," as 
 the Psalmist expresses it, " hath said in his 
 *' heart, There is no God." Or, let us consider 
 
 x 2
 
 308 
 
 the man, -who is content to own an invisible 
 power, yet tries to believe, that when man has 
 done living on this earth he lives no more : but 
 I would ask, if any of these unhappy creatures 
 are fully persuaded, or that there does not re- 
 main in those men, at times, (as in sickness, or 
 sober though tfulness,) some suspicion or doubt, 
 that it may be other than they try to think. 
 And although they may, to shun such a thought, 
 or be rid of such a contemplation, run away 
 from it to some unprofitable diversion, or, per- 
 haps, suffer themselves to be rallied out of such 
 a thought, so destructive to the way they walk 
 in ; yet, to be sure, that man does not feel the 
 peace and tranquillity he does, who believes a 
 future state, and is a good man. For, although 
 this good man, when his mind may be clouded 
 with some calamity, very grievous to him, or the 
 disorder of vapours to a melancholy temper, I 
 say, if he is tempted to some suspicion, that it is 
 possible it may be other than he believes, (pray 
 observe,) such a surmise or thought, nay, the 
 belief cannot drive him to any horror : he fears 
 no evil, because he is a good man, and with his 
 life all sorrow ends too ; therefore, it is not to 
 be denied, he is the wisest man who lives by the 
 Scripture rule, and endeavours to keep God's 
 laws. First, his mind is in peace and tran- 
 quillity ; he walks sure who keeps innocence, 
 1
 
 309 
 
 and takes heed to the thing that is right : 2dly r 
 he is secure God is his friend, that Infinite 
 Being ; and He has said, " Come unto me, ye 
 " that are heavy laden, my yoke is easy :" but 
 guilt is, certainly, a heavy load; it sinks and 
 damps the spirits. " A wounded spirit who 
 " can bear !" And the evil subtle spirit waits 
 (I am persuaded) to drive the sinner to despair ^ 
 but godliness makes a cheerful heart. 
 
 Now, O man ! let not past errors discourage i 
 who lives and sins not ? God will judge the ob- 
 stinate, profane, unrelenting sinner, but, full of 
 compassion to the work of his own hand, if they 
 will cease from doing evil and learn to do well, 
 pray for grace to repent, and endeavour with 
 that measure which will be given, if sincerely 
 asked for ; for at what time soever a sinner re- 
 pents, (but observe, this is no licence to sin, be- 
 cause at any time we may repent,) for that day 
 we may not live to see ; and so, like the fool in 
 the parable, our lamps be untrimmed when we 
 are called upon. Remember, that to forsake 
 vice is the beginning of virtue : and virtue cer- 
 tainly is most conducive to content of mind and 
 a cheerful spirit. He (the virtuous man) re- 
 joiceth with a friend in the good things he en- 
 joys j fears not the reproaches of any j no evil 
 spirit can approach to hurt him here, or accuse 
 him in the great day of the Lord, when every 
 x 3
 
 310 
 
 soul shall be judged according as they have 
 done good or evil. Oh, blessed state 1 fit for 
 life, fit for death ! In this good state I wish and 
 pray for all mankind ; but most particularly, and 
 with all the ardour I am capable of, to those I 
 have brought into the world, and those dear to 
 them. Thus are my fervent and frequent 
 prayers directed, that you may die the death 
 of the righteous, and to this end, that Almighty 
 God would endue you all with spiritual wisdom, 
 to discern what is pleasing in his sight. 
 
 LETTER XVI. 
 
 , [Lady Russell to her Daughter the Duchess of 
 Devonshire, 1708.] 
 
 Saturday, 12th August. 
 
 AT present I feel so small a content in writ- 
 ing or reading letters, that I should not choose 
 it to entertain myself or you ; for there is but 
 one subject to think or speak of one that is 
 not to be cast off) nor yet digested. For my 
 part, I can bring no serious, thinking, consider- 
 ing thought ; but turn it all ways, it ever centers 
 in the same one I love not to name : it is dismal ; 
 but I throw it away as often as I can, since no 
 result is so taken from my opinion, But my
 
 311 
 
 heart must care for those I love (I hope) better 
 than my old self, because so much younger : 
 perhaps, if as near fourscore as I am, I might be 
 more indifferent. (1) But all this is a digression 
 from the matter 1 took my pen to set down. I 
 hear you are going, or perhaps gone, to Woburn, 
 from whence your brother seems to intend to 
 leave in a fortnight, as I hear. Now Doctor 
 Sloane told Spencer there had been three gone 
 out of Streatham House of the small-pox ; and 
 more died in that parish this summer than any 
 year since the plague, by very many. Now if 
 to change from an infected air to a better, is 
 thought less safe than staying in it, sure to leave 
 a healthy one for one not so, must be yet more 
 to be apprehended ; but any caution from me 
 may not take : but if you, when with them in 
 talk, put the question, if the Doctor would think 
 it adviseable, being all well where they are, to 
 change nearer London, it will not be misunder- 
 stood ; and when they have considered they 
 must choose for themselves : but if so near, your 
 brother will be so oft in London, that it will be 
 very happy if he escapes. (2) When I left Lon- 
 
 (1) To what this alludes the Editor has not been able to 
 discover. 
 
 (2) Within three years afterwards he fell a sacrifice to the 
 disease his mother so much dreaded for him.
 
 don, my sister Robert (3) was so positive Lady 
 Bedford had resolved to continue at Woburn, 
 that she would not credit my saying I did not 
 know it ; and added, she was sure she had be- 
 spoke her midwife ; but I thought that might 
 be in case of need. If wavering, a word in sea- 
 son may settle it. My service to your Lord and 
 self, with my poor prayers for all mercies and 
 blessings to you both, and yours, closes this 
 from 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 All kind service to Mr. Charlton. I desire 
 he will suppress vapours : none on earth knows 
 what is to come. 
 
 For the Duchess of Devonshire. 
 
 LETTER XVII. 
 
 [Burnet, Bishop of Salisbury, to Lady Russell, 1711.J 
 
 I CANNOT keep myself from writing, though 
 I cannot tell how to express the deep sense I 
 have of this new heavy stroke with which God 
 is trying your faith and patience. To lose the 
 only son of such a father, who was become so 
 truly his son in all respects, is, indeed, anew 
 
 (3) Lady Robert RusselL
 
 313 
 
 opening a deep wound, which God had, by 
 many special providences, for several years, been, 
 binding up and healing. But now you will see, 
 whether you can truly say, " Not my will, but 
 thy will be done." For God's sake, do not 
 abandon yourself once more into a deep incon- 
 solable melancholy : rouse up the spirit God has 
 given you, and say, " The Lord has given, the 
 Lord has taken ; blessed be the name of the 
 Lord." When God took his blessed father, he 
 was left as a branch to spring up in his stead : 
 now God has taken him ; but the branches are 
 left in whom he is to live again. Remember 
 you are now much older than when you suffered 
 yourself to sink so much under a great though a 
 just load. You cannot now stand under what 
 you bore then : and you do not know but that, 
 as God has helped you in so eminent a manner 
 to do your duty to your own children, he may 
 yet have a great deal for you to do to your 
 children's children j and, therefore, study to 
 compose your spirits into a resignation to the 
 holy will of God, and see what remains for you 
 yet to be done, before your course is finished. 
 I could not help giving this vent to that true 
 and hearty concern I have in every thing that 
 touches you in so tender a part. I can do no 
 more but follow this with my most earnest 
 prayers to the God of all comfort for you and
 
 314. 
 
 all yours, more particularly for the sweet rem- 
 nants of him, whom God has taken to himself. 
 I am, beyond all expression, 
 
 Madam, 
 Your most humble and most obedient Servant, 
 
 Gi. SARUM. 
 Salisbury, 30th May, 1711. 
 
 LETTER XVIII. 
 
 \Lady Russell to the Earl of Galway. About 1712 or 1713.] 
 
 HAVING scribbled a great deal but last post, 
 there is reason I should be quiet this ; but the 
 letter I have read, under your own hand, affects 
 me so much, I cannot forbear to say your right 
 hand was not more easy to be read. (1) How- 
 
 (1) Lord Galway had lost his right arm at the unfortunate 
 battle of Almanza, where he commanded the allied troops of 
 England and Portugal, and was beaten by the Duke of Ber- 
 wick, the 24th April, 1707. For this defeat, and his subse- 
 quent conduct during the Spanish campaign, he was arraigned 
 by Lord Peterborough in the House of Lords, in February, 
 1710. " The services of Lord Galway, which had often 
 " been signally meritorious, ought to have protected him 
 " from the severe censures with which he was now loaded ; 
 " though his errors or misconduct had been established by 
 " more impartial and satisfactory evidence than was pro- 
 " duced upon this occasion." Somerville's History of 
 Queen Anne, p. 4-22.
 
 315 
 
 ever, the chief errand of this is to require of you 
 not to make a custom of it to me ; for if you 
 will but take care, in case you are not well, that 
 I hear, by any hand, how you are, in a line or 
 two, I shall be best content ; and when I do not 
 hear, believe your health pretty good, at least : 
 but your Lordship is so puffed up with the ho- 
 nours you receive from our sex, you must brag ! 
 The more serious of your papers I shall say no 
 more to, than that, as it is written in a fair cha- 
 racter, so I do, with much ease, read the words ; 
 but, as you rightly observe, the difficulty lies in 
 practice, yet neither you nor myself have the 
 smiles of fortune too lavishly bestowed upon us, 
 or to abide by us, as to draw our hearts or minds 
 as to choose, and be fond of what the world at 
 present affords us : but if, with the length of our 
 days here, we can feel our desires and wills do- 
 cible, willing to submit, as to improve our best 
 thoughts and performances, then our lives are 
 granted as a blessing, as we may assure our- 
 selves. 
 
 Pray, my Lord, be not in care about my writ- 
 ings. (2) Indeeed, they are not worth your 
 
 (2) If this alludes to original compositions, none remain 
 but a few scattered thoughts on religious subjects, all re- 
 peated in her letters ; some self-examinations on the Ten 
 Commandments before she received the sacrament ; instruc- 
 tions to others on the same subject ; and some notes of 
 sermons.
 
 316 
 
 reading, nor the postage : but 1 consider, if any 
 body living will think them so, it is yourself and 
 Lady Norton (3) ; and I often feel myself wil- 
 ling to relieve my thoughts, so apt to reflect 
 upon times .past, when to look forward to what 
 is to come, should be my care, my comfort, or 
 my dread. God's grace preserve me from the 
 last, and strengthen the first to me, to the end 
 of those few days, or years, I have to struggle 
 through. I cannot end with better words, for 
 my own behalf, or that of the few friends left 
 now in the world, to the satisfaction of Lord 
 Galway's truly affectionate cousin, and humble 
 servant, 
 
 K. RUSSELL. 
 
 I am going to make a visit out of town, to 
 sister Vaughan. (4) I cannot look over what I 
 have set down, and care not for the task ; for 
 I ever find mistakes, wrong words, or missing 
 right ones, takes as much time as writing does, 
 and more trouble to my eyes. 
 
 (3) Lady Betty Norton, her niece. 
 
 (4) Lady Vaughan, the wife of John Lord Vaughan, who 
 succeeded Francis Lord Vaughan, Lady Russell's first hus- 
 band, was Anne, daughter of the Marquis of Halifax, by 
 Dorothy, the daughter of the first Lord Sunderland and 
 Saccarissa.
 
 317 
 
 If you have had venison, I doubt it is not very 
 fat : what comes up is not so yet. 
 Thursday, 7th Aug. 
 
 LETTER XIX. 
 
 \_Lady Russell to Richard Norton, Esquire.*] 
 
 Endorsed by Lady Russell: " To Mr. Norton, 
 " September, 1713 ; but what sent altered in 
 " many places when written fair." 
 
 Sir, 
 
 THE words I have read in your letter to my 
 dear niece, dated September 8th, leave no room 
 for me to hesitate what I ought to do ; that is, 
 first to acknowledge the justice of your thoughts, 
 in believing I would be what I ought to be ; and 
 I were very unworthy of it, if I declined, to the 
 uttermost of my abilities, to be of use, in the 
 least or biggest occasion for it. The present is 
 one of those the most to be lamented ; but, Sir, 
 my business is not to speak much on the uncom- 
 fortable part ; the separation is agreed on by you 
 both. My earnest prayer is, and will be, that it 
 be not unhappy to either ; and what is conceived 
 to be of use to the more easy passing of our time 
 on the earth, ought to be chosen and submitted 
 to ; and next to consider well, and then deter- 
 mine to agree to what is hoped will be to the
 
 318 
 
 future satisfaction of both, as I sincerely desire 
 it may. And now, Sir, I entreat you will accept 
 
 of my plain way of expressing my meaning. 
 
 Here she goes into the details of her niece* s fortune 
 and settlements, and 'what Mr. Norton is to allow 
 her. 
 
 To make a show she never affected at any 
 time of her life, and much less now in her later 
 and unfortunate circumstances, ever to be la- 
 mented on her side. Pomp was never valued 
 by her ; but to want necessaries she never yet 
 knew, nor does it enter into her mind that you 
 would have her. You, Sir, know the world too 
 well to doubt but that every tongue will be at 
 liberty. I am sure, to such as will expostulate 
 the matter with her, her answer will be ready, 
 that none should complain that have what they 
 asked and all they desired. If this pleases you, 
 all may be calmly and quietly settled, and all 
 pass in silence : no contributions to the town 
 tattles ; and, although in most things it is to be 
 despised, yet I exempt those of this nature. My 
 zeal carries me too far ; J will have done when I 
 have added this, that you will still continue your 
 partiality to 
 
 Sir, 
 
 Yours, &c. 
 
 What I have wrote, there is none upon earth 
 knows anv one word of.
 
 319 
 LETTER XX. 
 
 {Lady Russell to her Daughter the Duchess of Devonshire.'} 
 
 Tuesday, September 4. 1716. 
 I READ yours, September 1st, with great con- 
 tent, the young gentleman is so well. It is to 
 no use to murmur that you could not be satisfied 
 with taking the journey ; the rather also because 
 I believe I should have done the same. It is so 
 fine a season, I trust your return to Derbyshire 
 will be easy ; your mind would not have been 
 such if you had not done as you did. I hope 
 the young gentleman will have a grateful, as 
 well as pleasing memory of your tenderness. I 
 shall be easy with a line or two from Lady 
 Mary (1), how you got to Chatsworth : at your 
 first coming you will have a great deal to do, and 
 so for the short time you can stay. I see no cause 
 to fear, but that all will be as we are, (2) quiet j 
 but it is the temper of most to fear, or seem to 
 do so. The season is exceedingly fine, not much 
 burnt up ; but the farmers, for talk sake, ever 
 
 ( 1 ) Lady Mary Cavendish, her eldest daughter, who died 
 unmarried in 1719. 
 
 (2) She means politically quiet, of which the rebellion of 
 the year before had left doubts.
 
 320 
 
 wishing for what they have not : but it is good 
 walking, and that is my best diversion. I cannot 
 easily add any words to make this more a di- 
 version to you, than that I thank God I have as 
 much easy health as my years can have ; and 
 memory as yet enough to take a pleasure when 
 I hear of what I love most, and desire all good 
 may be their portion ; which will afford content, 
 while any thought whatever of good or ill remains 
 in the head or heart of your ever affectionate 
 mother, 
 
 R. RUSSELL. 
 
 My kind service to your Lord and children : 
 blessings to all. I would Lord Hartington were 
 with you. 
 
 To her Grace the Duchess of Devonshire.
 
 LETTERS 
 
 FROM 
 
 DOROTHY SIDNEY, 
 COUNTESS DOWAGER OF SUNDERLAND, 
 
 TO 
 
 GEORGE SAVILLE, EARL OF HALIFAX, 
 
 IN 
 
 1680,
 
 323 
 
 DOROTHY SIDNEY, Countess of Sunderland, was 
 the eldest daughter of Robert Sidney, Earl of 
 Leicester, by Dorothy Percy, daughter of Henry 
 Earl of Northumberland. She was born about 
 the year 1620, and married, in 1639, Henry 
 Spencer, Lord Spencer of Wormleighton, and 
 afterwards Earl of Sunderland. He was killed 
 at the battle of Edgehill, leaving his widow at 
 the age of 23, with a son and two daughters. 
 
 The long and remarkable political career of 
 her son Robert, Earl of Sunderland, is perhaps 
 more known than that of any of his contem- 
 poraries. Her eldest daughter was the first wife 
 of Sir George Saville, successively Viscount, 
 Earl, and Marquis of Halifax. Her second 
 daughter died unmarried. She herself j after re- 
 maining ten years a widow, remarried in 1652, 
 Robert Smythe, Esq. the eldest son of Sir John 
 Smythe, of Bounds, in Kent (1), by whom she 
 
 (1 ) Evelyn thus mentions her second marriage : " 9th 
 July, 1652, we went to see Penshurst, the Earl of Leicester's, 
 famous once for its gardens and excellent fruit, and for the 
 noble conversation that was wont to meet there, celebrated 
 by that illustrious person, our Philip Sidney, who there com- 
 
 Y 2
 
 324 
 
 had a son, Robert, the grandfather of Sir Sidney 
 Stafford Smythe, who died without issue, Chief 
 Baron of the Exchequer, in 1778. 
 
 This lady, although a daughter of the illus- 
 trious house of Sidney, the niece of Sir Philip, 
 and the sister of Algernon, is most known to 
 posterity from having been celebrated by Waller, 
 under the name of Saccarissa. She seems, both 
 by her personal beauty, and her talents, to have 
 merited the eulogies bestowed on her, better 
 than most of the real, or imaginary mistresses of 
 poets. 
 
 That the passion of Waller for her was merely 
 the admiration of a young man sublimated by 
 a poetical imagination, his character and his 
 verses, and her situation and her early marriage 
 with a man she loved, all combine to prove. 
 The coldness of which he complains, was not 
 likely then to have been mitigated by a just 
 estimation of her good luck, which, in addition 
 to all the advantages she had received from 
 nature and from fortune, had given her that of 
 a poet to record her charms. For it may be 
 
 posed divers of his pieces. It stands in a park finely watered, 
 and was now full of company, on the marriage of my old 
 fellow-collegiate, Mr. Robert Smythe, who married my Lady 
 Dorothy Sidney, widow of the Earl of Sunderland." Evelyn, 
 vol.i. p. 262. 
 
 4
 
 said of beaut)^ yet more certainly than of 
 valour : 
 
 Vixere fortes ante Agamemnona 
 Multi ; sed omnes illacrymabiles 
 Urgentur ignotique longa 
 Nocte, carent quia Vale sacro. 
 
 The following letters to her son-in-law, Lord 
 Halifax, had been carefully preserved and 
 endorsed by him. On the death of his son 
 William-, Marquis of Halifax, in 1700, without 
 male heirs, they descended to his daughter and 
 co-heiress the Lady Dorothy Saville, married to 
 Richard Earl of Burlington, and are now in the 
 possession of her great-grandson, the Duke of 
 Devonshire. 
 
 Y 3
 
 LETTERS 
 
 FROM 
 
 DOROTHY SIDNEY 
 COUNTESS DOWAGER OF SUNDERLAND, 
 
 TO 
 
 GEORGE SAVILLE, EARL OF HALIFAX. 
 IN 1680. 
 
 LETTER I. 
 
 June 9th. 
 
 1 AM, my dear Lord, now employed by my 
 son (1) to write to you, though he intends to do 
 it himself this night ; but he is not sure of his 
 time, because my brother (2) is expected every 
 
 ( 1 ) Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland. He had been 
 made Secretary of State the preceding year, on the re- 
 signation of Sir Joseph Williamson. 
 
 (2) The Honourable Henry Sidney had been sent Minis- 
 ter to the Hague in November, 1679. Burnet says, " Lord 
 Sunderland manages the States by the means of his uncle 
 Mr. Sidney." 
 
 Y 4-
 
 328 
 
 minute. He bid me tell you he cannot be at 
 Althorpe this fortnight. He desires you will 
 not disappoint him of seeing you ; he says he 
 has a great deal to tell you, and that you will 
 like very well. I have heard that, which makes 
 rne hope the King will disappoint those that are 
 enemies to him and peace, by the best arms he 
 can do it with acts of justice, moderation, 
 and observing the laws, and the using no tricks, 
 but dealing sincerely, openly, without any se- 
 crets, especially such as passed between my 
 Lord Danby and Mr. Montague. (3) The King 
 was here yesterday at council, which was doubt- 
 ful the day before. My son returned with His 
 Majesty ; but my daughter (4) is here to my 
 cost : she has begged a dinner of me to-day. 
 All the talk now is of those that are going to 
 Tangiers (5) immediately my Lord Mul- 
 
 (3) These were the money-treaties with France, which had 
 passed through the medium of Mr. Montague, while ambas- 
 sador at Paris, and Lord Danby, then Lord Treasurer. See 
 Burnet's account of the first public notice taken of this 
 business, vol. ii. p. 217. octavo edition. 
 
 (4-) The Lady Anne Digby, wife of Robert Earl of Sun- 
 derland, was the daughter of George Digby, the last Earl of 
 Bristol of that family. 
 
 (5) Tangier, a sea-port town on the northern coast of 
 Africa, had been taken from the Moors by the Portuguese, 
 in 1471. It was part of the portion brought to Charles II. 
 in marriage w ith Catharine of Braganza, and proved a yet
 
 329 
 
 grave (6), who commands all, and several 
 volunteers, I know not who. My Lord Shrews- 
 bury (7) did offer to go, but the doctors say, 
 the sickness at sea will put out his other 
 eye, therefore the King has commanded him 
 not to go. My Lord Mordaunt (8) does ; 
 
 more unlucky possession than that of the Queen herself. 
 " After the King had kept Tangier twenty years, and had 
 " been at a vast expense in making a mole before it, in which 
 *' several sets of undertakers had failed, indeed, in the main 
 " design, but had succeeded in enriching themselves, and the 
 " work was now brought near perfection, which seemed to 
 ' give us the key of the Mediterranean, he, to deliver him- 
 " self from that charge, sent Lord Dartmouth with a fleet to 
 *' destroy all the works, and bring home all our men, in 
 " 1684." Burnet, vol. ii. p. 4-38. 
 
 At the beginning of the year 1680, the Moors had 
 besieged it, and succeeded in destroying a part of the works, 
 during the government of Lord Inchiquin. The present 
 expedition was sent out to reinforce the garrison, not without 
 fears, which we find justified in the following letter, that the 
 fort would be taken before its arrival. 
 
 (6) John Sheffield, afterwards (1703) created Duke of 
 Buckingham. 
 
 (7) Charles Talbot, afterwards (1694) created Duke of 
 Shrewsbury. 
 
 (8) The same who afterwards, under the name of Lord 
 Peterborough, was so distinguished by his campaigns in the 
 war of the Spanish succession, during the reign of Queen 
 Anne. It is of him whom Pope says, 
 
 * And he whose genius pierced the Iberian lines, 
 
 " Now plants my quincunx, and now ranks my vines, 
 " And tames the genius of the stubborn plain, 
 ** Almost as quickly as he conquered Spain."
 
 330 
 
 whose being married few do doubt, and 
 that he repents it, and is ashamed. The 
 sending these men does cost 58,0001. j and 
 does not disorder the Exchequer at all in the 
 rules that they have set. They hope, if the 
 wind is good, to be there before the fort is 
 taken : if they should be to get it back again, 
 it will be hot service. They will have many 
 prayers. This day will come out all the ex- 
 aminations about the black box (9), with a de- 
 claration, that will not, I suppose, legitimate the 
 Duke of Monmouth. There is a private affair 
 as much talked of in town as any thing of 
 more importance, which is, the buying the 
 dukedom (10) for the Pierpoint family. Mr. Pier- 
 
 He married a daughter of a Sir Alexander Fraser, pro- 
 bably at this time, as he had a son, who died, leaving children, 
 in 1710. 
 
 (9) These were the depositions before the Privy Council, 
 relative to the supposed marriage of King Charles with Mrs. 
 Walters, the Duke of Monmouth's mother, a connection 
 of which Charles, had it suited his conveniency, or had his 
 wishes not been opposed by his situation, would, perhaps, 
 have been more willing to have established, than to have 
 destroyed the legitimacy. 
 
 (10) This treaty for the purchase of a dukedom, so publicly 
 talked of and canvassed, shows, in a strong light, (in spite of 
 Lady Sunderland's assurance of the manner in which it had 
 been scornfully rejected,) the opinions entertained of the ve- 
 nality and poverty of the Court. The Somebody, who be- 
 lieved the offer would have been accepted, must be no other
 
 331 
 
 point came to me two days ago, much alarmed 
 vvitli the belief that it would be had : he said, 
 his sister Pierpoint had a promise of it; that 
 she had been with his aunt to see the security 
 for the 20,0001. : to that she would add 30001. 
 to be a duchess into the bargain. Three thou- 
 sand pounds, I believe have been offered to be 
 added to the 20,0001. ; and that she owned a 
 promise of it. This I did wonder at very 
 much : I thought I had good reason to think it 
 would not be done ; but Court resolutions are 
 not so firm as the laws of the Medes and Per- 
 sians. He desired me to enquire, as I have ; 
 and am now assured that the King has positively 
 and scornfully rejected it, as not allowing any 
 such thing to be sold. Mrs. Pierpoint is 
 abominably abused by Somebody, perhaps not 
 meaning to do it neither ; but believing the 
 poverty of the Court would take such a sum, 
 and they would have had a snip out of it, the 
 proposal has been brought to every body that 
 has any credit : and but yesterday, Mrs. Pier- 
 point was busy to get the money upon the 
 security ; for my Lord Dorchester (11) pauses at 
 
 than the Duchess of Portsmouth, by whose encouragement, 
 and through whose means, it was probably made. 
 
 (11) Henry, the first Marquis of Dorchester, of the name 
 of Pierpont, which title became extinct in him, and was 
 revived in his family by Queen Anne.
 
 332 
 
 it, and says he cannot pay the money, nor does 
 not desire to be a duke. There is much notice 
 taken of Mr. Hyde's (12) being often with Sir 
 William Jones, who is sorry, with all his heart, 
 he is not Attorney-General. (13) My son speaks 
 very confidently of the parliament sitting in 
 November (14) ; if there is occasion from 
 abroad, sooner. Your Lordship knows he is 
 sanguine ; and he believes the King of France 
 will not fall upon Flanders this summer. 
 My Lady Scroope (15) is very angry, Mr. 
 
 (12) Laurence Hyde, second son of the Lord Chancellor 
 Clarendon. He married the Lady Henrietta Boyle, the 5th 
 and favourite daughter of the first Earl of Burlington. In a 
 MS. common-place book of Lady Burlington's, (who was the 
 daughter and heiress of the last Earl of Cumberland,) in the 
 possession of the Duke of Devonshire, is an account of the 
 manner in which this marriage was settled, under the 
 immediate auspices of the Duchess of York, ( Mr. Hyde's 
 sister,) and a promise from the King of especial favour and 
 advancement. 
 
 (13) Sir William Jones had been Attorney-General in 
 1674-* See Burnet's character of him. 
 
 (14) The Parliament met October 21st of this year. 
 
 (15) Lady Scroope was the widow of Sir Adrian Scroope, 
 who died about 1667. She was the daughter of Sir Robert 
 Carr, of Sleaford, in Lincolnshire. Evelyn, in his Diary, 
 mentions " my Lady Scroope, the great witte," going with 
 him, and other persons, to see Montague-house, (now the 
 British Museum,) then newly built, 13th October, 1683. 
 She died in the autumn of 1685. 
 
 In Aubrey's Lives of Eminent Men, vol. iii. p. 379., there
 
 333 
 
 Saville (16) says, with His most Christian 
 Majesty, for refusing her a pass : he has 
 done the same for my Lady (17) Winchester : 
 he says it is only to steal custom (18); he 
 is very peevish to us now. My Lord Bod- 
 min (19) behaves himself so foolishly, he must 
 be called home : it is not imaginable what 
 things he does. My brother has got such 
 
 is a curious account of Sir Adrian Scroope having been left 
 for dead on the field at Edgehill, given on the authority of 
 Dr. Harvey, the celebrated discoverer of the circulation of 
 the blood, who was himself at the engagement, in the ca- 
 pacity of physician to Charles the First, and to whose care 
 the Prince of Wales and Duke of York, then children, 
 were committed during the heat of the action. " He 
 " (Dr. Harvey) told me that Sir Adrian Scroope was dan- 
 " gerously wounded there, and left for dead among the 
 " dead men, stript ; which happened to be the saving of his 
 " life. It was cold, clear weather, and a frost that night, 
 " which staunched his bleeding ; and, about midnight, or 
 " some hours after his hurt, he awaked, and was fain to draw 
 " a dead body upon him, for warmth sake." 
 
 (16) The Honourable Henry Saville, brother to Lord 
 Halifax. He had been Envoy Extraordinary to France, and 
 was made Vice-Chamberlain to the King, in September of 
 this year. 
 
 (17) Second wife to the Marquis of Winchester, after- 
 wards Duke of Bolton. See note to Lady Russell's Letters, 
 page 30. 
 
 (18) To smuggle. 
 
 (19) John Robartes, Lord Bodmin, had been sent Minister 
 to Denmark in the preceding February. He was afterwards 
 created Earl of Radnor, and President of the Council.
 
 334. 
 
 praise, I am afraid he will be as proud of it as 
 he was once of his face. (20) If I see him be- 
 fore Saturday I will write again ; he wrote to 
 me that I should, though nobody else did in 
 town ; my son has left a note, that he shall not 
 stay at all here : and he must soon return to the 
 Hague again. They say there shall be no more 
 underhand dealings to gain Parliament-men. The 
 King dined yesterday at my Lord (21) Ossory's. 
 He is not very forward to dine at my Lord of 
 Bedford's. (22) His Lordship turned off a great 
 many great fishes he had bespoke : my son says, 
 it is because he would not eat so (23) much. 
 Mr. Waller is very angry with my Lord Caven- 
 dish ; you have reason to be so too. He has 
 not written to his father for above six months ; 
 and he is very earnest to have him go down with 
 his wife for a fortnight ; and he cannot be per- 
 
 (20) He was the Beau Sidney of the Memoires de Gram- 
 raont. 
 
 (21) Thomas Earl of Ossory, son of the first Duke of 
 Ormond. He died universally lamented, soon after the date 
 of this letter. See Evelyn's Djary, vol. i. p. 488. 
 
 (22) Probably on account of the line of politics taken by 
 his son, Lord Russell. 
 
 (23) It would seem that William Earl of Bedford was 
 remarkable for a good appetite. Ruvigny, (Lord Galway,) 
 in a letter to Lady Russell, says, complaining of his health 
 in Spain, " J'ai perdu entierement 1'appetit, que Lord Bed- 
 " ford appeloit son meilleur ami."
 
 335 
 
 suaded. (24) Waller does swear and stare, that 
 he would have half his estate now, and will not 
 make him a leg for it. (25) His whole business 
 now is to watch where my Lady Betty (26) Felton 
 goes, to follow her. My Lord Plymouth (27) goes 
 to Tangiers, Middleton (28) and (29) Lumley ; 
 who more, I know not. I thank God our gal- 
 lant (30) is not here. It will be a terrible busi- 
 
 (24) Lord Cavendish (the first Duke of Devonshire) had 
 married Lady Mary Butler, daughter of the Duke of Or- 
 mond, and sister to Lord Ossory. 
 
 (25) It is amusing to hear Saccarissa thus speaking of 
 Waller, in their mutual old age. 
 
 (26) Lady Betty Felton is the same Belle frequently men- 
 tioned in Lady Russell's Letters. See page 57. 
 
 (27) Lord Plymouth was a natural son of Charles II. by 
 Mrs. Catharine Peg, daughter of Thomas Peg, Esquire, of 
 Yeldersley, in Derbyshire. He had married a daughter of 
 Sir Thomas Osborne, (the first Duke of Leeds,) and died 
 this year at Tangiers, during the siege by the Moors. 
 
 (28) The Earl of Middleton, son to him who had been 
 Commissioner from the King, and had governed Scotland. 
 See frequent mention of the father, in Burnet's History. Of 
 the son, he says, he was " a man of a generous temper, but 
 " without much religion ; well learned, of a good judgment, 
 " and a lively apprehension." Burnet, vol. ii. p. 437. 
 
 (29) Richard Lord Lumley, afterwards Earl of Scarbo- 
 rough. He was one of the six who signed the association, 
 inviting over the Prince of Orange. 
 
 (30) " Our gallant," probably means Lord Spencer, the 
 eldest son of Robert Earl of Sunderland, and the writer's 
 grandson.
 
 336 
 
 ness if any thing. I believe not many do go. 
 As soon as my Lady Winchester came into the 
 ship, a fellow went to a rope, and by the wind 
 it caught about his neck, and in a minute cut oft' 
 his head, and it fell down as if it had been done 
 with an axe. I thought this so strange, that it 
 was as fit to be put in my letter as most of it. 
 My dear Lord, be a little kind to your poor old, 
 constant, passionate lover of you. 
 
 D. S. 
 
 Pray let me know if this comes to you. My 
 humble service to my Lady (31), and love to 
 Nan. (32) 
 
 LETTER II. 
 
 June 20th. 
 
 WHAT measures soever you take of my kind- 
 ness and good-will, I fear, my dear Lord, you 
 cannot but think me impertinent in writing so 
 
 (31) The second wife of Lord Halifax, Gertrude Pierpont, 
 daughter of William Pierpont, of Thoresby, second son of 
 the Earl of Kingston. 
 
 (32) " Nan," was the Lady Anne Saville, the daughter of 
 Lord Halifax by his first wife, and consequently, grand- 
 daughter to the writer. She afterwards married John Lord 
 Vaughan, second son of Francis Earl of Carberry, who be- 
 came Lord Vaughan on the death of his eldest brother, the 
 first husband of Lady Russell.
 
 .337 
 
 many letters to you. By this post you will re- 
 ceive my son's desire to meet him : on Tuesday 
 he intends to go. He says you will, he knows, 
 be well satisfied with what is already done and 
 intended. My brother Harry will go to Althorpe : 
 he longs to see you, he says, and more of your 
 friends : I saw them both yesterday, and they 
 told me so. My son had a sore mouth that 
 vexed him, with the ill news from Tangiers, that 
 the fort is taken. Our men must get it back 
 again : a terrible scene, they say, that will be. 
 My Lord Middleton ( 1 ) is to go to the Emperor 
 as envoy. I am told by our ministers we are 
 assured of his declaring at the Diet to be in 
 league with us and the Dutch ; and my brother 
 says, he does not doubt but by Michaelmas, 
 almost all the Princes of Europe will do so too. 
 He says, that from this city did come letters to 
 the States of Holland, to persuade them not to 
 make a league with us ; for we were in so ill 
 condition by the divisions amongst ourselves, if 
 they quitted France for us they were ruined. 
 This did stagger them awhile. It is certain the 
 mutineers (^) are out of their wits, and may be 
 
 ( 1 ) The same mentioned in the foregoing letter. He was 
 made Secretary of State on the removal of Lord Godolphin 
 to the Treasury, in 1684. 
 
 (2) Thus the courtiers of that day called those in opposi- 
 tion to their measures.
 
 338 
 
 ashamed of the lies they have told : either they 
 have so ill intelligence, that they cannot for that 
 be fit for great undertakings, or too little truth 
 to be so. Sir William Jones invited my brother 
 Harry to dinner ; and he told him some of the 
 truths he will tell you. The man lifted up his 
 eyes and hands in such a wonder, as if he had 
 been in the Indies ; and he tells nothing but 
 what was known from him before ; but they said 
 it was all lies and cheat : now they cannot deny 
 it, they are turning it to ill consequence. Yester- 
 day my brother Smith (3) dined at my Lord 
 Shaftesbury's, and thought him pettish and out 
 of humour extremely. Mr. Hampden (4) came 
 in before dinner, and said, " My Lord, have we 
 a league with the Dutch ?" " Yes," says my 
 
 (3) Lady Sunderland had remarried, in 1652, Mr. Smith, 
 son and heir of Sir John Smith, of Bounds, in Kent. The 
 person here mentioned was her husband's brother. 
 
 (4-) Mr. Hampden was grandson to John Hampden, of 
 Hampden, in Buckinghamshire, who had so nobly stood a 
 trial for ship-money in the last reign. He had thus a sort of 
 hereditary right to be on the popular side in all political dis- 
 putes. He was himself the last person tried for the Rye- 
 House plot, which had proved fatal to Lord Russell, and to 
 Algernon Sydney ; but as there were no two witnesses of any 
 sort against him, he was only indicted for a misdemeanor, 
 and was fined in the enormous sum of forty thousand pounds I 
 the greatest fine that had ever been levied by the Court 
 of King's Bench.
 
 339 
 
 Lord. Says Hampden, " This will be all 
 turned against us : we shall have the Prince of 
 Orange with an army here." They are so mad, 
 they know not what they say. He whispered to 
 my Lord Shaftesbury, and Smith heard him say, 
 " I am afraid this will fool the Parliament.*' 
 These are good Englishmen and Protestants ! 
 I have been too long upon politics, considering 
 that you will know more in a few days than I 
 shall do this twelvemonth, by those who will tell 
 you true, that I am ashamed 1 have written so 
 much. I am never better pleased, than when I 
 am told those things will be done that my Lord 
 Halifax will approve ; for then I am sure that is 
 good for the nation ; and my son being for those 
 ways too, is a satisfaction to me. (5) Tom Pelham 
 and Ned Montague (6) are so out of counte- 
 nance for the lies they haye told me, and not 
 believing the truths I told them, they believe 
 every word my brother Harry says. 
 
 Here is my secret j I fear (7) Mr. Pierpoint 
 will not prove a good husband : he is yet fond of 
 
 (5) Lady Sunderland's nephew, son to her sister, Lady 
 Lucy Sidney, married to Sir John Pelham. 
 
 (6) A brother of Ralph, the first Duke of Montague, died 
 unmarried. 
 
 (7) Gervaise Pierpoint, fifth son of William Pierpoint, of 
 Thoresby, married Lucy, daughter of Sir John Pelham, of 
 Laughton, in Sussex, and, consequently, niece to Lady Sun- 
 derland. Mr. Pierpont was, in 1703, made Lord Ardglass. 
 
 z 2
 
 340 
 
 her, but so unquiet in his house, and so miserable 
 the servants say, in all that is not for show, that 
 they are all weary and coming away. He calls 
 the women all the ill names that are, and meddles 
 with every thing in the kitchen much. I have 
 not spoken with her alone a great while. All 
 this is at Montague's, and will soon be every 
 where. Yesterday, I heard he would put away 
 her woman, for saying, God bless her mistress, 
 she would be glad never to see her master again. 
 She is very melancholy ; but there is not a word 
 of dislike to any thing of her behaviour. I 
 believe she does not know what to do in a house. 
 The King was yesterday here, though the day 
 before there was a council at Windsor. My 
 Lord President (8) was there, and my Lord of 
 Essex. (9) My dear Lord, though the length 
 of my letter does not show the great haste I am 
 in, the sense will. I am, 
 
 Yours, 
 
 With all the affection you can think, 
 
 D.S. 
 
 (8) John Robartes, Earl of Radnor. 
 
 (9) Arthur Capel, Earl of Essex. The same sent to the 
 Tower, in 1683, for his participation in the supposed Rye- 
 House plot, and found there, with his throat cut, on the very 
 day, and during the proceedings on Lord Russell's trial.
 
 LETTER III. 
 
 I DID not intend, my dear Lord, to have 
 troubled you to-day ; but I am put into choler at 
 some who ought to be your friends; and if Tom 
 Thynne (1) has not more wrong than I believe, 
 he has done the basest thing to you. He par- 
 ticularly, but some others too, have said that you 
 have written letters to them, to assure them that, 
 though there were snares laid for you, they 
 should find you would not be caught. My son 
 says, he does not believe a tittle of it ; yet he 
 and Mr. Hyde have been told that Thynne has 
 not only said it, but given out copies of the 
 letters that you wrote to him to this purpose, to 
 several persons. For my part, I believe whoever 
 will give a copy of a friend's letter, will frame it 
 all, and your cousin's reputation, between man 
 and man, is bad enough for it I assure you ; and 
 so I will tell him, that he will be a good while 
 before he is bought off by any place from his 
 
 (1) Thomas Thynne, Esq. of Longleat, who, within a 
 twelvemonth after the date of this letter, was assassinated 
 in his carriage, in Pall Mall, at the instigation of Count 
 Koningsmarck. See a curious and detailed account of the 
 examination of witnesses on this subject, in Sir John Re- 
 resby's Memoirs, page 135. 
 
 z 3
 
 mutiny, which he is thought to have as much 
 mind to, as any mutineer of them all. My son 
 says, he is sure it cannot be ; it is neither your 
 stile, nor ever was your practice any thing 
 like this to return to your friends who have 
 desired your company for your personal merit ; 
 and, for his part, to be near you, whose sincerity 
 and judgment he should sooner rely upon than 
 anybody's ; and a proceeding not fair, he shall 
 never suspect my Lord Halifax for,* and this 
 would not be that ; but he thought it was fit to 
 write it to you ; it is what they have done to 
 others in a degree. It is something like what Mr. 
 Montague said when many of his acquaintance 
 were taken into the council, and he left : A pox 
 on them ! if he had thought they would have gone 
 without him, he would never have brought out 
 my Lord Danby's letter. (2) They are jealous 
 that you have been invited to Court (3) ; and 
 why they should think you did not mean to do 
 as you did, when your occasions in the country 
 did permit your coming, I know not, by any 
 thing I have ever heard. They have said a great 
 deal more, as is reported ; that you wrote before 
 
 (2) This was Lord Danby's letter to Mr. Montague, while 
 ambassador to France, relative to the money-treaty which 
 was made the ground of Lorti Danby's impeachment. 
 
 (3) See Lady Russell's Letters, page 48.
 
 34,3 
 
 you went to Althorpe to some here, that you 
 were to go to Althorpe, and your court friends, 
 several of them, would meet you ; but you would 
 be firm against their persuasions. I was so 
 cautious, that 1 never mentioned your going till 
 they were gone, suspecting, from the abundance 
 of lies that I have heard, some would be made 
 upon it. As to your particular, I have been 
 told they have said things, by the way of under- 
 taking for you, that I was sure they never had 
 authority from you for : they are mad any body 
 should be more valued than they. If they do 
 expect to be much sought to, they will, I am told, 
 be mistaken. Their violent running against the 
 Duke (of York) will make them do more, 
 because they have done so much. What honours 
 may come, I know not ; but yet all the several 
 parties of this kind are by all called, but my 
 Lord Shaftesbury's followers. I am so vexed to 
 have your name abused by these common cheats, 
 that it has put me out of my little stuff I had to 
 say. My son came and dined with me to-day, 
 which he has not done these seven years, because 
 he had no other time, and told me this, believing 
 you might write something to me of it upon his 
 letter. It has made me so hot, loving my friend 
 as myself ; and if any body did such a trick to 
 me, I am sure I would never see them more. I 
 reflect now upon little half things that I have 
 
 z 4
 
 34-4 
 
 been told, which makes me think part, if not att, 
 is true. Jones (Sir William') has been with the 
 Duke, I hear ; I know not for what. He says 
 now, that my brother's business could not be 
 determined otherwise than it is, after he had 
 taken so many fees of my brother (4) Leicester. 
 Your brother and my Lady Scroope came last 
 night. He is gone to Windsor with my son. I 
 shall not have the happiness yet to see his good 
 shape, and good face ; for one, my Lord Sunder- 
 land says, is no bigger than his, and his face 
 never before so good ; his dress most decent : 
 bis wisdom he has brought the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth a great fine present. The King of 
 France will be a peaceable prince this summer. 
 Yesterday the judges had orders, from King and 
 Council, to convict all Papists strictly charged, 
 and not to prosecute other Dissenters from the 
 Church of England. This was my Lord Sun- 
 derland's good deed. I told him I had long 
 been angry with all that would put them in one 
 rank ; I was glad my own flesh and blood was of 
 my mind. J heard, at a great meeting of these 
 
 (1) Philip Earl of Leicester, her brother, had contested a 
 legacy of five thousand one hundred pounds, left by their 
 father, Robert Earl of Leicester, to his son, Algernoon ; and 
 had instituted a suit in Chancery against his brother, which 
 was at last determined in favour of Algernoon. 
 
 3
 
 345 
 
 busy people, they said they had a spy upon them, 
 sent by my Lord Sunderland. He does protest 
 he sent nobody ; nor did he know where they 
 were. The Duke of Buckingham is come oft' 
 with honour. Blood (5) is run away ; the others 
 found guilty ; and my Lord of Buckingham 
 makes himself sure of 30,0001. fine. (6) Mr. Mon- 
 
 (5) This was a trial on an infamous accusation against the 
 Duke of Buckingham, by Blood, the same man who had 
 attempted stealing the crown in 1671. 
 
 (6) June 25th, 1680, Mr. Thomas Blood, Mr. Edward 
 Christian, and others, were brought to their trial, for a con- 
 spiracy against the Duke of Buckingham, and found guilty. 
 Damages laid at ten thousand pounds. It seems to have 
 been doubted whether this was a scheme of Blood's against 
 the Duke, or a counter-plot of the Duke's to entrap Blood. 
 For further particulars of the extraordinary life and adven- 
 tures of this person, see the Biographia Britannica, vol. ii. at 
 his article. Evelyn gives the following account of dining .in 
 company with Blood, 10th May, 1671: "Dined at Mr. 
 " Treasurer's, (Sir Thomas Clifford's,) where dined Monsieur 
 " de Grammont, and several French noblemen, and one Blood 
 " that impudent, bold fellow, who had, not long before, 
 " attempted to steal the Imperial Crown itself out of the 
 " Tower, pretending curiosity of seeing the regalia there, 
 " when, stabbing the keeper, though not mortally, he boldly 
 " went away with it through all the guards, taken only by 
 " the accident of his horse falling down. How he came to 
 " be pardoned, and even received into favour, not only after 
 " this, but several other exploits, almost as daring, both in 
 " Ireland and here, I never could come lo understand. 
 " Some believed he became a spy of several parties, being 
 " well with the sectaries and enthusiasts, and did His Ma-
 
 346 
 
 tague does not appear amongst the discontented 
 in public. He is going into France. It is time 
 for me to go from troubling you, that I love so 
 well as to be very sorry any thing should. My 
 dear Lord, take all I do in good part, for it is 
 so meant. 
 
 D.S. 
 
 July 1st. 
 
 LETTER IV. 
 
 July 3d. 
 
 I OUGHT to ask pardon for being too bold with 
 any that pretend to be friends to my dear Lord 
 Halifax, though I do not think them so, as I 
 doubt I was in my last letter, written in choler ; 
 but I think, as I did then, that they are liars, 
 and so do your other friends. I have a better sub- 
 ject now my Lady Scroope's commendation of 
 your son. (1) Of his wit, she says great things ; 
 
 " jesty service that way, which none alive could do so 
 " well as he : but it was, certainly, as the boldest attempt, so 
 " the only treason of this sort that ever was pardoned. The 
 " man had not only a daring, but a villainous, unmerciful 
 " look, a false countenance, but very well spoken, and dan- 
 " gerously insinuating." Evelyn, vol. i. p. 413. 
 
 (1) The Honourable Henry Saville, grandson to the 
 writer. He died without children, in his father's life-time.
 
 34,7 
 
 of his disposition, she believes very well, by all 
 he says of those he should show it best to. For 
 his discretion in marriage, she will undertake 
 you may leave it to him ; for he will do himself 
 no hurt in that. There is a Protestant, that, he 
 says, is the handsomest woman he ever saw, but 
 she is not rich enough for him : her portion is 
 not above 80001. English. There is another very 
 rich, that I told Your Lordship was spoken of 
 for Spencer. (2) My Lady Scroope had heard 
 it ; but she says she is not fit for him : she is 
 eighteen years old. Her mother sent my daughter 
 Sunderland a fan, with diamonds upon the sticks, 
 that cost fifty pistoles : she had sent her a Japan 
 cabinet ; this is Madame de Gouvernet. Your 
 son says, he could be in love, but he can stop it 
 before it is any trouble to him. (3) My Lady 
 Scroope says she is sure he has no attachment : 
 she says he does very pleasantly rally his 
 
 (2) Robert Lord Spencer, eldest son of the second Earl 
 of Sunderland. He died unmarried at Paris, in 1688, on his 
 return from a mission of compliment to the Duke of Modena, 
 on the death of the Duchess, mother of James the Second's 
 queen. 
 
 (3) This, however, it would seem, he found he had either 
 not the power, or not the will to do ; for he married this lady, 
 Hester de la Tour, daughter of the Marquis de Gouvernet. 
 Her mother, the person here mentioned, remained long after 
 in England. See frequent mention of her in Edward, the 
 second Earl of Clarendon's Journal.
 
 348 
 
 uncle (4) with watching his ways, and he is as 
 fond of him as can be. She did not know that 
 he loved play. She says he went his uncle's half 
 two or three times, at my Lady Exeter's, at 
 small ombre, and at the fair for some little trifles ; 
 but not else at all. Mr. Montague talks now of 
 going next month into France ; he will return, 
 I suppose, as he sees occasion : some of his com- 
 pany is grown too hot for him. I am told that 
 Sir William Jones does say, they cannot bring 
 an impeachment into Hicks's Hall against the 
 Duke : at first there were not so many Lords 
 appeared for the indictment as were named. 
 They do think they have gone too far already to 
 be forgiven. They may take (5) Mr. Howe's 
 saying; to cure the ills they have done, they 
 must do greater ; which is their meaning, no 
 doubt. I was told, one of them said, " Oh, 
 that we had my Lord Halifax!" and they 
 were asked for what ? "To be of my Lord 
 Shaftesbury's school, or his retinue, he is fit for 
 either j nobody minds any of them, but as his 
 
 (4) Henry Saville, Lord Halifax's brother. He had been 
 Envoy Extraordinary to France, and was made Vice -Cham- 
 berlain to the King this year. 
 
 (5) John Howe, Esquire. He had been member for the 
 county of Gloucester, had taken an active part in all the 
 great measures of the Whigs, and was made Vice-Cham- 
 berlain to Queen Mary, at the Revolution.
 
 349 
 
 followers." Some say the Duchess of York is 
 with child, others that she is melancholy, not 
 for Mrs. Sedley (6), but greater matters. The 
 Duke appears very thoughtful. I have not seen 
 your brother yet : he had good intentions, but 
 they did not come to performance. My Lady 
 Scroope says, he is a very discreet minister. The 
 King of France's (7) mistress does not go the 
 journey with him ; for a certain infirmity she 
 has, which has cost 2500 pistoles to cure, and 
 not made her able for motion yet, and is 
 likely to make her be quitted ; but she is a 
 duchess, with some land belonging to the title, 
 and 22,000 pistoles a-year pension, and a vast 
 deal of jewels and plate, and all that belongs to 
 her greater than any of his women ever had. 
 The ladies of that Court fear nothing so much 
 as the King's growing devout ; for he is al- 
 ready so strict as to their conduct, there wants 
 but that to make him as bad as a Spaniard : most 
 
 (6) The only daughter of Sir Charles Sedley, afterwards 
 created Countess of Dorchester by James the Second ; of 
 whom her indignant father said, at the Revolution, when 
 siding with William, that, as the King had made his daughter 
 a Countess, the least he could do was to make James's daugh- 
 ter a Queen. 
 
 (7) Mademoiselle de Fontanges. See Madame de Sevigne"'s 
 Letters of this year, (1680,) for many details of her elevation, 
 character, illness, &c.
 
 350 
 
 to Madame la Dauphine (8), who has a great 
 deal of wit and knowledge ; but she must not 
 show it but where he pleases. Her husband is 
 a sad creature : he keeps his brother under him 
 like a dog. My Lady Cleveland (9) is scanda- 
 lous and poor, both to a great degree. Here is 
 striving much for my Lord Thanet. (10) My 
 Lord of Bedford would give 12,0001., I believe 
 that is true ; but I do not what I am told of 
 my Lord of Winchesters orders left here to 
 offer him 20,0001. My Lady Henrietta Went- 
 worth (11) bestirs herself too. They that will 
 
 (8) A Princess of Bavaria, wife to the Dauphin, son of 
 Lewis XIV., known by the name of the Grand Dauphin. 
 (Lucus a non lucendo) it would seem, either in mind or person. 
 It was of the appearance of this Princess of Bavaria, his wife, 
 that Lewis XIV., was told, " sauve le premier quart d'heure 
 vous en serez content." See again Madame de Sevigne's 
 Letters of this date. 
 
 (9) The Duchess of Cleveland, who, since the accession 
 of the Duchess of Portsmouth to the King's public favour, 
 had resided much in France. There is a curious letter from 
 her, in 1678, to Charles, from Paris, in the Appendix to 
 Harris's Life of Charles the Second. 
 
 (10) Nicholas Tufton, Earl of Thanet. He married Lady 
 Elizabeth Boyle, third daughter of the first Earl of Burling- 
 ton. Was this " striving," and offering money for him to 
 secure him, politically, to their party, or to marry him into 
 their families ? 
 
 (11) Lady Henrietta Wentworth was the daughter of 
 Thomas Viscount Wentworth, eldest son of Thomas Went- 
 worth Earl of Cleveland, the first and last Earl of Cleveland
 
 351 
 
 give most shall have him, but very little of his 
 money, whatever he has of theirs. I am very 
 impatient to hear that your son is quite free 
 
 of that name. Her father dying before her grandfather, she 
 succeeded, on the death of the latter, in 1664-, to the barony 
 of Wentworth, and would, in these more accurate days, 
 have been called Lady Wenttvorth, and not Lady Harriet 
 Wentworth, by which name she is known to posterity as the 
 tender, attached Friend (to avoid the opprobrious name of 
 Mistress) of the unfortunate Duke of Monmouth. She did 
 not survive him a twelvemonth, dying unmarried in 1686. 
 See Burnet's affecting account of the Duke of Monmouth's 
 interview with the Bishops of Ely and Bath and Wells pre- 
 vious to his execution, and his sentiments to them on the 
 subject of his connection with Lady Harriet Wentworth. 
 
 In Dry den's Miscellany there is an Epilogue, " intended 
 " to have been spoken by the Lady Henrietta Maria Went- 
 " worth, when Calisto was acted at Court by Mr. Dryden." 
 See Dryden's Miscellany, vol. i. That it was not spoken, pro- 
 ceeded from the malicious interference of Lord Rochester, 
 according to Mr. Malone, in his Life of Dryden. The same 
 exact biographer gives the following remarkable Dramatis 
 Personae of the masque of Calisto, which was rehearsed and 
 acted above thirty times, at Whitehall, in the year 1675. 
 
 Calisto, by the Lady Mary, afterwards Queen. 
 
 Nyphe, Lady Anne, afterwards Queen. 
 
 Jupiter, Lady Henrietta Wentworth. 
 
 , f Countess of Sussex, daughter of the 
 
 \ Duchess of Cleveland. 
 
 Psecas, Lady Mary Mordaunt. 
 
 yy f Mrs. Blagge, late Maid of Honour to 
 
 1 the Queen. 
 
 Mercur -f ^ rs * ^ ara ^ J enmn gs> afterwards Duchess 
 \ of Marlborough.
 
 3,52 
 
 from the trouble in his throat : he was not 
 when I heard last : it is extremely painful and 
 dangerous : I will beg of him to have a care of 
 
 Nymphs attending Diana, and Performers in the Dances. 
 
 The Countess of Derby. 
 The Countess of Pembroke. 
 Lady Catherine Herbert. 
 
 Mrs. Fitzgerald, \ ,._ 
 
 n , | Maids of Honour to the Queen. 
 
 Mrs. Fraser, J 
 
 Male Dancers. 
 
 The Duke of Monmouth. 
 Viscount Dumblaine. 
 Lord Daincourt. 
 Mr. Trevor. 
 Mr. Harpe. 
 Mr. Lane. 
 
 This masque of Calisto was written by Crowne, an obscure 
 poet, whose works have now sunk into the oblivion they merit. 
 He was then under the capricious patronage of Lord Ro- 
 chester, at whose request he was intrusted with this compo- 
 sition, for the generous purpose of mortifying poor Dryden, 
 to whom, as Poet Laureate, the job would naturally have 
 belonged. Evelyn, in his Diary, thus mentions being at this 
 performance : 
 
 " 15th November, 1674. Saw a comedy at night, at 
 " Court, acted by the ladies only ; amongst them, Lady Mary 
 " and Lady Ann, His Royal Highness's two daughters, and 
 " my dear friend Mrs. Blagg, who, having the principal 
 " part, performed it to admiration. They were all covered 
 " with jewels." And again, on the 22d November, he says, 
 " Was at the repetition of the pastoral, on which occasion 
 " Mrs. Blagg had about her near 20,0001. worth of jewels 
 " of which she lost one, worth about 801. borrowed of the
 
 353 
 
 his diet. I know not when you will have Mr. 
 Pierpoint's company ; he is grave and reserved, 
 keeps all close. My Lady Scroope is so cautious, 
 she does not know what to do with herself now 
 she is here. That you may have all blessings, 
 and me that of your kindness, is passionately 
 wished by, 
 
 Yours, D. S. 
 
 LETTER V. 
 
 July 8th. 
 
 I MOST humbly beg your pardon, my dear 
 Lord, for being too bold with any relation of 
 yours, but kindness to you is so good a ground, 
 it can hardly produce a fault. My son and I 
 took it the same way ; was angry with those who 
 
 *' Countess of Suffolk. The press was so great, that it is a 
 " wonder she lost no more. The Duke ((jfYork) made it 
 " good." 
 
 See repeated mention made, in the same Diary, of the ad- 
 mirable character of this young lady, who had been a Maid 
 of Honour to Catherine of Braganza. She married, in May, 
 1675, Mr. Sydney Godolphin, then Groom of the Bed- 
 chamber to Charles the Second, afterwards made by him 
 Secretary of State, and created a Peer in 1684, and Lord 
 Treasurer and Earl of Godolphin, by Queen Anne, in 1702. 
 His virtuous and accomplished wife lived not to partake of 
 these honours. She died in child-bed, within three years 
 after her marriage, leaving an only son, who afterwards 
 married the eldest daughter of John Duke of Marlborough. 
 An affecting account is given of her death, her character, 
 and her loss to her husband and her friends, in Evelyn, 
 vol. i. p. 471. 
 
 A A
 
 354 
 
 did endeavour to make a difference, without a 
 thought of your having the least part in it. 
 Some find lies of use to them, and will not give 
 over the practice ; though this was told with 
 some confidence ; and I heard it another way, 
 not just so, but something like it ; yet, when I 
 was cool, I did not think Sir Thomas Thynne 
 would do so ill a thing to you. As this angered 
 me without having any effect, another that has 
 taken well pleases me, but that I believe is true 
 my Lord Shaftesbury's and Mr. Algernon's 
 quarrel, who has heard Shaftesbury say he is a 
 French pensioner and my Lord Sunderland's 
 spy ; he pays him again. This is like to go as 
 high as tongues can. (1) My brother Spen- 
 cer (2) was yesterday in town : he had a mind 
 to see his sister, (Lady Shaftesbury,') and sent to 
 her to meet him at (3) Southampton-House. 
 
 (1) This scandal against the character of Algernoon Sidney 
 did not begin with Sir John Dalrymple's report, founded on 
 Barillon's letter to his Court. We see it here originated in 
 the restless, imperious, and, it must be added, unprincipled 
 mind of Lord Shaftesbury. While such only are his de- 
 famers, and his life, his death, his sentiments, and his writ- 
 ings remain in evidence against them, he will ever be looked 
 up to, as one of the great lights held out in those stormy 
 days of our freedom, that led us into security, and confirmed 
 our civil liberties. 
 
 (2) The Honourable Robert Spencer. 
 
 (3) Then inhabited by Lord and Lady Russell.
 
 355 
 
 He would not go to my Lord Shaftesbury's, 
 because of his proceedings against the Duke. 
 My Lord Russell asked him, why he would come 
 to his ? He might have told him, you are but 
 a blind follower. (4) I was told, my Lord 
 Russell had not been amongst them, but that 
 they did resent the King's putting off' dining at 
 my Lord Bedford's, as a great affront. Some 
 better heads, perhaps, would not have taken it 
 so ill ; but everybody did wonder the King 
 would do it. Nothing was done at Hicks's 
 Hall, because they did not like the jury ; but 
 when they have another, which will be soon, 
 they will prosecute the Duke's (5) indictment. 
 They say they are gone too far to stop. The 
 storm is grown very high within this fortnight ; 
 God knows what does encourage them. Serjeant 
 Pemberton (6) is amongst them in their cabals, 
 but not Jones. His Highness smiles, dances, 
 makes love, and hunts. There are those in the 
 
 (4?) Thus all Ministries, in all times, abuse all Oppositions. 
 The fashion of that day was to call all those who opposed the 
 arbitrary measures of the Court, and of the Duke of York, 
 " blind followers of Lord Shaftesbury." 
 
 (5) As a Popish recusant. 
 
 (6) Made Chief Justice in 1681. He presided at Lord 
 Russell's trial ; and was displaced soon after, as Burnet 
 supposes, for ' stating the whole matter with so little eager- 
 " ness against Lord Russell." Burnet, vol. ii. p. 386. 
 
 A A 2
 
 3,56 
 
 court that tell this party things against him, 
 every day that do exasperate them, that the 
 Duke says, whether true or no I know not. 
 My Lady Scroope would stay, if she might; 
 yet I think she would be weary. (7) Mr. Saville 
 does not desire to quit France till we have less 
 of the politics, and better wine. He is fatter 
 than he was. He says your son is not fat at all : 
 I long to hear of him. I have not heard of the 
 little rogues ; if your Lordship has heard lately, 
 pray bid Nan (8) send me word how they do. 
 Mr. Saville goes to Windsor, with my son, 
 to-day. I have not seen His Lordship since he 
 came this time ; I may, perhaps, a minute : he 
 is very full of business. Mrs. Middleton (9) and 
 
 (7) The brother of Lord Halifax. 
 
 (8) " Nan" was her grand-daughter, the Lady Ann Sa- 
 ville ; and " the little rogues," of whom she desires to hear, 
 her two younger grandsons, Nan's brothers. 
 
 (9) Mrs. Middleton is one of the beauties at Windsor, 
 and one of the heroines of the Comte de Grammont's Me- 
 moirs. That lively author gives the following account of 
 her youth : " C'etoit une des belles femmes de la ville, 
 " peu connue encore a la cour, assez coquette pour ne re- 
 " buter personne ; assez magnifique pour vouloir aller de 
 " pair avec celles qui 1'etoient le plus, mais trop mal avec 
 " la fortune pour pourvoir en soutenir la depense. * * * 
 " La Middleton bienfaite, blonde et blanche, avoit dans les 
 " manieres et les discours, quelque chose de precieux et 
 " d'affecte. L'indolente langueur dont elle se paroit n'etoit 
 " pas de gout de tout le monde, on s'endormoit aux senti-
 
 35? 
 
 I have lost old Waller ; he is gone away fright- 
 ened. The Duchess (of York) is not with 
 child ; she prays all day almost : she is very 
 melancholy, the women will have it, for Mrs. 
 Sidley. She looks further than that, if she has 
 so much wit as she is thought by some. My 
 Lord Shaftesbury makes love to my Lady 
 Orrery (10), she is so well pleased with it, that 
 she is absolutely of his party, and my Lady Betty 
 
 " ments de delicatesse qu'elle vouloit expliquer sans les 
 " comprendre, et elle ennuioit en voulant briller. A force 
 " de se tourmenter la-dessus, elle tourmentoit tous les 
 " autres, et 1'ambition de passer pour bel esprit ne lui a 
 " donne" que la reputation d'ennuyeuse, qui subsistoit long- 
 " terns apres sa beaute"." 
 
 After this " youth of Jolly " came an " old age of cards." 
 She was one of the constant basset-players at Madame de 
 Mazarin's. See repeated mention of her in the little pieces 
 addressed by St. Evremond to that Lady, particularly that 
 which he calls " Scene de Bassette ;" in which the character 
 and manners of Mrs. Middleton, and of Madame de Mazarin, 
 are most characteristically described. CEuvres de St. Evre- 
 mond, vol. iii. p. 92. Evelyn thus mentions her coming to 
 see him, three years after the date of this letter : " The 
 " next day came Colonel Russell, uncle to the late Lord 
 " Russell, and brother to the Earl of Bedford; and with 
 " him, Mrs. Middleton, that famous, and, indeed, incom- 
 " parable beauty, daughter to my relation, Sir Robert Need- 
 " ham." Vol. i. p. 524. 
 
 (10) Lady Orrery was the Lady Mary Sackville, daughter 
 to the Earl of Dorset, and wife of the second Earl of Orrery, 
 who succeeded his father in 1679. He was the Lord Brog- 
 hill, who had a command in Ireland, under Cromwell. 
 A A 3
 
 358 
 
 Felton too. The Duchess of Monmouth (11) is 
 going into France, sick and discontented. These 
 confederates would not make good laws for 
 wives, if they had power : my brother (12) is 
 suspected to be in with the Duke of Bucking- 
 ham ; to-day he was with Wildman (13) ; how 
 far that is a sign of it, I know not ; but it is one 
 good, they are not all of a mind. Mr. Mon- 
 tague is not in any affair with them, it is 
 thought ; for he does not appear amongst them, 
 and talks of going to France next month. The 
 King of France sends the Duke de la Tremouille 
 hither with a compliment; and my Lord of 
 Oxford (14) goeth to His Christian Majesty. 
 Mr. Saville is to go, he says, where that King 
 will lead him ; he thinks not to war ; so says the 
 
 (11) Lady Annabella Scott, daughter and heiress of the 
 Earl of Buccleuch. 
 
 (12) Algernoon Sidney. 
 
 (13) Major Wildman. See an account of this personage, 
 first a favourite, and then a suspected enemy of Cromwell, 
 in Clarendon's History of the Rebellion, vol. vi. p. 499. oc- 
 tavo edition. He seems to have had the ill luck of being 
 equally obnoxious, and equally illegally treated, by both 
 parties ; for he was taken up, with other republican officers, 
 and imprisoned, by Charles II. from 1662 to 1667. He was 
 afterwards, in 1683, again imprisoned,on aecount of the Rye- 
 House Plot. See a curious account of the frivolity of the 
 charge then made against him, in Burnet, vol. ii. p. 372. 
 
 (14) Aubrey de Vere, the 20th and last Earl of Oxford of 
 that family.
 
 359 
 
 secretary : this minute they are gone from me 
 to Windsor. This was the best news they told 
 me, and no ill. My Lord Rochester (15) does 
 appear a real convert ; he cannot live ; he has 
 ulcers in two places. He sees nobody but his 
 mother, wife, divines, and physicians. I shall 
 live the more easily in my little house with the 
 hopes of seeing you in September. God send 
 you, and all yours, well j and, as long as I live, 
 some kindness, for a little of yours is worth a 
 great deal of mine, though to you it is very real 
 and constant, from D. S 
 
 LETTER VI. 
 
 July 19th. 
 
 THE news of yesterday every one in the 
 street can send you, and better than I, my dear 
 Lord ; yet I must be scribbling. At the choos- 
 ing of the sheriffs, which are the same (1) again, 
 a loud outcry, " No Yorkist ! No Papist !" this 
 
 (15) John Wilmot, Earl of Rochester, then dying, at 
 thirty-three, of the consequences of his madly-dissipated 
 life. 
 
 (1) Slingsby Bethell and Henry Cornish. See Burnet's 
 account of their election, and of the character of the two 
 persons (vol. ii. p. 279.) ; of whom the latter was afterwards 
 most unjustly executed, in the second year of James's reign, 
 for his supposed participation in the Rye-House plot. 
 A A 4
 
 360 
 
 by hundreds ; and One proposed they beat so, 
 that he is very ill, still crying, " A Yorkist, none 
 of him !" My Lord Russell said he was sorry 
 one of them was chosen, for he was as great a 
 Commonwealth's man (2) as Algernoon Sidney. 
 I wonder what his Lordship is, if he is not so 
 too, and goes so far towards it. My Lord 
 Shaftesbury says, if the Duke (of York) should 
 go away, that is nothing ; if he should take the 
 oaths, go to church, receive the sacrament, ab- 
 jure transubstantiation, that is nothing. They 
 have no reason to fear him ; he seems now full 
 of thought ; it is time for him and others to be 
 so. That Lord, and, I think, the Duke of Mon- 
 mouth, dined with Mr. Montague, to rejoice. 
 His Lordship goes out of town to-day, and His 
 Grace soon begins his progress to his friend's 
 houses all over the west. (3) His wife seems 
 desirous to have him make all submission to 
 the King : if she has sincerity she has no power. 
 
 (2) Bethell. See Lady Russell's mention of him in let- 
 ter xiii. p. 222. of this collection. 
 
 (3) This is the journey so beautifully described by Dry- 
 den, in Absalom and Achitophel : 
 
 From east to west his glories he displays, 
 And, like the sun. the promis'd land surveys. 
 Fame flies before him, as the morning star, 
 And shouts of joy salute him from afar. 
 Each house receives him as a guardian god, 
 And consecrates the place of his abode.
 
 361 
 
 One good thing is amongst them, they drive 
 several ways, but the end is still themselves, 
 which keeps them from agreeing. They are 
 very busy at Court. The King, I think, does 
 not go away to-day. My Lord Ossory is put 
 upon demanding more than four thousand men 
 for Tangier. My Lord Shaftesbury says, that 
 he is afraid if he is absent from hence my son 
 will get his father (4) out of his place of Lieu- 
 tenant, and himself in. (5) My Lord Inchi- 
 
 (4) The Duke of Ormond. 
 
 (5) Evelyn, who seems to have been much in the intimacy 
 of Lord Ossory, gives a very different account of his motives 
 and feelings. 
 
 " 26th July, 1680. My most noble and illustrious friend 
 the Earl of Ossory, espying me this morning, after sermon 
 in the Privy gallery, calling to me, told me he was now 
 going his journey, (meaning to Tangier, whither he was de- 
 signed Governor and General of the forces, to regain the 
 losses we had lately sustained from the Moors, when Inchi- 
 quin was Governor.) I asked him if he would not call at 
 my house (at Deptford), (as he always did, when he went 
 out of England on any exploit.) He said he must embark 
 at Portsmouth, ' wherefore, let you and I dine together to- 
 ' day ; I am quite alone, and have something to impart to 
 
 * you. I am not well, shall be private, and desire your 
 
 * company.' Being retired to his lodgings, and set down on 
 a couch, he sent his secretary for the copy of a letter which 
 he had written to Lord Sunderland, (Secretary of State,) 
 wishing me to read it. It was to take notice how ill he re- 
 sented it, that he should tell the King, before Lord Ossory's 
 face, that Tangier was not to be kept, but would certainly 
 
 2
 
 362 
 
 quin, when he went to Windsor, sought for my 
 son first ; and being told he was upon the Ter- 
 
 be lost ; and yet added, that it was Jit Lord Ossory should 
 be sent, that they might give some account of it to the 
 world, meaning (as supposed) the next parliament, when all 
 such miscarriages would probably be examined. This, Lord 
 Ossory took very ill of Lord Sunderland, and not kindly of 
 the King, who, resolving to send him with an incompetent 
 force, seemed, as His Lordship took it, to be willing to cast 
 him away, not only on a hazardous adventure, but, in most 
 men's opinion, an impossibility, seeing there was not above 
 three or four hundred horse, and four thousand foot, for 
 the garrison and all, both to defend the town, form a camp, 
 repulse the enemy, and fortify what ground they could get 
 in. This touched my Lord deeply ; that he should be so little 
 considered as to put him on a business, in which he should 
 probably not only lose his reputation, but be charged with 
 all the miscarriages and ill success ; whereas at first they 
 promised six thousand foot and six hundred horse effective. 
 My Lord being an exceeding brave and valiant person, and 
 who had so approved himself, in divers signal battles, both at 
 sea and land ; so beloved, and so esteemed by the people, as 
 one they depended upon on all occasions worthy of such a 
 Captain he looked on this as too great an indifference in 
 His Majesty, after all his services, and the merits of hi* 
 father, the Duke of Ormond, and a design of some who 
 envied his virtue. It certainly took so deep root in his mind 
 that he who was the most devoid of fear in the world, (and 
 assured me he would go to Tangier with ten men, if His 
 Majesty commanded him,) could not bear up against this 
 unkindness. Having disburthened himself of this to me at 
 dinner, he went with His Majesty to the sheriffs at a great 
 supper, at Fishmongers' Hall ; but finding himself ill, took 
 his leave immediately of His Majesty, and came back to his 
 lodging. Not resting well this night, he was persuaded to
 
 363 
 
 race, went thither, and met the King. He 
 kneeled down to kiss his hand : the King turned 
 from him, and said, " My Lord, I will talk with 
 you in another place." (6) The Duke de la 
 Tremouille, though a sad creature, it seems, is 
 thought too good to come to us : a less quality 
 by much is come. The French (7) Ambassador 
 has borrowed every body's plate he can get : he 
 never spoke to my Lady Thanet (8), and he 
 sent for hers. My Lady Scroope is at her 
 brother's house ; and she wishes you were at 
 yours. I think the Papists are not sorry for 
 this storm upon the Duke ; they hope it may 
 bring confusion. If they think it will blow 
 over, they will surely be much mistaken ; the 
 malice of the busy people goes further than to 
 
 remove to Arlington House, for better accommodation. His 
 disorder turned to a malignant fever, which increasing after 
 all that six of the most able physicians could do, he became 
 delirious, with intervals of sense, during which, Dr. Lloyd 
 (afterwards Bishop of St. Asaph) administered the holy sacra- 
 ment, of which I also participated. He died the Friday fol- 
 lowing, the 30th July, to the universal grief of all that knew 
 or heard of his great worth." Evelyn, vol. i. p. 488. 
 
 (6) Probably on account of his conduct, while Governor 
 of Tangier, when our troops were repulsed by the Moors." 
 
 (7) Barillon, who had succeeded Courtin, in the year 
 1678. 
 
 (8) Mother of the Lord Thanet mentioned in these letters. 
 She was daughter and co-heiress of Richard Earl of Dorset.
 
 364 
 
 him. My Lord Macclesfield (9) was reconciled 
 to him yesterday, and kissed his hand. Mr. 
 Algernoon is busy; about what, God knows. 
 Last night he was called out of my chamber ; 
 I asked by whom ? and my man said, a Quaker. 
 The Duke of Buckingham very lately pretended 
 to have some trouble of conscience, and talked 
 of it to some fanatics ; and they said he ap- 
 peared to be in a good mind, and they were to 
 come to him again to finish the work : at a time 
 appointed he could not be found : and after- 
 wards they heard he was with a wench all that 
 day. I assure yo.u, my Lord, I have given 
 my niece (10) the best advice I can ; and I 
 think, she is, of herself inclined to good. I 
 have heard things that make me think she 
 will have a hard task ; she does not complain, 
 and will not own what I know j though it 
 is not very kind, I do not blame her for it. 
 I have desired that she will not be more free 
 with her other friends ; my sister would be 
 
 (9) Charles Gerard, created Baron Gerard in 1645. He 
 distinguished himself, in various actions, on the King's side, 
 during the civil war ; and was made Earl of Macclesfield in 
 1672, by Charles II. and a Gentleman of his Bed-chamber. 
 His son, Lord Brandon, was among the persons taken up for 
 participation in the Rye-House plot. See " Brief Historical 
 Relation," &c. by Narcissus Luttrell. 
 
 (10) A daughter of her sister, Lady Lucy Pelham ; mar- 
 ried to Gervase Pierpont, afterwards created Lord Ardglass.
 
 365 
 
 troubled and show it ; and others would be glad 
 and talk. She does observe him as much as 
 possible. Severity not well understood has no 
 bounds. I long to see Your Lordship most 
 violently, and love and pray for you as well as 
 I can. 
 
 D.S. 
 
 I humbly present my service to my Lady. I 
 fear my little friend has forgot me. 
 
 LETTER VII. 
 
 July 27th. 
 
 THAT you have, my dear Lord, but a thought 
 of my seeing sweet Ruffbrd (1) again, gives me a 
 dream of happiness. I believe there will be no- 
 thing here suddenly to fright those who have 
 more reason to love life than I have ; but may 
 be brought about with time, and great endea- 
 vours of those who have designs that can never 
 be compassed, but by the whole nation being in 
 a flame. I wish I had no ground for this, but 
 that it was only an effect of my spleen. I have 
 told you how my Lord Shaftesbury and Mr. 
 
 ( 1 ) In Yorkshire, then the country seat of the Earl of 
 Halifax, now that of the second son of the Earl of Scarbo- 
 rough's family, together with the adoption of the name of 
 Saville.
 
 366 
 
 Algernoon have railed at one another; now 
 messages pass between them, I believe by Mr. 
 Hampden, but that I do not know: the first 
 part he (Algernoon Sidney} told me; why, I 
 cannot imagine. He says he does not go to him, 
 because he tells lies of him and his friends ; but 
 he undertakes to know Shaftesbury's mind ; he 
 says he professes to have no design for the Duke 
 of Monmouth : then you may imagine what he 
 pretends to Mr. Bethell to be for. (2) I believe 
 they will not be long in masquerade. I hope 
 the King will do a good deal ; and I pray God 
 the moderate honest people may be the greatest 
 number ; if not, you are all undone. There is 
 little said of religion, or trying the (3) Lords, 
 because they think all that will be done. I am 
 afraid good people will wish they had not been 
 passive, and given the advantage of time so 
 much to the ill ones to act. All this business 
 about the sheriffs is in order to carry ill things. 
 My Lord Sunderland thought it had been better 
 if they had not been opposed ; but the Mayor and 
 Recorder did undertake more than they could 
 
 (2) She means a Republic ; as Mr. Bethell, one of the new 
 sheriffs, was known to be, (according to the language of the 
 day,) a Commonwealth's man. 
 
 (3) The Roman Catholic Lords then in the Tower were 
 Earl Powis, Viscount Stafford, Lord Arundel of Wardour, 
 Lord Bellasis, and Lord Petre.
 
 36? 
 
 do. (4) I am old enough to remember the ill 
 consequences of princes being deceived. There 
 is one place of counsel I should never have sus- 
 pected, (my Lady Orrery's,) till i did know 
 that my Lord Shaftesbury, Duke of Monmouth, 
 and my Lord Cavendish do meet and sup there, 
 and Mrs. Nelly (5), \vho the King had forbid 
 
 (4) When we here see the Court interest worsted in a 
 popular city election, in the days of Charles II. we may well 
 wonder at the many successive attempts of the Court, in 
 later days, to carry the parliamentary elections of London 
 and Middlesex. Lord Sunderland, it seems, was wise 
 enough to have discovered, that on these occasions the Go- 
 vernment exposes itself to an affront, without any adequate 
 countervailing advantage. But the practice would probably 
 be continued with unabated eagerness, were it not now difficult 
 to find any respectable individual, sufficiently devoted to any 
 administration, to submit to be gibbetted for a fortnight on 
 the hustings of Brentford or Covent-Garden, for the chance 
 of bringing one vote into Parliament at the end of it. 
 
 (5) " Mrs. Nelly." It was thus, that after she was known 
 as the King's mistress, Nell Gwynne was designated by the 
 upper orders of society ; while by the lower she was called 
 " Madame Giuynne. The accurate and pains-taking Ma- 
 lone, in his Notes to the prose-works of Dryden, adopts the 
 story of her having first charmed the King by speaking the 
 Epilogue to Dryden's Tyrannic Love, in 1669, which was 
 prefaced by the words, 
 
 " Hold ! are you mad, you damn'd confounded dog ? 
 " I am to rise and speak the Epilogue." 
 
 Others say that, in the Epilogue to the Conquest of Grenada, 
 she first attracted notice, speaking from under the pent- 
 house of a hat as large as a cart-wheel : others, again, that
 
 368 
 
 letting the Duke of Monmouth come to her 
 house. To-day my Lady Orrery is gone to 
 Windsor, to furnish for the better diverting 
 them. My Lady Scroope is gone too ; after 
 that to the Bath, and then into Lincolnshire, 
 where she will stay till she sees what the Parlia- 
 ment will do, if her brother (6) leaves his wife 
 there. I find she is not pleased with my son : 
 she thinks, I believe, he is no friend to them, 
 and is too much for complying with the mo- 
 derate. I do not doubt but that would be the 
 greatest party, if they understood the intentions 
 of others. She told me he was at my Lord St. 
 Alban's (7) very peevish to her and Mr. Jer- 
 min. (8) The Papists do now wish a confusion, 
 
 her agility in dancing first made her remarked by the King. 
 Be this as it may, she had now been his mistress above ten 
 years ; for her son, afterwards Duke of St. Alban's, was born 
 in May, 1670. The circumstance of Charles having forbidden 
 her to admit the Duke of Monmouth to her house, is curious ; 
 as one can hardly suppose it proceeded from any motives of 
 propriety or decorum. The same circumstance is mentioned 
 by Lady Russell, in a letter of the 3d April, 1680, p. 215. in 
 this collection ; and Lord Cavendish and Mr.Thynne are said 
 to be equally excluded. Nell Gwynne being received in the 
 house and society of Lady Orrery, as this letter would insi- 
 nuate, is not less remarkable. 
 
 (6) Sir Robert Carr, of Sleaford, in Lincolnshire. 
 
 (7) and (8) Henry Jermyn, Earl of St. Alban's. He had 
 been Master of the Horse to Queen Henrietta Maria during 
 the great Rebellion, and had accompanied her to and from
 
 3G9 
 
 that is most certain. She says the Duke (of 
 York} is very melancholy : I told her he had 
 reason. Your Lordship cannot know truth till 
 you come to town ; letters must not tell tru<e. 
 At last, rny Lady Northumberland (9) will not go 
 into France : she said yesterday, if she did not 
 go next week, it would be too late, and she was 
 very lazy. Some poor women are made such 
 fools as to pretend to choose what they cannot 
 help : her health needs the journey as much as 
 it did. My Lord of Oxford and Mr. Churchill 
 
 France, in her ill-judged visit, in 1642. After the King's 
 death, and during her long residence at Paris, he was Lord 
 Chamberlain of her small household and managed all the 
 concerns of her family, not always, it would seem, to the sa- 
 tisfaction of Lord Clarendon. At the Restoration he was 
 created Earl of St. Alban's, and made Lord Chamberlain to 
 the King from 1671 to 1674- ; but continued always so en- 
 tirely in the favour and confidence of the Queen Mother, 
 until her death, that it has been supposed she was privately 
 married to him. His earldom became extinct in him. Mr. 
 Jermyn, the person here mentioned, his brother's youngest 
 son, whom he made his heir, was afterwards created Lord 
 Dover by James II. He is " Le Petit Germain" of the Me- 
 moires de Grammont, and died without children by " La 
 Pecque provincial," (Miss Gibbs, daughter of a Cambridge- 
 shire gentleman,) in 1703. See, in St. Evremond's works, 
 several very agreeable letters addressed to Lord St. Alban's. 
 (9) The Lady Elizabeth Wriothesley, daughter to the 
 Lord Treasurer Southampton, by his second wife, now mar- 
 ried to Mr. Montagu. 
 
 B B
 
 370 
 
 have been very well presented (10) by the 
 French King. To-day the Frenchmen go from 
 hence; the ambassador (11) brought a coach 
 full of them to Mrs. Middleton's, and sent it to 
 fetch more. They all dined at Mr. Montague's 
 yesterday. (12) Woe be to the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth, now the ladies are got into council ! 
 Such stuff as this, I know is not fit for my Lord 
 Halifax ; but at this time there is no better in 
 the empty corner of your old friend, that pas- 
 sionately loves you, 
 
 D.S. 
 
 I opened my letter to tell Your Lordship I 
 have seen Sir William Coventry (13) : he is very 
 
 (10) Thus in the MSS. 
 
 (11 and 12) Barillon. Among "the Frenchmen" now in 
 England, were the Due de Nevers, brother to Madame de 
 Mazarin ; the Grand Prieur Vendome, her cousin, and cou- 
 sin likewise to the Duchess of York; the Due de la Tre- 
 mouille, and the Marechal de Crequi. 
 
 (13) Sir William Coventry was the youngest son of the 
 Lord Keeper Coventry, of whom Clarendon has given such 
 an admirable character. History of the Rebellion, vol. i. 
 page 4-5. Of the person here mentioned, and of his public 
 conduct, Burnet says, " Sir William Coventry had the great- 
 " est credit of any man in the House (of Commons]. He 
 " never meddled personally with any minister : he had a 
 " perfect understanding of affairs ; so he laid open the errors 
 " of government with the more authority, because he mixed 
 " no passion nor private resentment with it. His brother
 
 371 
 
 well. He knows nobody in town, or very few. 
 One with his judgment and honesty, with less 
 spleen, will not like what is done here. My 
 Lord Shaftesbury and the Duke of Monraouth 
 are gone out of town. 
 
 LETTER VIII. 
 
 August 5th. 
 
 I KNOW, my dear Lord, you think me a great 
 fool for writing as I do ; but that shall not serve 
 you to be rid of it till I see you. My Lord 
 of Essex tells me you promise to be here the 
 beginning of next month. I long for the time. 
 My Lady Scroope is out of her wits : she is 
 grown very violent in her religion (1) ; and she 
 
 " usually answered him, with much life, in a repartee : but 
 " not with the weight and force with which he spoke." Ibid, 
 vol. ii. page 138. 
 
 " His brother," (Henry Coventry) was made Secretary of 
 State on the death of Sir John Trevor, in 1672. Another 
 brother of his, Sir John Coventry, was the person on whom 
 the outrage C9mmitted in the streets of London, in 1669, 
 was the occasion of passing the Coventry Act, against mali- 
 ciously maiming and wounding. See Burnet's curious ac- 
 count of this transaction, so disgraceful to the King, and to 
 the Duke of Monmouth, vol. i. p. 397. 
 
 (1) Lady Scroope was a Roman Catholic. 
 B B 2
 
 801 
 
 says it will not be possible for any of them to 
 live in England. I know not what they are in 
 the country, but here they are enraged. Some 
 of them say the Duke has undone (2) them. 
 Mr. Jermyn did tell my son he had rather be in 
 the hands of the Parliament than the Ministers : 
 he told him tliat desire he would in a very little 
 time have. Every body thinks the Duke of 
 Ormond (3) will quit the government of Ireland, 
 or be persuaded to it. My son told me he had 
 by some been desired to get it : he said, that if 
 it were worth twice as much as it is, he would 
 not have it : he will not quit the post he is in, 
 for any other employment. At the same time, 
 he had, it seems, on some occasion offered to 
 answer for you, that you would not have it. My 
 Lord Shaftesbury raves of one of you two going 
 into Ireland. They have made their plot form 
 as well as they can here, and now they are gone 
 to cabal in the country. My Lord (4) Clifford, 
 who was very near Reading, neither went to the 
 Duke of Monmouth, nor sent to him : I believe 
 he is grown a very moderate person. My Lord 
 
 (2) All the rational Roman Catholics were of this opinion, 
 and justly thought the open profession and patronage of the 
 Duke of York the worst thing that could happen to their 
 cause in this country. 
 
 (3) Richard, the first Duke of Ormond. 
 
 (4-) Hugh Lord Clifford, son of the Lord Treasurer Clifford,
 
 373 
 
 Cavendish (5) had taken up money, at fifty and 
 three-score pounds in a hundred, to go into 
 France ; and he lost a thousand in two nights, 
 at Madame Mazarin's (6), that stops his journey 
 for a time. I suppose you know Sir William 
 Temple (7) is to go ambassador into Spain. My 
 
 (5) William Lord Cavendish, the first Duke of Devonshire. 
 
 (6) The Duchess of Mazarin, who had come to England at 
 the end of the year 1675, was established in apartments 
 within the precincts of the Palace at Whitehall, and was con- 
 sidered (as we see by Evelyn's Diary) as a mistress of the 
 King's, and associated in public opinion with those that had 
 been, and that were in the same situation. Her house was 
 constantly open as a rendezvous of play, before clubs existed 
 for men, and assemblies for women. Evelyn, after mention- 
 ing many particulars of the death of Charles II. in February> 
 1685, says '. "I can never forget the inexpressible luxury 
 41 and profaneness, gaming, and all dissoluteness, and, as it 
 " were, total forgetfulness of God, (it being Sunday evening,) 
 '* which this day se'nnight, I was witness of: the King sitting 
 " and toying with his concubines Portsmouth, Cleveland, and 
 " Mazarin, &c. ; a French boy singing love songs in that glo- 
 " rious gallery, whilst about twenty of the great courtiers, 
 " and other dissolute persons, were at basset round a large 
 " table, a bank of at least 20001. in gold before them. Six 
 " days after, was all in the dust!" Evelyn, vol. i. p. 549. 
 
 (7) The embassy to Spain was offered and accepted by Sir 
 William Temple ; but after all his preparations for going 
 were made, the King desired him to delay his departure till 
 the end of the session of Parliament, which had been sum^ 
 moned to meet in October, 1679, but which was prorogued 
 by the King without the advice of his Council. Against this 
 measure Sir William Temple made so bold a speech,, that his 
 
 B B 3
 
 37* 
 
 neighbour, my Lady Goodericke (8), will not be 
 the gladdest wife in England to have him come 
 home. They say he shall go somewhere else ; 
 but this is too good for him. My Lord Thanet 
 is one of the pretenders to be Chamberlain to 
 the Queen, and makes his court in letting one 
 of the bedchamber-women play his money with 
 Her Majesty, at antreleu. (9) The King, Queen, 
 Duchess of Portsmouth, and my Lord Fever- 
 sham (10), made a bank of 20001. and they won 
 27001. of the Frenchmen. (11) The Duke of 
 Nevers goes away to-day : my Lord Sunderland 
 has not lost. He told me he had heard Judge 
 Weston(12) had not performed the orders he had, 
 to make a distinction between the Papists and 
 
 embassy to Spain (as is known) never took place. He de- 
 clined being a member of the Oxford Parliament ; and from 
 this time retired from public business. 
 
 (8) She was the daughter of Colonel William Legge, and 
 sister to George Lord Dartmouth ; married to Sir Henry 
 Goodricke, of Ribston, in Yorkshire, who was Envoy Extra- 
 ordinary to Charles II. King of Spain, and was afterwards a 
 Privy Councillor to King William. 
 
 (9) Lantreloo, since abbreviated into loo. 
 
 (10) Louis de Duras, created Lord Duras by Charles II. 
 He became Earl of Feversham, by his marriage with the 
 daughter and heiress of George Sondes, Earl of Feversham. 
 
 (11) See Note (12) to the preceding letter. 
 
 (12) Sir Richard Weston, one of the Barons of the Ex- 
 chequer.
 
 375 
 
 the Fanatics. He told them that gave him the 
 information, if any body would bring proofs of 
 it, he would make the complaint at the Coun- 
 cil, and desire to have him put out of his place. 
 Your brother and mine (13) will both meet Your 
 Lordship here, I hope. I should be more glad 
 to hear your son (14) would do so too. I hear 
 his throat and his fever were very terrible ; he 
 has not to me represented it to be so, though 
 it was past when I heard last from him. I was 
 told De Moulin (15) did say it was to a great 
 degree. I know not what patience he has, but 
 he apprehends too little the danger of it. Sir 
 John Pelham (16) has had a very ill fit of the 
 stone j but I thank God he is well again : his 
 father died of it, a little older than he is : his 
 
 Henry Sidney, afterwards Earl of Romney. 
 
 (14) The Honourable Henry Saville, eldest son of the 
 Marquis of Halifax, who afterwards married the daughter 
 of the Marquis de Gouvernet, in France, and died without 
 children, in the year 1688, within a few weeks after the death 
 of his youngest brother, George, who was killed at the siege 
 of Buda. See a letter of the Marquis of Halifax to Lady 
 Russell, and her answer, in this collection. 
 
 (15) Pierre du Moulin, a French Protestant clergyman of 
 the Church of England, who was a chaplain to Charles II. 
 and a canon of Canterbury, where he died, in 1684. He 
 had accompanied Mr. Saville in his travels on the Conti- 
 nent. 
 
 (16) Married to her sister, the Lady Lucy Sidney. 
 
 B B 4
 
 son and daughter-in-law (1?) are come away: 
 my sister has held out very well, though she is a 
 proud, pert, ill-bred creature. I did never know 
 any of her birth fail of those qualifications : my 
 son says my Lord Mulgrave is glad he is come 
 home ; and he believes no more people of qua- 
 lity will go. (18) It is a sad place, but not in 
 present danger of being lost. I hear Sir Robert 
 Carr shall be a Privy Councillor. The Duke of 
 Buckingham, they say, has a great desire to 
 come to court ; but nobody cares to have him. 
 The Duke of York thinks he has lost the best 
 friend he had, in my Lord Ossory ; yet he is 
 generally lamented. My Lord of Essex (19) is 
 a constant counsellor ; he is in very good hu- 
 mour. Truly, I think she {Lady Essex} will 
 
 (17) Thomas Pelham, (afterwards created Lord Pelham,) 
 the son of Sir John Pelham, had married Elizabeth, daughter 
 of Sir William Jones, who had been Attorney-General. 
 
 (18) To Tangier. 
 
 (19) Evelyn gives the following character of him : " He 
 " is a sober, wise, judicious, and pondering person, not illi- 
 " terate beyond the rate of most noblemen in this age, very 
 " well versed in English history and affairs, industrious, 
 " frugal, methodical, and every way accomplished. His 
 " lady (being sister of the late Earl of Northumberland) is 
 " a wise yet somewhat melancholy woman ; setting her heart 
 " too much on the little lady her daughter*, of whom she is 
 " over-fond," 
 
 Who afterwards married Charles Howard, Earl of Carlisle.
 
 377 
 
 die j she is very much wasted in a few months. 
 My dear Lord, I am willing to be impertinent, 
 that you may show me kindness in forgiving me, 
 though that is a great rate ; yet by me it is 
 valued at much more, who passionately loves 
 you, and esteems you as much as I can any 
 creature. 
 
 Pray present my humble service to my Lady. 
 My Lady Anne shall soon hear from me. 
 
 LETTER IX. 
 
 August 20th. 
 
 You have so used me to your letters, my dear 
 Lord, that it makes me fear one or two I wrote 
 have miscarried, or that you do civilly rebuke 
 me for the folly of not being cautious enough in 
 doing it ; yet I have ever considered that if they 
 should be taken, and brought to the secretary, I 
 could see no other harm. You will wonder, per- 
 haps, that no discourse is so common in every 
 body's chamber, and every coffee-house, as of 
 the Duke (of York's) going away before the 
 Parliament ; some saying he will, and others that 
 he will not : upon this, his servants and friends, 
 and, they say, himself too, take all occasions to
 
 declare that he will not stir ; and this is so much 
 done that I do a little wonder at it. I must tell 
 you the temper my Lady Scroope is in, which is 
 so fierce, against whom I will not tell (1) you ; 
 but 'I assure you I dare not contradict her but 
 very little. She admires my Lord Shaflesbury 
 for the ablest man in the world, and had she 
 been king would never have parted with him ; 
 and she loves Sir William Coventry best. What 
 place Your Lordship has with her I know not ; 
 if it were a good one, I should hear more of it 
 than I do. The present humour is being with my 
 Lady Northumberland, my Lady (2) Harvie, 
 and Stanhope (3), who told me we dine together 
 round ; and my Lady Northumberland is very 
 earnest with her to take lodgings in their Square, 
 and they will protect her ; and she says she will 
 go anywhere for that ; and she acknowledges 
 great obligation to my Lady Northumberland, 
 
 ( 1 ) Probably, from what follows, she means the Duke of 
 York. 
 
 (2) Sister to Ralph, the first Duke of Montagu, married 
 to Sir Daniel Hervey, who had been ambassador to Con- 
 stantinople in 1668. 
 
 (3) Lady Stanhope was the Lady Anne Percy, daughter 
 of Algernoon, Earl .of Northumberland, and consequently 
 sister-in-law to the Lady Northumberland (Lady Russell's 
 sister) here mentioned. She was married to Philip Lord 
 Stanhope, who succeeded his grandfather as Earl of Chester- 
 field.
 
 379 
 
 for she is looking out lodgings for her there. 
 She goes to the bath on Thursday ; what she will 
 do next, I believe she does not know herself. She 
 has charged me with a great deal of compliment 
 from her brother (4) to my son, though he has 
 written to him ; but she is to understand he is a 
 man of parole. My brother is come from Tun- 
 bridge, not well ; Mr. Montague and Jones 
 {Sir William) are there now. He looks after his 
 own health ; but, poor Lady Northumberland ! 
 the talk of a cure for her is at an end, and never 
 the journey intended for that. My Lord Caven- 
 dish is stopt awhile ; he has not only lost all his 
 money, but coach-horses and plate, all he had : 
 my Lord Clifford says he expects his pictures and 
 house will be gone next. The Duchess of Mon- 
 mouth did begin her journey towards France yes- 
 terday. My son came to town last night late, and 
 goes again to-day. My daughter came to christen 
 Mr. Cheeke's child. (5) There is a great noise of 
 what Mr. Hyde has done at the Mint, by some ; 
 but others say he, and the men who are come into 
 the office have done nothing but what they can 
 justify, and had caution in what they did. Last 
 night, with great joy, I was told that my brother 
 Spencer (6) was master of the horse to the Queen, 
 
 (4) Sir Robert Carr. He was to be made a Privy Councillor. 
 
 (5) The writer's niece. 
 
 (6) The Honourable Robert Spencer, son of* Lord Spencer, 
 of Wormleighton, and brother to the first Earl of Sunderland,
 
 380 
 
 and my Lord Feversham, chamberlain. (7) I 
 sent to my son to know if it were so, and he sent 
 me word it was not ; yet he did not know what 
 might be. He is never from her : I hope he will 
 charm Her Majesty into a consent. I heard my 
 Lord Chesterfield would have been her cham- 
 berlain. If Robin gets it, there will be one 
 happy man in England. I am very glad your 
 son is very well. I had a letter from him yester- 
 day, but not the time mentioned in it for his 
 coming home directly. I suppose he attends 
 some command from you, without which he will 
 not travel in the heat ; that will not be long now. 
 My Lady Scroope talks much of the great con- 
 tempt the French have for all strangers ; she, 
 without intending it, makes it the most foolish 
 thing that ever I heard of them. Mr. Hyde is 
 going to the Bath. Mr. Pierpoint goes on Thurs- 
 day to fetch his wife from . (8) I could not 
 
 tell him when you would be here ; I know not if 
 he goes to you or no. I am glad (9) Lady Betty 
 
 (7) Lord Feversham was the successful candidate, and 
 remained Lord Chamberlain to Queen Catherine, of Bra- 
 ganza, until she returned to .Portugal in 1704. 
 
 (8) A name here not to be deciphered. 
 
 (9) Lady Betty Saville, the only daughter of the Marquis 
 of Halifax, by his second marriage. She afterwards became 
 the wife of Philip Earl of Chesterfield, son to the before- 
 mentioned Philip Lord Sta/ihope.
 
 381 
 
 had but the chicken-pox ; I doubt not but ray 
 Lady has good advice : there needs purging 
 after, to keep the other from following. If Your 
 Lordship were in my corner, I should find some- 
 thing could do my spleen good, which appears 
 now past cure or mending. God send us a 
 happy meeting, and to you every good thing. 
 
 D.S. 
 
 LETTER X. 
 
 August 24th. 
 
 I HAVE, my dear Lord, wondered, and am 
 now troubled that I do not hear from you : the 
 best I hope is that my letters are fallen into 
 some other hands ; for my follies can be no pre- 
 judice to you, and to myself I can have no effect 
 so ill as your dislike. If I have written with too 
 little caution sometimes, you may be sure it was 
 well meant ; and if you had given me the least 
 rebuke, I had mended my innocence to the most 
 perfect degree : and my inconsiderableness, to 
 the last keeps me from thinking the lyeing spirit 
 that now reigns has condescended to do me any 
 ill office. 1 have a great deal of spleen at this 
 time, which, perhaps, works too high for my 
 quiet. The least thing from you that looks 
 unkind, or displeased, strikes me in the tenderest 
 part of my heart : I will trouble you no more
 
 with this subject. My son and his wife, without 
 any company, went to Althorpe yesterday ; and 
 on Wednesday they intended to come, in a day, 
 hither : I believe it will be impossible. There 
 was a council at Windsor on Wednesday : my 
 Lord Inchiquin was to be heard. (1) My Lady 
 Thanet told me, last night, his friends had not 
 heard what the result was. My brother is in 
 great hopes of being Master of the Horse to the 
 Queen, but I find others doubt it more : two 
 Earls, as they say, pretending to be Chamber- 
 lain, it is thought the Queen will not remove my 
 Lord Feversham, but rather choose to have two 
 Earls, than a poor gentleman. The King and 
 Queen have spoke for Robin, and my Lord 
 Clarendon does promise to do all he can : that is 
 more than both. My Lord Cavendish, at last, 
 is gone into France : he recruited his losses at 
 play with more borrowing at 50 and ()0 in the 
 hundred. This wet weather has not driven every 
 body from the Wells : Sir Carr Scroope (2) is 
 
 (1) On account of his conduct during his government at 
 Tangier. 
 
 (2) Son of the Lady Scroope frequently mentioned in 
 these letters. He seems to have been one of " the mob of 
 gentlemen who wrote with ease." His name occurs among the 
 translations of this period " done into English by persons of 
 honour." He never recovered from the illness Lady Sun- 
 Jerland here mentions ; but died, unmarried, this year (1680). 
 
 7
 
 383 
 
 there in no good condition : lie carried a phy- 
 sician of his own : he has reason to fear as much 
 pain as he is threatened with. Sir (Willimn) 
 Jones is there, too, and Mr. Montague, two great 
 friends. If Jones is wise, and obstinate, sure 
 Montague cannot have so great a power over 
 him as many believe. My Lady Scroope is gone 
 to the Bath, and Mr. Hyde does go. The King 
 did part very kindly with the Duchess of Mou- 
 rn outh : she fell into a great passion (3) as soon 
 as his back was turned ; and he returned to her 
 again, and took her in his arms. He has given 
 her, they say, 5000/. for her journey. She took 
 her leave of the Queen, but not of the Duchess 
 (of York). Her husband uses her barbarously, 
 if there is not a better understanding between 
 them than appears, she seems to dislike all he 
 does as much as is possible. My brother Leicester 
 kept a great house at Boundes (4) ; iny Lord 
 Vaughan, Sir Carr, my son, and his wife and 
 child, and all that belonged to them, at his 
 charge. I hear Sir Henry Goodricke will be in 
 great disorder for being recalled (5), by his for- 
 tune being in a very ill condition ; yet he has 
 
 (3) A <c passion" of grief is evidently here meant. 
 
 (4) The beautiful country-house near Tunbridge Wells, 
 now belonging to the Earl of Caledon. 
 
 (5) From Spain, where he had been Envoy Extraordinary.
 
 384 
 
 lived the worst there that ever I heard of any 
 body in such an employment. My Lord of 
 Winchester (6) does make a great bustle : he 
 borrowed a house to entertain a great many 
 ladies : my friend was not of the party : it was 
 fqr some days. If I had better stuff) your Lord- 
 ship should not have this from me, who thinks 
 you deserve the best of every thing and would, 
 if I had power, give it you, as I passionately 
 love you. D. S. 
 
 I am so ill I cannot write to Nan, (7) 
 
 LETTER XI. (lj 
 
 IF I had any thing to say worth a secret, this 
 is a good way to convey it ; but I am not so much 
 obliged to any body. My dear Lord, I must 
 wish, though I dare do no more, for your making 
 a journey hither the end of March, or beginning 
 of April. The 20th of March, the King goes 
 to Newmarket, and the 25th, my son to Althorpe. 
 They will think, as the mutineers say, that you 
 will come no more till a Parliament sits. As the 
 Queen said of you, I believe you have not told 
 
 (6) See note to Lady Russell's Letter, p. 28. 
 
 (7) Her grand-daughter, Lady Ann Saville. 
 
 ( 1 ) There is no date to this letter ; but it must probably 
 have been written early in the year 1681.
 
 385 
 
 them your mind, nor I hope never will ; for they 
 are your enemies, and the nation's too, who 
 wish not one honest man near the King. My 
 brother Harry wrote to me, your being in the 
 country is the worst news he has heard a great 
 while : he is so silly as to write to me, to beg of 
 you to come again. Our secretary (Lord Sun- 
 derland), Mr. Godolphin, and Hyde, do hold 
 their league. Waller told me with a great oath, 
 that my son was sick of the Duchess of Ports- 
 mouth ( 2), and would be glad, with all his heart, 
 to be rid of her ; and that she does now make 
 more court to him and his wife than they do to 
 her. The King does seem to be as fond of the 
 Duke (of York's) coming, as if he were a mis- 
 tress of not above a week's date. That does 
 not agree with what I am told, that it will be 
 
 (2) The Duchess of Portsmouth (as is known) had been 
 prevailed on to favour the Exclusion Bill,' which Lord Sun- 
 derland strongly supported. It had probably been artfully 
 suggested to her, that, if the legitimate line were once 
 broken, her son, the Duke of Richmond, might, on some 
 future occasion, h'ave as fair a chance for the throne as the 
 Duke of Monmouth. Such motives are the more easily 
 credible, as we find her, in April, 1683, taking upon her, to 
 write a public letter of thanks to the Lord Mayor and 
 Corporation of York, for having chosen her son, the Duke 
 of Richmond, their High Steward. She assured them that 
 the King was much pleased with it, and that she should en- 
 deavour to show her gratitude. See Reresby's Memoirs, 
 page 162. See also Burnet's account of the Duchess of 
 Portsmouth's conduct on the Exclusion Bill, vol. ii. p. 289. 
 
 c c
 
 386 
 
 seen that he will have little power in affairs. 
 My Lord Winchester is a great courtier a new 
 man in health, not in many other things. I fear 
 my Lord Spencer (3) will be no great comfort to 
 his friends. I doubt he has no good nature, nor 
 good humour : scornful, and too pretending, he 
 comes to me seldom, seems weary in a minute, 
 talks to me of my company, as if I picked them 
 
 up in the streets. My Lord (4), at his age, 
 
 did nothing like it. He will be spoiled, that I 
 see plainly. If I had any state affairs, you 
 should not have this stuff; nor that Sir Edward 
 Villiers (5) makes love to my Lady Ogle. 1 do 
 not take it from the medisance of the town, but 
 the discreetest that is amongst them. He 
 pleases my Lady Northumberland so much, with 
 asking her counsel and her assistance for some 
 affairs ; she thinks he comes to the house for no 
 other design, and he loses every penny that he 
 has there. I am melancholy for parting with my 
 dear Nan. My Lord Winchester has lately put 
 a great sum of money into the Exchequer, and 
 
 (3) The eldest son of Robert Earl of Sunderland, who 
 died in his father's life-time. 
 
 (4-) A name here not to be made out. 
 
 (5) Sir Edward was son of Sir Edward Villiers, a first cou- 
 sin of the second Duke of Buckingham, by Frances, the 
 youngest daughter of Theophilus Earl of Suffolk. He was 
 thus nephew to the elder Lady Northumberland here men- 
 tioned, Lady Ogle's grand-mother. He was afterwards 
 created Viscount Villiers, and Earl of Jersey, by King Wil- 
 liam, 1697.
 
 38? 
 
 is as busy as ever he was : he goes every Satur- 
 day to ray Lord Belassyse (6), and a monied 
 man, Duncombe (7), with him. My dear Lord, 
 I love you with all my heart. 
 
 D. S. 
 
 For the Earl of Halifax. 
 
 (6) Thomas Lord Belassyse. He was made Lord Trea- 
 surer by James II. in 1686. Sir John Reresby says of him, 
 in 1688, " that, though he was himself a Papist, he had been 
 " quite averse to the measures which had been taken to pro- 
 " mote the Catholic religion ; but that his counsel never had 
 " weight, the warm ones having insinuated to the King that 
 **- it came from a man old and cautious, who, having a great 
 " estate, did not care to run any hazard of it, &c. This 
 " Lord was deservedly esteemed one of the wisest men of 
 " his party." Reresby's Memoirs, page 330. 
 
 (7) An Alderman of London. It was at his house, as Sir 
 John Reresby tells us, " the Lord Chancellor (Jeffries) and 
 " the Lord Treasurer (Hyde], and others, drank themselves 
 " into that height of phrenzy, that, among friends, it was 
 " whispered they had stripped into their shirts, and that, had 
 " not an accident prevented them, they had got up on a 
 " sign-post to drink the King's health ; which was the sub- 
 " ject of much derision, to say no worse." Reresby, page 
 231. He is the same person, who, being afterwards knighted, 
 and becoming the purchaser of the Duke of Buckingham's 
 castle and estate, at Helmsley, in Yorkshire, is alluded to 
 by Pope, in the following verse : 
 
 " And Helmsley, once proud Buckingham's delight, 
 " Slides to a scrivener and a city knight." 
 
 THE END. 
 
 Printed by A. and R. Spottiswoodc, 
 Printers- Street, London.
 
 A 000164315 4