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232        List of Books,-with Remarks. 

34. Letters of Lady Russell, from the Manuscript in the Library of Woburn-Abbbey. To which is prefixed, an Introduction, indicating the Character of Lord Russell, against Sir John Darymple, &c. 410. E. and C. Dilly. 

THESE Letters, the Editor tells us in his Introduction, were copied from the originals by Tho. Sellwood, who lived in her Ladyship's family, and dedicated them to the late Duke of Bedford. 

They are chiefly of Lady Russell's own writing to her particular friends or relations, after the execution of her husband Lord Russell, in the reign of K. Charles the Second. There are a few interspersed, addressed to her Ladyship by way of consolation, from Tillotson, Burnet, Fitzwilliam, and other eminent persons of that time. More than one half the letters written by Lady Russell are to Dr. Fitzwilliam, who was her father's chaplain, and afterwards chaplain to the Duke of York; the rest are sundry persons, some of them of the highest rank. 

The tenor of these letters may be known from the state of her Ladyship's mind, as expressed in her first Letter to her friend, Dr. Fitzwilliam, soon after the execution of her Lord; in she tells him, "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 non other business but to rid my should from sin; secure, by faith and a good conscience, my eternal interest; with patience and courage, bear my eminent misfortunes; and ever hereafter be above the smiles and frowns of it." 

In this temper her Ladyship seems to have continued to her dying hour; the education of her children, (two daughters and a son) who were left young, was her first care. Im this employment Dr. Burnet gave her great encouragement to proceed: "I am very glad, says he, in one of his letters, that you intend 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 entertainment to you, and the best diversion and cure of your wounded and wasted spirits."- Her Ladyship lived to see all her children happily married: Lady Rachael, the eldest, to William Lord Cavendish,  afterwards Duke of Devonshire; and Lady Catherine, to John Manners, Lord Roos, afterwards Duke of Rutland, who died in child-bed, in her mother's life-time*. 

Wrothesley, the son, married the only daughter and heiress of Jon Howland, Esq; by Elizabeth, sister by the half-blood to Richard Earl of Castlemaine, and was thereupon created Baron Howland, of Streatham, in 1695, and succeeding his grandfather in 1700 became Duke of Bedford, and died of the small-pox, May 26, 1711. He left three sons and two daughters, of whom William died in his infancy. Wrothesley, died without issue, and his only surviving brother John succeeded to the Dukedom, Oct. 23, 1732. 

Lady Russell lived to the 87th year of her age, exercised in continual acts of benevolence and piety. She died Sept. 23, 1723. She was first married to Francis Lord Vaughan, eldest son of Richard Earl of Carberry; and it is somewhat remarkable, that, in the course of these letters, there does but once occur the name of Vaughan, and that is in a letter to Queen Mary, in which with all humility she requests, that Mr. Richard Vaughan may succeed Colonel Herbert as Auditor of Wales. "He is, says she, a Welshman, and so well esteemed in his country, that he serves as Knight of the Shire for Carmarthen. I believe him every way fit for the office, or I should not do so much for him, since I think it a great matter to disquiet your Majestie in this kind, and could with more joy pay a considerable duty to your Majestie, than receive a profit for myself or friend." 

Her delicacy in recommending or preferring persons properly qualified to offices or place of trust, will appear still farther by a letter addressed to Sir Robert Worsley, in which her Ladyship is particularly inquisitive with respect to the merits of one whom she intended to prefer to two vacant livings in her own gift. This letter will serve both as a specimen of her Ladyship's style, and of her way of thinking on a very interesting subject: 

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* Lady Russell, after feeding her in her coffin, when to her other daughter, Lady Cavendish, from whom it was necessary to conceal her grief, she being then in childbed likewise. She therefore assumed a cheerful air, and with astonishing resolution, agreeable to truth, answered her anxious daughter's enquiries with these words, 'I have seen your sister out of bed today.' 

"Sit  

List of Books,-with Remarks.      233

Sir Robert,
List of Books, -with Remarks.
"If my letters were of service to you, I should not reserve them only for such times as I serve ends os my own by it, as I now design to do, be- ing the errand os this paper is to obtain your opinion, if you please to give it, upon a few questions I will put to you. By the death of Mr. Main, Sir, you know there wants a presentation to King's-Worthy, and a Vicar at Micheldever. I sind both places well disposed to receive Mr. Swaine. I hope he is worthy of the gist, and believe you think him so.
If you should know anything why he is not, though as a friend you might wish he were the incumbent, yet I am persuaded, that, in just regard to the weight of the matter, and to me who ask it from you, is you know any visible reason that he is not a proper person for such a preferment, that you will caution me in it: sor I process to you, Sir, I think the care of so many souls is a weighty charge; and I have been willing to take time to consider whose hands I put it into. I can, with all my scruples, make no exception to Mr. Swaine, if his vapors are not too prevalent to permit his being sree
and active in such a charge. But I hope it is not so, and if you concur with me, I will bestow them upon him; for I do not see how I can part them. And now, Sir, I come to my second question to you, when I have told you the provision I would make for the Curate. I have met with a paper, signed by Mr. Main, to my sa- ther; in which he engages to allow the Curate of King's-Worthy sixty pounds a year, and that at Straton, who served Popham also, thirty pounds a year; Northington is not mentioned in it. Now, Sir, I would have, in short, the same stipends as this paper signifies were formerly agreed on, to be honestly made good by the next incumbent. And during my pleasure, there will be ten pounds a year more coming into him than has been formerly, and as much to the Curate who serves Stra- ton; sor a few years ago, my dear Lord. added twenty pounds a year, during his will to do so, to be so divided; and, without a very justifiable reason, I shall not with-hold it; and forty sailings a year more to the Vicar, upon an agreement for some orchards taken into the park.
"from this long digression, I return to my question, which arises from this
233 purpose of mine that I must offer to you. I know it is a thing required by many to take a bond for resigning at the patron's pleasure. I have no dis- position at all to do so; but to this I have, that I would have a bond to per- from these conditions to the Curate, unless I dispense with him; and also, that, in case of os non-residence, he shall resign to me. sor the case often happens, they get another living, and the situation, it may be, more pleasant; then put in a Curate for a small stipend, and I have no remedy. That this is practicable I believe, though I am ignorant enough, and am not in a place where I can be well informed. But I reserve myself, Sir Robert, to you; and in what you see cause to oppose me, pray do it; you will oblige me by it; and I think I shall submit to reason. But if what I ask is (as I am aware it is) practicable, I should take it as a savour if you would discourse Mr. Swaine upon it; and instruct Mr. Mewes to draw up an instrument to the purposes I have signified, &c."
Such were this lady's scruples with regard to the gifts she had to bestow. Os her courage and mildness, Mr. Sellwood produces the following in-stance. Her Ladyship's own words
were these:
"As I was reading in my closet, the door being bolted, of a sudden the candle and candlestick jumped off the table, a hissing sire ran on the floor, and, aster a short time, lest some paper in a flame, which, with my feet, I put into the chimney, to prevent mis- chiefs; then sat down in the dark, to consider whence this event could come. I knew my door and windows were fast, and there was no way into the closet but by the chimney; and that something would come in there, and strike my candle off the table in that strange manner, I believed impossible. Aster I had wearied myself with thinking to no purpose, I rang my bell; the servant in waiting, when I told him. what had happened, begged pardon for having, by mistake, given me a molded candle with a gunpowder squib in it, which was intended to make sport among the fellow servants on a re- joicing day," Her ladyship bid him not be troubled at the matter; sor she. had no other concern about it, then that is not finding out the cause.
The introduction to these letters does honor to the writer, who, in his vin- dication os Lord Russell, has suffered
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Transcription Notes:
Please note the difference between the form of f and s in this typeface. The long S lacks the crossbar. The modern s shape is used at the end of a word. ---------- Reopened for Editing 2023-05-12 09:18:29