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LETTER VI.

LADY RUSSELL TO DR. FITZWILLIAM.

31st January, 1684-5.

You pursue, good doctor, all ways of promoting comfort to my afflicted mind, and will encourage me to think the better of myself for that better temper of mind you judge you found me in, when you so kindly gave me a week of your time in London. You are highly in the right, that as quick a sense of sharpness on the one hand, and tenderness on the other, can cause, I labour under, and shall, I believe, to the end of my life, so eminently unfortunate in the close of it.

But I strive to reflect how large my portion of good things has been, and though they are passed away no more to return, yet I have a pleasant work to do, dress up my soul for my desired change, and fit it for the converse of angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. Amongst whom my hope is my loved lord is one: and my often repeated prayer to my God is, that if I have a reasonable ground for that hope, it may give a refreshment to my poor soul.

Do not press yourself, sir, too greatly in seeking my advantage, but when your papers do come, I expect and hope they will prove such. The accidents of every day tell us of what a tottering clay our bodies are made. Youth nor beauty, greatness nor wealth, can prop it up. If it could, the lady Ossory had not so early left this world; she died (as an express acquainted her father this morning) on Sunday last, of a flux and miscarrying.

I heard also this day of a kinsman that is gone; a few years ago I should have had a more concerned sense for sir Thomas Vernon*, his unfitness (as I doubt) I do lament indeed.

Thus I treat you, as I am myself, with objects of mortification. But you want none such in your solitude, and I, being unprovided of other, will leave you to your own thoughts, and ever continue, sir, your obliged servant.

My neighbours and tenants are under some distress, being questioned about accounts, and several leaves found torn out of the books, so that Kingdome and Trant offered 40,000l. for atonement, but having confessed two more were privy to this cutting out leaves, the king will have them discovered: till Monday they have time given them. You had given lady Julian one of those books.

* Sir Thomas Vernon, on the jury against sir Samuel Barnardiston, knighted for his service in it, and then made foreman to convict Oates of perjury. Sir Samuel Barnardiston, 14th February, 1683-4, was fined 10,000l. for writing some letters, in which he used these expressions (inter alia). "The lord Howard appears despicable in the eyes of all men.-The brave lord Russell is afresh lamented-It is generally said the earl of Essex was murdered-The plot is lost here-The duke of Monmouth said publicly, that he knew my lord Russell was as loyal subject as any in England, and that his majesty believed the same now-The printer of the late lord Russell's speech was passed over with silence-The sham protestant plot is quite lost and confounded, &c."-He was committed for his fine to the King's Bench, continued prisoner four or five years, and great waste and destruction made on his estate.

LETTER VII.

LADY RUSSELL TO DR. FITZWILLIAM.

Southampton-house, 17th July, 1685. NEVER shall I, good doctor, I hope, forget your work (as I may term it) of labour and love; so instructive and comfortable do I find it, that at any time, when I have read any of your papers, I feel a heat within me to be repeating my thanks to you anew, which is all I can do towards the discharge of a debt you have engaged me in; and though nobody loves more than I to stand free from engagements I cannot answer, yet I do not wish for it here; I would have it as it is; and although I have the present advantage, you will have the future reward: and if I can truly reap what I know you design me by it, a religious and quiet submission to all providences, I am assured you will esteem to have attained it here in some measure. Never could you more seasonably have fed me with such discourses, and left me with expectations of new repasts, in a more seasonable time, than these my miserable months, and in those this very week in which I have lived over again that fatal day that determined what fell out a week after, and that has given me so long and so bitter a time of sorrow. But God has a compass in his providences that is out of our reach, and as he is all good and wise, that consideration should in reason slacken the fierce rages of grief. But sure, doctor, it is the nature of sorrow to lay hold on all things which give a new ferment to it; then

how could I choose but feel it in a time of so much confusion as these last weeks have been, closing so tragically as they have done; and sure never any poor creature, for two whole years together, has had more awakers to quicken and revive the anguish of its soul than I have had: yet I hope I do most truly desire that nothing may be so bitter to me, as to think that I have in the least offended thee, O my God, and that nothing may be so marvellous in my eyes as the exceeding love of my Lord Jesus; that heaven being my aim, and the longing expectations of my soul, I may go through honour and dishonour, good report and bad report, prosperity and adversity, with some evenness of mind. The inspiring me with these desires is, I hope, a token of his never-failing love towards me, though an unthankful creature for all the good things I have enjoyed, and do still in the lives of hopeful children by so beloved a husband. God has restored me my little girl, the surgeon says she will do well. I should now hasten to give them the advantage of the country air, but am detained by the warning to see my uncle Ruvigny here, who comes to me, so I know not how to quit my house till I have received him, at least into it; he is upon his journey.

My lady Gainsborough came to this town last night, and I doubt found neither her own daughter nor lady Jane in a good condition of health. I had carried a surgeon on the day before to let my niece blood, by Dr. Loure's direction, who could not attend by reason my lord Radnor lay in extremity, and he was last night past hopes. My niece's complaint is a neglected cold, and he fears

her to be something hectic, but I hope youth will struggle and overcome; they are children whose least concerns touch me to the quick; their mother was a delicious friend; sure nobody has enjoyed more pleasure in the conversations and tender kindnesses of a husband and a sister than myself, yet, how apt am I to be fretful that I must not still do so! but I must follow that which seems to be the will of God, how unacceptable soever it may be to me. I must stop, for if I let my pen I know not where it will end. I am, good doctor, with great faithfulness, your affectionate friend to serve you.

run on,

LETTER VIII.

LADY RUSSELL TO DR. FITZWILLIAM.

Woborne Abbey, 27th Nov, 1685.

As you profess, good doctor, to take pleasure in your writings to me, from the testimony of a conscience to forward my spiritual welfare, so do I to receive them as one to me of your friendship in both worldly and spiritual concernments; doing so I need not waste my time nor yours to tell you they are very valuable to me. That you are so contented to read mine I make the just allowance for not for the worthiness of them, I know it cannot be, but however, it enables me to keep up an advantageous conversation without scruple of being too troublesome. You say something sometimes, by which I should think you seasoned or

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