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Countess of Warwick.

Lady Mary Boyle (Countess of Warwick) was the seventh daughter of Richard Boyle, and was married to Charles Rich, who became by the death of his brother Earl of Warwick. This marriage grew out of the complicated arrangements by which the new nobility achieved by talent and wealth, honestly or dishonestly acquired by plebeians, are allied with the old, which has become impoverished by idleness and dissipation. Lady Mary Boyle had been assigned by her ambitious father to Mr. Hamilton, 'the son of my Lord Somebody, who afterward became Earl of Nobody,' but she took a fancy to Mr. Rich, who was young, gay, and handsome, but whose suit, being a younger son, was not encouraged by the father. When the family moved to London, on the marriage of the Earl of Cork's third son (who afterward became Lord Shannon) to a daughter of Lady Stafford, by her first husband, Sir Robert Killigrew, the suit prospered with the daughter, who, to her father's urgent demand that she should marry the man of his choice, and not Mr. Rich, replied, 'that she did acknowledge a very great and particular kindness for Mr. Rich, and desired them, with my humble duty to my father, to assure him that I would not marry him without his consent, but that I was resolved not to marry any other person in the world; and that I hoped my father would be pleased to consent to my having Mr. Rich, to whom, I was sure, he could have no other objection, but that he was a younger brother; for he was descended from a very great and honorable family, and was in the opinion of all (as well as mine) a very deserving person, and I desired my father would be pleased to consider, I only should suffer by the smallness of his fortune, which I very contentedly chose to do, and should judge myself to be much more happy with his small one, than with the greatest without him.'

She was married to Mr. Rich in 1641, and, although, a light-hearted, selfwilled, careless girl, she had force of character, and under proper guidance was capable of attaining high excellence. That guidance was not withheld, and in her sister, Lady Ranelagh, she saw and confessed the power and beauty of holiness. In the death of her father and her eldest child, her attention was seriously arrested to religious subjects, on which she sought counsel from Dr. Walker, the domestic chaplain of the Earl of Warwick.

To gain uninterrupted leisure for religious contemplation was not easy. To obtain it she made for herself a solitude and a sanctuary amidst the grounds that surrounded her home, the old Priory of Lees. These were famed for their beauty. The park had been inclosed as early as the reign of King John. And in 1342 the Prior of Lees brought himself into trouble by a farther inclosure, as well as by hunting in the forest without warrant. From the hands of the churchmen it passed into those of Sir Richard Rich, the ancestor of the Earls of Warwick, to whom it was presented by Henry the Eighth. He built there a noble brick mansion. It consisted, we are told, 'of two courts, an outer and an inner one, the latter of which toward the garden was faced with freestone.' 'That delicious Lees' was the title bestowed by Robert Boyle on his sister's home. And a friend of the Earl of Warwick told him, that 'he had good reason to make sure of heaven; as he would be a great loser in changing so charming a place for hell.'

'There is no garden well contrived that has not Enoch's walk in it,' observes Charles Howe, in one of his quaint meditations. Such to Lady Mary was the

Wilderness, a long grove with an arbor in it. Here she was accustomed to spend the fresh hours of the early morning; and in this beloved resort 'heartsease,' as she was wont to designate prayer, abounded for her at all times. In addition to these private exercises, she regularly and devoutly observed all the orders of the Church of England in its liturgy and public service, which she failed not to attend twice a day with exemplary reverence.' In her diary she speaks of having attended family prayer in the chapel, 'namely, the Common Prayer.' This was generally used in family worship, in preference to other forms. Thus, when its use was prohibited, Owen Feltham drew up a form of prayer for morning and evening to be substituted for it in the Countess of Thomond's family.

On the death of Lord Warwick, his brother Charles inherited both his titles and estates. This change devolved on her the care of three orphan daughters of the late Earl, for whom she felt a mother's affection, and on whom she bestowed a mother's care. How she catechized, advised, and instructed them, is constantly noted in her 'Diary.' One of these entries may serve as a sample of the rest:

'After dinner,' she wrote, 'I heard my Lady Essex repeat the sermon; and did with all the awakening considerations I could, endeavor to persuade her to be strictly religious. Whilst I was endeavoring to move her heart, God was pleased to move mine, and to enable me to speak to her with many tears; and when she was gone from me to make me pour out my heart in prayer to God for mercy for her, and her two sisters.'

The manner in which her time was spent at Lees is described by Dr. Walker: -'She usually walked two hours daily in the morning to meditate alone; in which Divine art she was an accomplished mistress. After this consecrating of the day, with reading the Scriptures, prayer, and meditations, a short dressing time, and ordering her domestic affairs, or reading some good book, she spent the remainder of her morning till chapel prayers, from which she was never absent, and at which she was ever reverent, and a devout example to her whole family.' In the evening she was accustomed to retire, in order to recall, and note in her 'Diary,' her course of life during the past day. But when her husband's failing health deprived her of this season of leisure, she contrived by early rising to gain some hours of the quiet silent morning for the fulfillment of this work. The portion of her 'Diary' which has been published, is mainly a record of her spiritual emotions, and mental conflicts; and is an abridgment made from the original by the Rev. Thomas Woodrooffe, who succeeded Dr. Walker as domestic chaplain at Lees. In addition, she left a MS. entitled, 'Some specialties in the life of M. Warwick,' which she wrote a few years before her death; and in which she gives a very full account of her early days. Many devout reflections and meditations which she left in writing were also the employment of her hours of retirement. But her religion was not restrained to the care for her own soul, but was extended to all who came within her influence. As it was her sole ambition to be the mistress of a religious family, she exacted the constant attendance of her servants at chapel, and their reverent behavior when there, whilst none could absent themselves without her remarking it. Not content with compelling their attendance on the more formal observances of religion, she gave them also private instruction. She catechized her maids on Sunday evening, and took especial pains in assisting them in preparation for the

Holy Communion, to which she urgently entreated them to approach. Nor were her cares confined to her domestic servants only. The poor weeding women, employed in the grounds, were also the objects of her solicitude. Her moruiugs were sometimes spent in reading to them, her afternoons in catechizing and exhorting them. To guard her attendants against waste of time, she laid in their way books that might engage their attention in any idle moment; and by making their service to herself easy, she gave them the better oppor tunity of waiting upon the Lord without distraction. She treated all her serv ants as friends, and 'cared as much to please them as other persons' servants can do to please their masters.'

But her charity, if it began at home, did not end there. If any were sick, or tempted, or in any distress of body or mind, whither should- they go but to the good Countess, whose closet or still-house was their shop for chirurgery and physic, and herself (for she would visit the meanest of them personally) and ministers, whom she would send to them, their spiritual physicians? The poor she fed in great numbers, not only with fragments and broken meat, but with liberal provision, purposely made for them. She was a great pitier, yea, a great lover of the poor, and she built a convenient house on purpose for them, at her London seat (as they had one at Lees), to shelter them from rain and heat whilst they received their dole. And during her absence in London with her family, twice a week, good beef and bread were provided for the poor of four adjacent parishes.' Of the allowance made to her by her husband in his lifetime she devoted a third to charitable uses; and though she sometimes exceeded, she never fell short of this proportion in her alms; indeed, she was designated as 'the lady that would borrow money to give away.' She considered all in distress and need as having a claim on her bounty. To many scholars at the University she made allowances, varying from five to thirty pounds a year. Foreigners, who forsook their own country on account of their religion, found her hand stretched out for their assistance. Poor children were clothed and kept at school by her, even in Wales, which she aided 'to rescue from its remaining ignorance and semi-barbarism.' Besides these, 'many ministers of both denominations, as well as conformists, whose livings were so small as not to yield them a subsistence, and those who had none at all, were recipients of her bounty.' Animated by the same spirit that prompted that beautiful utterance to 'the dear saint' of Wartburg,-'I tell you it is our duty to make all men as happy as possible,'-her charity even overflowed all ordinary bounds. For it was extended to those, who, if not in actual want, were yet burdened by heavy cares, and involved in harassing difficulties, from which a soft unseen hand quietly released them.

In the altered state of modern society it is of necessity, perhaps, that our alms-deeds should be wrought in a somewhat different fashion to those of an earlier period. Our charitable institutions and religious societies, doubtless, work no less effectually for the accomplishment of their purpose than a simpler system. Yet it may be questioned, whether the benefactor is as much benefited as when, moved by love and pity, his hand supplies the wants, and relieves the sufferings, of another.

Many were the women of this century, who, in a quiet course of alms-giving that sought no praise and shunned observation, have

'Filled their odorous lamps with deeds of light.'

Thus Lady Alice Lucy has been commemorated for her bounty, notwithstanding her modest reserve, which made her forbid that any memorial of herself should be inscribed on the magnificent tomb that she erected to her husband. None who sought alms at her gate were sent empty away, whilst the aged, or such as had suffered in the wars, received an additional dole. Every week bread was given away in the neighboring towns; and corn was sold by her 'in the markets as it were by retail, in such small quantities as might not exceed the poor's abilities to purchase.' Every day a certain number of poor guests sat down to her table. Besides which she continually employed many poor old men and women in such works as were fit and suitable to their skill and strength. When the physician came at any time to her house, she used to make inquiry whether any were sick in the town, that if any were, they might partake of the same benefit with herself. 'But at all times when any wanted health she presently had intelligence of it, and most cheerfully communicated whatsoever she conceived conducible to their recovery, having not only great store of cordials and restoratives always by her, but great skill and judgment in the application of them.'

Medical skill, as it is well known, was then a necessary accomplishment amongst country ladies. Marvelous were the cures wrought by the Countess of Arundel; she even turned her house into an hospital, receiving many invalids there, who came to consult her from a distance. And some remained as long as three months under her roof. Rather a frightful idea of the Lazaruses, by whom her gate was besieged, is suggested by the fact, that in some years 'threescore dozen of sheepskins were spent merely in making plasters.'

Her good works were not limited to the sick. Daily alms were given at her gate; and besides feeding twenty persons every day with what remained from the table of her household, three times a week food was prepared for upward of a hundred poor people in the parish. On the aged and sick a monthly allow ance of money was bestowed. Widows were pensioned, prisoners released, poor maidens portioned, and schools supported by her. Liberal toward others, in her own expenses she exercised a rigid economy. She never wore any but a dress of cheap black stuff; and a gold cross containing a relic was the only ornament she ever permitted herself, and this only on some holiday. For forty years she never used a looking-glass, and for about as long a period never changed the fashion of her attire.

Her lot was darkened with many trials, and her prayer against prosperity, which we find in one of her Scriptural reflections, was strictly fulfilled:-'0 Lord, I beseech Thee, give me not my portion in this life, uor let me have a short heaven here upon earth, and an eternal hell hereafter.' Her only son died of smallpox, shortly after his marriage with Lady Anne Cavendish. His mother alone attended upon him in his illness, even his young wife removing to her father's house for fear of infection. Lord Warwick, on receiving tidings of his loss, exclaimed with a cry so bitter that it was even heard at a great distance, that this would kill his wife, who was better to him than ten sons. . . . On his death, in 1673, he left his wife his sole executrix, and bequeathed his whole estate to her for her life and a year after, 'as a testimony of his grateful esteem of her merits.' Thus, as it was observed, giving all his estate to pious uses. To those ends Lady Warwick wholly devoted it during the few years in which she survived the Earl. She died in 1678.

Margaret Lucas, Duchess of Newcastle.

Margaret Lucas, whose darling passion was 'to achieve a remembrance for all time' by her writings, was the daughter of Sir Charles Lucas of St. John's Abbey, near Colchester, in Essex, and the second wife of the Duke of Newcastle. She was born in 1623; and her mother was a woman of the old school of manners and morals, and is thus described by her daughter:

She lived a widow many years, for she never forgot my father so as to marry again. She made her house her cloister, inclosing herself therein; for she seldom went abroad, except to church; but these unhappy wars forced her out, by reason she and her children were loyal to the King; for which they plundered her and my brothers of all their goods, plate, jewels, money, corn, cattle, and the like; cut down their woods, pulled down their houses, and sequestered them from their lands and livings. But in such misfortunes, my mother was of an horoic spirit, in suffering patiently where there is no remedy; or to be industrious where she thought she could help. She was of a grave behavior, and had such a majestic grandeur, as it were, continually hung about her, that it would strike a kind of awe to the beholders, and command respect from the rudest, I mean the rudest of civilized people; I mean not such people as plundered her, and used her cruelly; for they would have pulled God out of heaven, had they had power, as they did Royalty out of his throne! Also, her beauty was beyond the ruin of Time; for she had a well-favored loveliness in her face, a pleasing sweetness in her countenance, and a well-tempered complexion, as neither too red, nor too pale, even to her dying hour, although in years; and by her dying one might think death was enamored of her, for he embraced her in a sleep, and so gently, as if he were afraid to hurt her. Also, she was an affectionate mother, breeding her children with a most industrious care and tender love, and having eight children-three sons and five daughters.

Her rule was one of extremest gentleness. She required her children to yield submission to her will, rather through the persuasions of their own reason, than the dictates of her authority. With anxious care she watched over the formation of their character and early habits.

We were bred with respectful attendance, every one being severally waited upon; and all my mother's servants in general used the same respect to her children, (even those that were very young) as they did to herself; for she suffered not her servants, either to be rude before us, or domineer over us; neither were we suffered to have any familiarity with them, or conversation, yet caused us to demean ourselves with an humble civility toward them, as they with dutiful respect towards us; not, because they were servants, were we so reserved; for many noble persons are forced to serve through necessity; but by reason the vulgar sort of servants are as ill-bred as meanly born, giving children ill examples and worse counsels.

Though supplying them with instructors in all the accomplishments, then considered necessary for young ladies, their mother set less value on their intellectual than on their moral culture.

As to tutors, we had all sorts of virtues; as singing, dancing, playing on music, reading, writing, working, and the like; yet we were not kept strictly thereto. They were rather for formality, than benefit; for my mother cared not so much for our dancing and fiddling, singing, and prating of several languages, as that we should be bred virtuously, modestly, civilly, and in honest principles. On the breaking out of the civil war, Margaret Lucas, hearing that the Queen was less numerously attended than formerly, besought her mother to obtain for her the post of maid of honor. This was secured, and, against the appeals of her brothers and sisters, she accepted the fortunes of the Queen and accompanied her in her flight to Paris. Here, in good time, she met the Marquis of Newcastle, self-exiled after the disasters of Marston Moor, and in spite of disparity of years, they became attached, and he solicited her hand in marriage.

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