SPECIAL ARTICLE

Press, Volume LX, Issue 18135, 26 July 1924, Page 11

SPECIAL ARTICLE

bywaysof HISTORY. gOI® BETTERS OP UUEEN ANNE'S TlME„nr*r r°» "*** ««»•">

"(ByG. M.L. Lester.)

. j„_j. Nt n t memoirs the reign rf SJa! betwen the elegant indecen- * Stuarts and the grosser ** rL of tbe Hanoverian Georges. iamoT f n t the XVIItb cuid the begin- "***?!!• XVHIth oenturv was, in He fact that England was at £»£<£*»*•' ,aMy ■"*"*" -» Md 6 ?"" ple S Twarv and subsequently that * i <* «"• AVmltni had settled down to a "JJrf-.tamann. srowth <««<»rbed the dreg? Of the Stuart enthuS& peace, but was at no time really And yet life wns by no The Queen was indeed a d f OT duUness. A noted histcv P r7tke period says of her marriage WW of.*;®? „ were i n England any duller than Her Majesty that vaT Her Ma esty s eommt, Denmark." lathis jS&imlm not, however shared by ffih wciety as a whole we may &fromthe many contemporary have been proved The Melbourne « contain many thousands ot EK of tho DeftySfamily of Coke mid extend over of roughly one hundred years to 1727. Amongst them SiSX bourse the literary Lady Mary Ske Of the XVIIIth century; who was .CiUßpbell, but Lady Mary Stanhope, Thomas Coke, vice(Juoiberlain at the Court of Q ueen Anise. These letters give us a .charmwpictore «rf.the hapoy married life rf ft great lady of those days which ®&d1too soon for her husband s hapTaoeeß. for 6he died five and a hair yttxt after they, were married.

- Melbourne House. m|q family home was Melbourne, in as Lady Mary gener- * jDy-rßMlls it, Mell Bourn, but she ' jMbV'3 (rood deal of her time m toibn, in fact most of the letters etidh we havo are written from London to her husband at Melbourne. He)bonfne House from the Xllth center to the XVlth, besides being the jtetorjr of the parish of that name, had teen attached to the Bishopric of Car- ■ g&as * home to be used by the fffijftfip marauding Scots made 'ffi-Bee' House at Carlisle a dangerous nf residence for an ecclesiastical Wtituy, In 1628 the house was let üß&ir lease. of three lives to * Coke, 1 and in \ 1704 up' Bishops of Carlisle having meed of this quiet refuge, 'Srshomas*Cok3 purchased the freereturn for an increase in the "endowment of the parish, and a lump : iampaid to the Bishop. "-'fffl"- return to Lady Mary. ; *ijSbm • the birth of her 1 -cJdld J Sir Thomas was election- * and his wife ii Bids—Though I "ought; ||l» s #littl<i-Borry, my. dear may ■ have disappointed in the afelection, yet give me leave that~l may hope to have me, which is the real life. 'Howtedious any you appears cannot be : mis distance, but expect to W deafed with it. fnV little cribber (her first . 'twould do the

lw|pratii|jada . the "little cribber" #^^^^pSfl]y' : --alt''-Lady. • Mary's 'time ' fairtented absence of her jfetf ?• from enjoying She writes : *'l and Eldest Tye last ' who was ex-Si^tott&lMteiiapla.y-at Bassett:=but I ;sold hw I must not Tea* loving it too well. I two guineas in my morning I have for laid out a great; quilt and pillows, I gjjfllElfe finest > in" town without} ffihila her husband is away bride is, looked after by who "lodges next (chocolate) house: - :she has also an old OH Mother Pye, for care of me, and detoo much overcbme." As a young ahawa a commendable : the rush and degetting;!ler London house' in heertaties. to do more -than. approve. She writes — set tiie chimney piece till g^jttCTi^'becaose'there is some woodfgjK&yMSjte "which I do not know wheBwqeiaeddle with or no." BcandaL ' - of r the election • she ■'Sir Thomas of his inhear father, Lord ChesterHii jWSry -her brother, Lord Stan.ttSed their influenoe in She writes —"Give me am sure he would ;fwl if yoti had writ to « tlWj election." No \ M* r free from gossip ■'' .'jmd Lady Mary's .V !& daughter, but not make a oourt'®f«ry makes love to la and really she Tbe Dake of Bedford has Ophell with a set of (ui, actress) Kems to luie for Dukes, for ' iS^-®?3P^' p that "tie Duke of g§- love to her with §* 'Wand- the soenes every I a song to her I" Ophelia." In another ite reports— 4 'Poor Mrs § 1 ri 8 'tis for love K ***' G°lonel Kols: they Ifill* ier believe he is 'came up to LonM.P. Wjy -to Melbourne, county life rather ?,??* she-describes it to and I being and sun there the fire^ . cou * < * now and then, .'figfeHght since my that

warded by him and addressed to her "Dear Cousin." Lady Mary pate matters rigid bv this simple explanation "I could not forbear smiling at your rebuke for the paper of 'Dear CousinTh© letter was designed to my Cousin Francis at Darby, who I desired to enquire me out a nuraery maid, because your crib (the baby) is 'weaning." That she had a good head as well as a simple and affectionate heart may be gathered from the fact that she remained at Melbourne while her husband was attending Parliament in L° n " don, for the purpose of looking after his interests in the County of Derby, which were threatened by a petition brought by his opponents to have his election annulled on the ground of malpractices. She also had » hand in the purchase of the freehold of Melbourne House from the Bishop of Carlisle. From her letters we learn that she thought her husband rather extravagant in offering the Bishop five hundred pounds in addition to an endowment of th© Rectory of fifteen pounds per annum. She begE her husband not to "forget that you have one . girl, and (piease God we live) may have more." Her hopes of long life and a large family were not fulfilled, for in 170317<M we have her three last letters, written from Bath, where, after a few months suffering from "violent fits of the cholic," she died. Her life was short, but it was a happy one, and as we read the* few letters from her hand which have come down to us, we gather from them the impression of a very charming English gentlewoman—gay, affectionate and clear-headed. _ She was fortunate in her husband, in her two "little cribbers," as she so quaintly calls her daughters, and above all, in her father.

An Accomplished Courtier. Lord Chesterfield was an accomplished ; courtier, as was his more famous grandson, the author of the letters, but he was also a wise and affectionate father. At the time of Lady Mary's marriage he was already an old man and found his chief delight not in the courts of kings, but in his garden at Bretby. In 1702 he writes from Bretby complaining that the north-east winds "have blasted many of my young peaches, which, I believe, is almost as great a disappointment to me, who do only .pretend to be a gardener, as the missing of a place at Court is to Lord F." When "he is in London he longs for Bretby:—in June he writes: "The small pox is very much in town, and the cries of peas, cherries and strawberries do tell me that it is time for me to be at Bretby." He still, however, frequents the Court: he writes to Lady Mary, "Since I writ to you last, dear daughter (my gout being gone), the first time I went ■abroad I went with the impudence of an old courtier to pay my duty to her Majesty: and without anybody to introduce me, sent in my name and was soon admitted* to her Majesty's closet, where there was nobody but Prince George. After having been received very graciously and stayed a quarter of an hour I took my leave." His experience and worldly, wisdom were always at the service of Sir Thomas, and doubtless contributed much to his success at Court. I must not, however, linger over this pleasant imd courtly old man, but I think I may j.fitly close this article by quoting the letter which he wrote to Sir Thomas on Lady Mary's death: " Since J find that I .have not strength enough of mind, on this occasion, to come to you, as I ought, permit me to make use of this means to express the high sense I have of all the kindness that yon showed to my poor daughter; and to assure you that though she is gone, I shall always embrace your interest as my own, and value the two poor infants that she has left as a tie of our inviolable friendship. I ought also to rjpon the ladies your Bisters, and to say more to them than I am able to - express for, their transcendant favours to her who is gone during all her illness. But these thoughts do so tear my soul that I must crave some time to be allowed me before I can speak calmly after, such a storm, that has disordered my remaining life, and made me lose all the comfort and joy that remained to an old man, who' is your most affectionate farther and very unfortunate ■ servant!'' -After all these years, as we re-read this faded letter, how clearly do we hear the cry from this old man's heart.