BESIEGED BY AMAZONS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2782, 10 July 1907, Page 78

BESIEGED BY AMAZONS.

SIEGE OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS

In George Paston's "Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and Her Times" (Methuen and Co.* there is a lively description of a siege of the House of Lords by the Amazons of that day, which probably suggested by its success the recent suffragette invasion of the House of Commons. The success, bowever, of the Axnazons of that day was due to tactics the reverse of Amazonian, and the reverse a-feo of those of the suffragettes of to-day. Some misogynist has urged that the text in the Book of Revelation: "There was silence in heaven about the space of half an hour," conclusively proved that there were no women there ; it was this incredible half-hour's silence on the part of the women besiegers of the House of Lords which won them admission into that heaven on earth. The cause of the 6iege was the exclusion by the House of Lords of women from their gallary during the debate on the conduct of the Spanish Government, and the leaders of the besiegers were the Duchess of Queens-

berry, the Duchess of Ancaster, Lady: Huntingdon, Lady Westmocfeland, an 4 Mrs Peridarves (afterwards Mrs Delany)£ Here is Lady Mary's account of the affair:}' " " . — The Siege.— "The ladies presented themselves ath the door at 9 o'clock in tha morning,.* where Sir William Sanndereon respect-?! fully informed them that the Chancellor^ had made an order against their admittance. The Duchess Q£_Queensberry, as head of the squadron,, pished at the iffbreeding of a mere lawyer, and deeiredl . him to let them upstairs privately. After* some modest refusals He swore by G ■ he would not let them. in. Her Gracey with a noble .warmth, answered by G— — * . they would come in, in spite of the Chan* cellor and the whole House. This being; reported, the peers resolved to starve them out, and an order was made, that the doors should not be opened till they, had raised their siege. These Amazons now showed themselves qualified for the duty of foot soldiers. *They stood there till 5 in the afternoon without sustenance, ! every now and then playing volleys oft thumps, kicks, and raps, against the door with so much violence that the speakers) in the House were scarce heard. ■ Whea the lords were not to be conquered -bjt I this, the two duchesses (very well apprised of the use of stratagem in war}' commanded a dead silence of half an hour, and the Chancellor, who thought this a certain proof of their absence — the Commons also being very impatient to enter—* . gave order for the opening of the :doorv Hereupon they all rushed. in, pushing aside their competitors, and placing themselves in the front rows of the gallery.' They; 6tayed till after 11, when the House rose, and during the debate gave applause and showed marks of dislike, not only by, smiles and winks (which have always been allowed in these cases), but by noisy;' laughs and apparent .contempts, which is supposed the true reason why poor Lord Hervey spoke miserably." — Bundled into the King's Presence.— Lady Mary made herself so agreeable one evening to George I that, when she rose to go, the King urged her, in the most flattering terms, to stay a little longer. As, however, she had a pressing engagement elsewhere, she was obliged ' to depart, and in departing she could! not resist retailing to Graggs, Jhe Secretary of State, whom she met at the foot of the- great stairs, all the flattering things the King had said to detain her. Craggs, for sole reply, took her in his arms, rant up the great stairs with her^put her down in the ante-ohamber, kissed both her hands, and vanished. The astonished pages at once threw open the inner doors, ahdi.'LadyiiiMary, flushed, flustered, and* breaVHleas',i> Sound 'herself -, face to face with] the King. "Ah, revoila!" 'he cried, and; proceeded to thank her for her change ofc mind. She, however, was so confused thai* she gasped out, " Oh, Lord, sir, I have been so frightened!" and told the whole story to the King. Hardly had she finished when Craggs appeared, looking solemnly innocent. "Mais, comment done,, Monsieur Craggs," said the King, "is it? the custom of this country to carry fair ladies about like a sack of wheat?" Craggs wa6 struck dumb fqr & moment, but, recovering his self-possession, he said, frith a low bow, "There is nothing I would not* do for your Majesty's satisfaction." —Lady Mary's Wit. — "Nothing," says Lady Mary, in one of j her pungent letters from abroad, "is more ridiculous than censuring the actions of' another ; and, as I never found any pleasure in malice, I bless the destiny which has conducted <me to a place where people are better employed than in talking o£ the affairs of their acquaintance." Yefc ! what chiefly drove and kept her abroad! was her. witty and spiteful tongue! To her own sex she is especially merciless, and not tihe least brilliant' of her spiteful mots is "that her only consolation 1 ' for being a woman is tHat it secures her against marriage to one of -that gender." — Lady Mary on Vanbr-ugh. — When Vanbrugh, the dramatist and architect, was supposed to be engaged! to Miss Yarborough — whom he did not! marry till five years later — Lady Mary, put down his attachment to his architectural love of "ruins" ! " 'Tis orediMy reported than Van is endeavouring at' the honourable estate of matrimony, and vows to lead a sinful life no more. Whether pure holiness inspires his. mind or dotage turns his brain is hard to find. "fis certain he keeps Monday's and Thursday's market — assembly dayconstant, and for those who don't regard worldly muck, there's extraordinary good choice indeed. I believe that on Monday there were two hundred pieces of women's flesh (fat and lean). But you know Van's taste always was odd ; his inclination to ruins had given him a fancy for Miss Yarborough. Ha sighs and ogles that it would do your heart good to see him ; and she is not a little pleased in so small a proportion of men among such a. number of women a whole man should fall to her share." ' —A Deserved Rebuke. — When Lady Rich, who tried to keep up the appearance of youth by affecting its simplicity, asked once, "Pray, who i is the Master of the Rolls?"' Lady Mary > at once suggested t,b« nro-sfc prepOSterOUS person she could think of at the moment. "Sir Humphrey Mouboux, . madam." The suggestion was &o pre- J posterous that Lady Rich was disoon-7; certed, but not daring to admit that she knew quite as well as anyone who the * Master of the Rolls was, she went£% on desperately, "Well, I am Taatlyj\| ashamed of being so prodigiously ignorant^! I dare say I ask a mighty silly question;)^ but, pray now, what is it to be the Master ) of the Rolls? What does he do? For.J I really don't know." "Why, madam, "hfi superintends all the French rolls that aral baked in London, and without him youf's would have no bread and butter for your breakfast." Lady Rich blushed^ flirted her,

fen, send professed herself unable, to cope frith Lady Mary. "I have no wit,"^ sue said. "Certainly, madam; but though it 'is a very "fine thing to continue always fifteen — that everybody friufet" approve of ; it is quite fair — but, indeed, one need' not be always five years old." —"For Sale."— Lord Pomfret secured has appointment as Master «8 the Horse to Queen Caroline by a Bribe of a pair of diamond earrings to Mrs 'Clayton — afterwards Lady Surtdon. When Mrs Clayton called upon the old Duchess of Marlborougih with these earrings in £er ear,' her Grace exclaimed against suoh! cynical audacity. "Called upon me," she Said to Lady Mary, "with her bribe in bei? ear!" "Why not?" rejoined Lady Mary. "How are people to know where wine is to be sold' if she does not hang out a. sign?" — Lady Mary and Pope.— ', Johnson's statement that "Lord Oxford's table was infested by Lady Mary Wortley, who was the friendv.of Lady Oxford, and who, knowing Pope's peevishness, could by n.D entreaties ba restrained from contraddcting him, till their disputes were sharpened to such asperity that one or the other quitted the house,' 7 has always seemed to me strange. - Pope's fulsome flattery of Lady -Mary before their rupture and his filthy .abuse of her after it alike mad© such rencontres between -them improbable. I was^-not, therefore, surprised to learn from -a - note in this interesting volume that the Duchess of Portland, Lord Oxford's daughter, declared that no suoh meeting ever had, or could have, taken place under her father's roof: "If my father could have dreamed of inviting them at the same time— which his good breeding made impossible — my mother, who adored Lady Mary and hated Pope, would no more have consented to it than •h« would have put her hand in the fire."— T. P.'s Weekly. j