The life and times of Selina, Countess of Huntingdon, Vol. 1 of 2

Events of a most disastrous and terrifying nature had at this time spread a general alarm, and awakened the most stolid in the metropolis to a sense of danger. The earthquake by which Lisbon was destroyed, the shocks felt in London, and the false alarm excited by pretended prophecies of still greater devastation, had filled many with terror, whom they could not bring to repentance. These signal judgments of Jehovah were preceded by great profligacy of manners, and its fruitful parent, licentiousness of principle. Iniquity stalked with brazen front through the streets; and error, in ten thousand forms, vented its unsoftened blasphemies against God and his Messiah.

The shocks felt in London at this time were considerably more violent than any remembered for a great number of years: the earth moved westward, then east, then westward again, through all London and Westminster. It was a strong and jarring motion, attended with a rumbling noise like that of thunder. Many houses were much shaken, and some chimneys thrown down, but without any further hurt. Multitudes of every description fled from the city with astonishing precipitation, and others repaired to the fields and open places in the city. Tower-hill, Moorfields, and, above all, Hyde Park, were crowded with men, women, and children, who remained there a whole night under direful apprehensions. Places of worship were thronged with frightened sinners, especially the chapels of the Methodists, where multitudes came all night knocking at the doors and begging admittance for God’s sake. The convulsions of nature are always regarded by enthusiasts and fanatics as the sure harbingers of its final dissolution. A soldier “had a revelation” that a great part of London and Westminster would be destroyed by an earthquake on a certain night, between the hours of twelve and one o’clock. In consequence of his assertion thousands fled from the city for fear of being suddenly overwhelmed, and repaired to the fields, where they continued all night, in momentary expectation of beholding the prophecy fulfilled: whilst thousands ran about the streets in the most wild and frantic state of consternation, quite certain that the day of judgment was about to commence: the scene was truly awful. Fear filled the chapels of the Methodists with persons of every description. Mr. Charles Wesley, who was then in London, preached incessantly, and very many were awakened to a sense of their awful condition before God, and led to rest their hopes of eternal salvation on the Rock of Ages. Mr. Whitefield, animated with that burning charity which shone so conspicuously in him, ventured out at midnight to Hyde Park, where he proclaimed to the affrighted and astonished multitudes the most essential and important intelligence that ever assailed the ear of mortals—that there is a Saviour, Christ the Lord. The darkness of the night, and the awful horrors of an approaching earthquake, added much to the solemnity of the scene. The sermon was truly sublime, and to the ungodly sinner, the self-righteous pharisee, and the artful hypocrite, strikingly terrific. With a pathos that bespoke the fervour of his soul, and with a grand majestic voice that commanded attention, he took occasion from the circumstances of their assembling to call the attention of the surrounding thousands to that most important event, in which every soul will be essentially and particularly concerned—namely, the grand final consummation of all things, the universal wreck of nature, the dissolution of this lower world, and the confirming and fixing the eternal and unalterable state of every son and daughter of Adam. The awful manner in which he addressed the careless, Christless sinner, the sublimity of the discourse, and the appearance of the place, added to the gloom of the night, combined to impress the mind with seriousness, and to render the event solemn and memorable in the highest degree. Among those who failed not to improve these awful providences was Mr. Romaine, who then published his “Alarm to a Careless World,” and “The Duty of Watchfulness Enforced”—subjects treated so nobly, and with such awful views of our state and danger, that the two discourses remain, not merely the temporary warnings of the day, but equally applicable at the present time to the inhabitants of the great metropolis, where the sins that bring down God’s judgment, and the number of those who commit them, seem to have gone on in an increasing ratio, and the same punishment for which can be delayed or averted only by the piety and prayers of such men as Mr. Whitefield and Mr. Romaine.

We must brave abuse when speaking the truth, and fear not to lay open the nakedness of the land, because of the enmity which the fidelity of our narrative may excite. It may be a bold, but it is nevertheless a faithful assertion, that Mr. Romaine was, at the time of which we speak, almost, if not altogether, singular in the testimony he bore for Christ in the Church of England in this metropolis. The Methodists had indeed awakened great attention; they had at their commencement attracted immense auditories by their occasional discourses in the different churches to which they were invited; but as no one of them had any church settlement in the metropolis which could be considered as legally his own, the doors of the Church were soon closed against them, and they were driven into the fields, or into the chapels of their own erection, whither they whom their ministry had awakened fled for refuge, resolved to hear the Gospel wheresoever it should be preached, rather than be confined to mere morals and the husks of formality. They who have once tasted that the Lord is gracious must have the bread of life, and they will seek it even in Egypt.

Mr. Romaine, who had descended from the stilts of self-taught excellence, and the enticing words of man’s wisdom, to the plainness and simplicity of the doctrine of the cross, determined henceforth to know nothing else but Jesus Christ, and him crucified; and God immediately began to bless his testimony with the signs of conversion. He had been elected to St. Dunstan’s somewhat before his appointment to St. George’s, Hanover-square, and at both places the word of the Lord, preached in the light of love, was glorified. Mr. Romaine’s now eminent position drew attention—to his voice, his manner, and more especially to the subjects he treated, to the dissimilarity of all around him to what was observed in other churches. Although he still adhered to the written sermon, he delivered it with energy and pathos, and great and small bore testimony to the power with which he spake. The Gospel from his mouth appeared to them another Gospel from that which they had heard before. His fame spread—multitudes thronged around him; the church was crowded, the parishioners incommoded;[67] the merely formal among the clergy were tacitly reproved by his example, so opposite to theirs; a conspiracy was formed to remove him, and the rector, wrought upon by his enemies, was induced to dismiss him, on no other ground than that he had ceased not to preach and to teach the Gospel of Christ Jesus. Among the members of the congregation who continued stedfast to Mr. Romaine was Mr. John Sanderson, many years state coachman to George III. He exemplified in himself the life, the walk, and the triumph of faith so excellently described by the honoured instrument of his conversion. Of this individual, now occupying a place before Him who is no respecter of persons, a few recollections may be acceptable. He was brought up a coachman, and although, in his day, post-chaises were in little use, yet his road-work, such as driving the nobility down to Bath, &c., had already pointed him out for good conduct and recommended him to favour, when, being at Exeter, while Mr. Cennick was preaching in the streets, a new motive for the exercise of Christian energy was afforded him; the preacher, who had already been ill-treated by the mob, was expatiating on the blood of Christ, when a ruffian butcher, exclaiming “If you like blood, you shall soon have enough of it,” rushed from his shop with a pail nearly full of blood, which he would have cast on Mr. Cennick, had not Mr. Sanderson calmly met him, and, suddenly catching the pail, poured its contents over the man’s own head. This drew the attention of the mob from the preacher to Mr. Sanderson, who escaped with difficulty, and was obliged to leave the city early in the morning. From that moment to his death, which occurred on the 13th of August, 1799, in the 89th year of his age, he adorned the doctrine he professed by a conversation such as becometh godliness.

But the greatest good often results from the sufferings and persecutions of God’s people; as the blood of the martyrs has been always the seed of the Church. Lord Northampton, who had married Lady Huntingdon’s relative, the Baroness Ferrars, of Chartley, granddaughter and heir of Robert, first Earl Ferrars,[68] had mentioned Mr. Romaine with high commendation. He spoke of his doctrine with respect, and of his abilities with admiration. He was now turned out of St. George’s, Hanover-square, but, reluctant to part with many who were dear to him, and who wished still to profit by his labours, he met them at the house of a Mr. Butcher; for which pretended irregularity, being threatened with a prosecution in the most apostolic spiritual court, the excellent Lady Huntingdon, supposing she had a right to protect him from this fresh opposition, invited him to her house in Park-street, gave him her scarf, and, as her chaplain, he continued long to preach to the poor in her kitchen unmolested; as he did afterwards in her drawing-room, to numbers of the nobility who were invited by her Ladyship to hear the Gospel, and where, by his aid, with that of Mr. Whitefield, the seraphic Mr. Jones of St. Saviour’s, Mr. Wesley, and others, a weekly lecture was delivered to a very polite circle. The utility of these labours shortly after induced the Countess to erect or open a variety of chapels at Brighton, Oathall, Bath, and Bretby, in all which Mr. Romaine zealously laboured for her with singular benediction. But the relation of these faithful services, and the great success attending them, must be reserved for a fitter period of our history, with the observation, that God never fails to bring still greater good out of man’s enmity and opposition to his Gospel. “The wrath of man shall praise him.”

To return to the earthquake. During that awful visitation Lady Huntingdon continued at Ashby-place, much indisposed. In a letter to her Ladyship, Mr. Whitefield says:—

In a letter to the Countess Delitz, sister to the excellent Lady Chesterfield, he likewise notices the awful occurrences in the metropolis:—

Lady Huntingdon’s indisposition still continuing, Mr. Whitefield left London for Ashby, and on his way thither had an interview with Drs. Stonhouse and Doddridge, and Messrs. Hervey and Hartley.

Of this interview Mr. Hervey has preserved the following account:—

On Mr. Whitefield’s arrival at Ashby, he found the Countess very weak, but better than he expected. On this, as on a former visit to Ashby, some of the baser sort were stirred up to riot before her Ladyship’s door while Mr. Whitefield was preaching, and some persons in their way home narrowly escaped being murdered. A magistrate residing in the neighbourhood sent a message to Lady Huntingdon, in order to bring the offenders before him. In a letter to Mrs. Colonel Galatin, Mr. Whitefield says:—

To another of his correspondents he writes thus:—

After Mr. Whitefield left Ashby, in a letter to her Ladyship, he says:—

In a subsequent letter he writes:—

To his friend and correspondent, Lady Gertrude Hotham, Mr. Whitefield says:—

About the period that Dr. Stonhouse[71] and Dr. Akenside, author of the “Pleasures of Imagination,” came to reside at Northampton, the Rev. James Hervey had also removed to that part of the country, and his preaching began to be attended with signal success. Mr. Whitefield soon after paid a visit to Northampton, and was invited by Dr. Doddridge to preach in his pulpit. This gave violent offence, and exposed the Doctor to the censure and expostulations of many of his brethren in the ministry: but the Christian simplicity and gentle firmness with which Dr. Doddridge defended himself and two of his pupils, Mr. Darracott and Mr. Fawcett, from the unmerited and bigoted reproaches with which his moderate conduct towards the Methodists had been assailed, reflects the highest credit on his character. The wrath manifested towards him was unreasonable: for Mr. Whitefield’s visit at Northampton was rather to his old friend and brother Churchman, the ingenious author of the “Meditations.”

Dr. Johnson, in his “Lives of the Poets,” speaking of Akenside, observes—“Being now to live by his profession, he first commenced physician at Northampton, where Dr. Stonhouse then practised with such reputation and success, that a stranger was not likely to gain ground upon him.” Dr. Akenside was patronized by the Huntingdon family, and an Ode was addressed by him to the young Lord Hastings, afterwards Earl of Huntingdon. Encouraged by such patronage, he tried the contest with Dr. Stonhouse for a time; but his unnecessary zeal for what he called and thought liberty disgusted Lord Huntingdon: “A zeal (says Dr. Johnson) which sometimes disguises from the world, and not rarely from the mind which it possesses, an anxious desire of plundering wealth or degrading greatness, and of which the immediate tendency is innovation and anarchy—an impetuous eagerness to subvert and confound, with very little care what shall be established.” Though the son of a Presbyterian, and educated for the office of a Dissenting minister, yet he was entirely unsupported by the Dissenters at Northampton. He might have had the support and countenance of Dr. Doddridge, to whom he was known, but the intimacy which had subsisted for some time between him and Dr. Stonhouse, and the obligation which the town and country owed to the latter, as the founder of the infirmary, induced him to deny his support to Dr. Akenside, who, after losing the patronage of Lord Huntingdon, and deafening the place with clamours for liberty, removed to Hampstead, where he resided a short time, and then fixed himself in London, the proper place for a man of accomplishments like his.

Of Mr. Hervey, Mr. Whitefield says:—

Soon after Dr. Stonhouse, the converted infidel, had become the apostolic minister, we find Mr. Whitefield writing thus to Mr. Hervey:—

The prevailing weakness of this good man was a dread of being considered a Methodist. Worldly hopes and worldly fears were a perpetual stumbling-block in his way. He had not yet learned to endure the cross, despising the shame.

Mr. Whitefield’s interview with Dr. Stonhouse, on his way to Ashby, excited in his warm and generous heart the liveliest sensations of gratitude for the signal conversion which God had wrought. On his arrival at Lady Huntingdon’s he communicated what he had witnessed to her Ladyship, who rejoiced with him that the Doctor had been called without the camp to bear that reproach which all who will live godly in Christ Jesus, but especially those who preach him to a proud, self-righteous, gainsaying world, must ever expect to meet for their fidelity. Knowing some of the peculiarities of his character, Mr. Whitefield lost not a moment in communicating that advice which he conceived most needed for the confirming of the new convert.[75] A few days after his arrival at Lady Huntingdon’s he addressed the following letter to Dr. Stonhouse:—

Lady Huntingdon was much interested at this time about an institution which seemed to promise much benefit to the cause of God, and the extension of his kingdom on the continent of America. From time to time her Ladyship had received letters from his Excellency Governor Belcher, relative to the Presbyterian College in the New Jerseys. The importance and extensive usefulness in this seminary to the spread of the Gospel in the New World had been often mentioned by Mr. Whitefield, who had been on the spot, and had conversed with many connected with it. Principally by the exertions of Governor Belcher, the College was now on a different footing from what it had hitherto been; and in the early part of this year two gentlemen, Mr. Allen and Colonel Williams, friends of the Governor, arrived in England, to negotiate all matters concerning the institution, and collect funds which would enable the president and trustees to enlarge the sphere of its operations. These gentlemen brought letters to Lady Huntingdon, from Governor Belcher and President Burr, which Mr. Whitefield presented to her on her arrival at Ashby. A statement of the intended plan and enlargement of the College was drawn up, and several of the Dissenting ministers in London promised their assistance. By the advice of Lady Huntingdon this statement was printed, together with a recommendation of the plan, subscribed by her Ladyship, Dr. Doddridge, Mr. Whitefield, and others. Being desirous of serving the interests of this rising institution, which had many worthy presidents, some of whose names are well known in the learned world, such as President Burr, Dr. Jonathan Edwards, Dr. Samuel Davies, Dr. Samuel Finley, Dr. Witherspoon, &c., her Ladyship was very active in collecting considerable sums amongst her friends and acquaintances, and corresponded with many persons of eminence in England and Scotland, to whom she communicated the mission of Mr. Allen and Colonel Williams. Mr. Whitefield, likewise, lost no opportunity of recommending the institution to the attention of those who, he thought, could effectually further the objects it had in view. He preached several sermons in its behalf; and in the course of a few months considerable sums were collected, which were immediately transmitted to America.

Mr. Whitefield, in a letter to the Rev. Mr. McCulloch, of Cambuslang, dated about a week after his arrival at Lady Huntingdon’s, says, “I have desired to write you a long letter for a considerable time, but was so hurried when at London that I could not be so explicit as the affair I wanted to write about necessarily required. It is concerning the Presbyterian College in the New Jerseys, the importance and extensive usefulness of which I suppose you have long since been apprized of. Mr. Allen, a friend of Governor Belcher’s, is come over with a commission to negotiate this matter: he hath brought with him a copy of a letter, which Mr. Pemberton sent to you some months past. This letter hath been shown to Dr. Doddridge and several of the London ministers, who all approve of the thing, and promise their assistance. Last week I preached at Northampton, and conversed with Dr. Doddridge concerning it. The scheme that was then judged most practicable was this:—‘That Mr. Pemberton’s letter should be printed, and a recommendation of the affair, subscribed by Dr. Doddridge and others, be annexed;—that a subscription and collections should be then set on foot in England, and afterwards that Mr. Allen should go to Scotland.’ I think it is an affair that requires despatch. Governor Belcher[76] is old, but a most hearty man for promoting God’s glory and the good of mankind. He looks upon the College as his own daughter, and will do all he can to endow her with proper privileges. The present President, Mr. Burr,[77] and most of the trustees, I am well acquainted with. They are friends to vital piety, and I trust this work of the Lord will prosper in their hands. The spreading of the Gospel in Maryland and Virginia in a great measure depends upon it, and therefore I wish them much success in the name of the Lord.”

Unhappily for the scheme of the New Jersey College, Mr. Allen, who came over on purpose to negotiate it, was smitten by the fatal infection which, during the summer of this year, was so prevalent at the Old Bailey,[78] and died about two months after his arrival in England. Colonel Williams returned to America, and Dr. Doddridge wrote largely to Mr. Pemberton, urging him to visit England the ensuing summer, and to bring over with him some of the converted Indians—a scheme which had been suggested by Lady Huntingdon, from an idea that it would be a convincing proof to the public of the good that had already been effected, and was likely to result more largely from the extended operations of the College. Thus matters remained till the visit of Messrs. Tennant and Davies to England in 1753.

It was about the same period that several meetings were held in London for the purpose of establishing an academy for the education of young men for the ministry amongst the Dissenters. In many congregations the life and power of religion was almost extinct, and others were wholly destitute of pastors; so much so, that when Mr. Whitefield was applied to for a minister to take charge of a church in America, he returned for answer:—

Dr. Doddridge felt extremely anxious for the establishment of an institution that would furnish a succession of true Christian evangelical ministers to the churches. He circulated the printed prospectus which had been sent him by the Committee in London, and was very active in procuring funds, and recommending it to the Dissenting churches in his neighbourhood. From Lady Huntingdon, to whom he mentioned the scheme when at Ashby, he received a most liberal contribution, accompanied by her prayers and good wishes for its success. When her Ladyship’s donation was remitted to the Committee in London, the Rev. John Barker, an eminent Dissenting minister in the metropolis, says, “Lady Huntingdon’s generosity is noble and catholic.”[79]

Mr. Barker was morning preacher at Salter’s Hall, long esteemed one of the most celebrated places of worship among the Dissenters. For many years the congregation was large and respectable, and it was considerably increased during Mr. Barker’s ministration, by the attendance of great numbers of the awakened people in the metropolis, who were eager to profit by his preaching. Lady Huntingdon, Lady Chesterfield, Lord Dartmouth, and some others of the nobility, occasionally formed part of his auditory.

In the correspondence of Lady Huntingdon, Dr. Doddridge, and Mr. Barker, frequent allusion is made to the decline of vital godliness in many of the Dissenting churches. “In my opinion (says the Countess), coldness and indifference have much to do with the desertion so often and so justly complained of. Were the Gospel of our adorable Saviour preached in purity and with zeal, the places would be filled with hearers, and God would bless his own word to the conversion of souls. Witness the effects produced by those whom he hath sent forth of late to proclaim his salvation. What numbers have been converted to God, and what multitudes attend to hear the word wherever it is proclaimed in the light and the love of it.”

In his “Free Thoughts on the most probable means of serving the Dissenting Interest,” and in his letter to his numerous correspondents, Dr. Doddridge expresses his firm persuasion that the preaching of evangelical doctrines in a plain, spiritual, experimental, and affectionate way, is the only thing which can preserve a congregation from decay, and revive it when it is decayed. So much did the existence of Dissenters, in his view, depend on this one thing, that he expresses his sentiments in the following terms:—

On the character of its ministers the prosperity of the Church will at all times greatly depend. That they should first be men of talents and piety is devoutly to be desired. Education succeeds to prepare them for this peculiar service. Could a greater blessing be wished for the human race, than that it might be regarded as an universal maxim, “that no man should receive an education for the pastoral office who had not first been made a partaker of a divine nature, and know the grace of God in truth?” Could a man write Latin with the elegance of a Cicero, or Greek with the sublimity of a Plato—could he compose poetry like Virgil, and vie as a mathematician with Euclid or Sir Isaac Newton, how little would they all conduce to make him a good minister of Jesus Christ; for they all lie at the remotest distance from the knowledge of a Saviour, and the doctrine which is according to godliness. The most illiterate man that ever entered a pulpit, if he understands the method of salvation, is versed in the Scriptures, and can tell one unvarnished tale of Him who died upon the cross to save the chief of sinners, though he cannot utter a single sentence without a breach of the rules of grammar, is infinitely better qualified for the pastoral office, and will do unspeakably more service in promoting the salvation of immortal souls.

The awful departure from the “faith once delivered to the saints” in many of the old Dissenting congregations, and the great want of evangelical ministers and students to supply the place of those who were daily dropping into another world, became the objects of Lady Huntingdon’s particular solicitude. She had contributed nobly to the evangelical seminary to be established by the Dissenting ministers in London, and now turned her attention to the academy at Northampton, under the management of Dr. Doddridge, whom she and some of her friends enabled to increase his establishment by the addition of two tutors, and six boys to be instructed in grammatical learning:—

Mr. Whitefield appears to have continued at Ashby about a fortnight, actively engaged in preaching whenever he could obtain a pulpit:—

Leaving Ashby, Mr. Whitefield proceeded to Nottingham, and on his way thither preached at Milburn and Radcliff. At the latter place, where he was attended by great crowds, he preached on these words: “But one thing is needful.” After sermon he conversed with Mrs. Hester Gibbon, Mrs. Hutcheson, and a sister of the celebrated mystic, Mr. Law. The divine power accompanied the word, “and many (says Mr. Whitefield) were deeply impressed. Mr. Law’s sister seems to be under awakenings.”

About ten years previous to this period, Mrs. Hester Gibbon, aunt to the eloquent but infidel historian of the “Decline and Fall,” and Mrs. Hutcheson, widow of Archibald Hutcheson, Esq., of the Middle Temple, having formed the plan of retiring from the world to the exercise of charitable and religious duties, took the well-known author of “The Serious Call to a Devout Life” as their chaplain, instructor, and almoner, and came to reside at King’s Cliffe, in Northamptonshire, having previously lived for a short time at Thrapston, in the same county. With these singular and benevolent characters Lady Huntingdon soon became acquainted, and occasionally corresponded with Mrs. Gibbon and Mr. Law. They were frequently visited by Mr. Hartley, who was an extravagant admirer of the mystic writers, and in the latter years of his life an enthusiastic follower of the Baron Swedenborg. The severe indisposition under which Lady Huntingdon so long and resignedly laboured appears to have excited considerable alarm in the minds of Mrs. Gibbon and her amiable associates, and Mr. Hartley was deputed bearer of the following letter to her Ladyship:—

At Nottingham, Mr. Whitefield was attended by great multitudes, who thronged every avenue to the place appointed for his preaching. “Several came to me (says he) enquiring what they should do to be saved? I preached four times. One evening Lord Essex and several gentlemen were present, and behaved with great decency.” After leaving Nottingham, Mr. Whitefield proceeded to Mansfield, Rotherham, and Sheffield, in which places he preached several times with great and remarkable success.

With this species of brutal opposition, the propagation of malicious falsehoods was encouraged, with a design to counteract the good effects of his labours. Mr. Thorpe, afterwards pastor of the Independent Church at Masborough, near Rotherham, ranged under the standard of his most virulent opposers; and not content with personal insult, added private ridicule to public interruption. Public houses became theatres where the fate of religious opinions was to be determined.[83] But a mighty change awaited Mr. Thorpe, the heart of the scoffer became changed, and the people whom, in the days of his blindness and thraldom to Satan, he so frequently reviled, became the object of his delight. He sought their company with avidity, and soon after became a member of Mr. Ingham’s connexion, which at this period had spread over a great part of Yorkshire and some of the neighbouring counties. His habitual seriousness and uniform morality soon endeared him to his new connexions, and the specimen he gave of his talents, in his occasional exercises in private, flattered their hopes that he would soon be called forth to public notice. In these expectations they were not disappointed, for he was quickly sent forth by Mr. Ingham to “preach the faith which he once laboured to destroy.” He afterwards preached for a short time in Mr. Wesley’s connexion; but his ideas becoming more enlarged in the doctrines of grace, he was eventually chosen pastor of the Independent Church at Masborough, where he exercised the ministerial function thirteen years. On the 8th of November, 1776, and the 46th year of his age, he gently resigned his breath without a struggle, and doubtless went triumphantly to the perfect worship and happiness of heaven! He left a son, the Rev. William Thorpe, for many years one of the stated supplies at the Tabernacle and Tottenham-court Chapel, London, and minister of Castle-green meeting, in Bristol.

It was about this time that Dr. Doddridge, who had long known and highly estimated the talents and virtues of Lady Huntingdon, preached at a meeting of ministers at Creaton, in Northamptonshire, and afterwards published a sermon, the title of which is, “Christian Candour and Unanimity stated, illustrated, and urged.” This is an admirable discourse, and exhibits a fine transcript of the author’s own mind, which was fully attuned to the virtue he recommended. It was addressed to Lady Huntingdon,[84] and strongly displays his admiration of her excellent character.

Not long after the publication of this sermon, Lady Huntingdon wrote to Dr. Doddridge. Her letter speaks of his friendship and candour, and towards the close mentions Mr., afterwards the well known and excellent Lord Lyttleton, with whom her Ladyship became acquainted about this time. The letter is dated Ashby-place, June 6, 1750:—