DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.51519#0288
242 THE COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND.
Diary, that Lady Sunderland a gave him ten guineas to bestow
in private charities/7 (equal to thirty pounds at the present time.)
In 1686; when Lord Sunderland was Lord President of the
Council; and principal Secretary of State, Evelyn writes to her
in these terms: “ I am not unmindful of the late command you
laid upon me, to give you a catalogue of such books as I believed
might be fit to entertain your more devout and serious hours; and
I look upon it as a peculiar grace and favour of God to your lady-
ship; that amidst so many temptations and grandeur of courts, the
attendance; visits, diversions, and other circumstances of the palace,
and the way you are engaged in, you are resolved that nothing of
all this shall interrupt your duty to God and the religion you pro-
fess, wherever it comes into competition with the things of this
world, how splendid soever they may appear for a little and (God
knows 1) uncertain time. Madame, it is the best and most grate-
ful return you can make to heaven for all the blessings you enjoy ;
amongst which is none you are more happy in than in the virtue,
early and solid piety of my Lady Anne, and progress of your
little son. Madame, the foundation you have laid in these two
blessings will not only build, but establish your illustrious family,
beyond all you can make of gallant and great in the estimation of
the world/’ &c.
This letter does more honour to Lady Sunderland than to
Evelyn. The sentiments are rather uncouthly expressed, but such
sentiments never would have been addressed by Evelyn to a woman
suspected of levity and hypocrisy. The little son he alludes to
was her son Charles, the common ancestor of the Duke of Marl-
borough and Earl Spencer. Her eldest son, early emancipated
from her control, and unchecked by his father, plunged into every
species of dissipation ; she endeavoured to reform him by an early
marriage, and proposed to unite him with the daughter of Sir
Stephen Fox. She used Evelyn’s intervention in this affair ; but
Sir Stephen was not well inclined to the match : he evidently dis-
liked the character of the young lord, but excused himself by
Diary, that Lady Sunderland a gave him ten guineas to bestow
in private charities/7 (equal to thirty pounds at the present time.)
In 1686; when Lord Sunderland was Lord President of the
Council; and principal Secretary of State, Evelyn writes to her
in these terms: “ I am not unmindful of the late command you
laid upon me, to give you a catalogue of such books as I believed
might be fit to entertain your more devout and serious hours; and
I look upon it as a peculiar grace and favour of God to your lady-
ship; that amidst so many temptations and grandeur of courts, the
attendance; visits, diversions, and other circumstances of the palace,
and the way you are engaged in, you are resolved that nothing of
all this shall interrupt your duty to God and the religion you pro-
fess, wherever it comes into competition with the things of this
world, how splendid soever they may appear for a little and (God
knows 1) uncertain time. Madame, it is the best and most grate-
ful return you can make to heaven for all the blessings you enjoy ;
amongst which is none you are more happy in than in the virtue,
early and solid piety of my Lady Anne, and progress of your
little son. Madame, the foundation you have laid in these two
blessings will not only build, but establish your illustrious family,
beyond all you can make of gallant and great in the estimation of
the world/’ &c.
This letter does more honour to Lady Sunderland than to
Evelyn. The sentiments are rather uncouthly expressed, but such
sentiments never would have been addressed by Evelyn to a woman
suspected of levity and hypocrisy. The little son he alludes to
was her son Charles, the common ancestor of the Duke of Marl-
borough and Earl Spencer. Her eldest son, early emancipated
from her control, and unchecked by his father, plunged into every
species of dissipation ; she endeavoured to reform him by an early
marriage, and proposed to unite him with the daughter of Sir
Stephen Fox. She used Evelyn’s intervention in this affair ; but
Sir Stephen was not well inclined to the match : he evidently dis-
liked the character of the young lord, but excused himself by