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182 paid when, by the providence of God, they might be put into more easy circumstances.

Mr. Berkley ordering, in his will, a great sum of money to be raised out of his estate, to erect an hospital at Worcester for poor people; she had it much at heart to see his plan brought to perfection. Besides the care of this, she took upon her several charges in relation to his affairs, more than the law required, in the payment of debts and legacies; and continued still one eminent instance of charity, which is now spread almost all over England; the setting up schools for the "instruction and education of poor children" which she afterwards increased to a much greater number.

She had early an inclination to employ her pen in several sorts of compositions, in which she was encouraged by the approbation of her friends: and while she was a widow, made the first draught of a Method of Devotion, for her own use only; consisting of such rules and directions as she resolved to conduct herself by, and which, indeed, had been all along the measure of her practice. The original manuscript was lately in the library of that celebrated antiquary, Mr. Ralph le Thoresby, of Leeds, who, in the catalogue of his MSS. gives the following account of it: "Rules for the Lord's day; days of humiliation and fasting, public and private; concerning the Lord's Supper; Christmas meditations; upon death, &c.—This is the original; writ by the ingenious and pious author, Mrs. Elizabeth Burnet. In this are also a soliloquy upon her ladyship's return to her closet at Salisbury, April 9, 1703; and, a prayer for my lord bishop, her husband, whose acceptable present it was."

She continued a widow near seven years, and then married the Rev. Gilbert (Burnet) lord bishop of bury,