Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/47

Rh "My Lord, I wish you a pleasant progress, and that you may meet with as much satisfaction as you desire. And if your Lordship will please to order me a £100 as I have desired, it will be a satisfaction to me to pay poor people that want bread.

"If, my Lord, you will be so kind as to make a visit to Stoak, pray ask my cousin Ned Mynshull whether the heir of Pool be likely to outlive me or not, for if he were dead the estate comes to me, and, though it be but £400 a year, yet it will be acceptable to me, if it be but to pay her debts who is sincerely yours till death,

This is among the latest of the series of her letters, and there is no further light thrown upon the history of this poor lady. Lord Romney himself survived his master and benefactor William about two years. He died of the smallpox, on the 8th of April, 1704, and was buried in St. James's Church.

In point of abilities it would appear that the Earl of Romney, high and important as were many of the offices which he filled, was not rated high by his cotemporaries. Swift speaks of him, as he always does of those who had offended him, which