Page:Diary of the times of Charles II Vol. I.djvu/68

lvi, was the second daughter of the Earl of Bristol; her mother was Lady Anne Russel, daughter of the second Earl of Bedford, described by Eyelyn as "a grave and honourable lady."

She was the intimate friend of two men of very different characters, Henry Sidney and Evelyn; and it is to one or other of these parties that the letters now published are directed. It will be seen that the style and tone of their letters vary nearly as much as did the characters of those to whom she wrote; so that if by any chance in writing to her friends she had misdirected their respective letters, that which would probably have much amused the one would have rather surprised and perplexed the other.

No one, perhaps, has ever been more differently represented by cotemporaries than this Lady Sunderland. If we trust to Evelyn's testimony, she must have been a very admirable person. Speaking of Althorpe, he says—"Above all this, it is governed by a lady who, without any show of solicitude, keeps every thing in such admirable order, both within and without, from the garret to the cellar,