Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/32

 xxviii INTRODUCTION ���proved to be of his Majesty's composing, I am willing to add this circumstance from Mrs. Mompesson with whom and her husband my wife and I at this time sojourned. WINCHILSEA. �This "statement" shows the eagerness with which Mr. and Mrs. Finch followed up whatever pertained to the fame or fortunes of the Stuarts. The revolution was there- fore to them a momentous and lamentable event as a result of which the course of their lives was suddenly and violently changed. So closely, indeed had they identified themselves with the Stuart interests that Mr. Finch found it impossible to take the vows of allegiance to the new monarch. �The first two or three years after the revolution, accord- ingly, were trying ones. During these years we find Anne in various places of temporary refuge, but with no fixed home. In December, 1688, immediately after the flight of James, she went to Kirby and spent some time with her cousin Elizabeth, the Viscountess Hatton. In July, 1689, she was at Eastwell on a visit. At some date near this she was at Godmersham, where she wrote Aristomenes. Her retirement to Wye college belongs somewhere in this period. The succor offered by Lady Thanet to Ardelia in her hour of sorest need may indicate that for a time Hothfield was her refuge. At any rate there was quite a prolonged period during which Mr. and Mrs. Finch felt great anxiety concerning their "much-diminished bread" and their possible future place of abode. Just when they were finally domiciled at Eastwell is a little uncertain. Ardelia says in her Preface that their removal into the solitude and security of the country was due to the "generous kindness of one who possessed the most delightful seat in it," but she does not say whether this was her husband's father or nephew. Heneage, the second earl, died in September, 1689, so the invitation may have come from him, and the poem of July, 1689, may mark the begin- ning of the permanent Eastwell sojourn. But this is unlikely. ��� �