Page:Poems of Anne Countess of Winchilsea 1903.djvu/40

 xxxvi INTRODUCTION ���But though certain Oranias and Uranias remain unidentified, in many cases the disguise is penetrable, and sometimes the real names are used. �One group of poems shows the close relationship always maintained between Ardelia and the family of Lord Thanet, of Hothfield. Catherine Cavendish was four years younger than herself, but she was married to Lord Thanet in 1684, only a few months after the marriage of Anne Kingsmill and Mr. Finch. Inasmuch as all the poems addressed to Arminda refer to her as "my Lady Thanet," they must all date after 1684. The Inquiry After Peace, a poem inserted in a letter to Lady Thanet, and the Petition for an Absolute Retreat show that in hours of foreboding or of actual dis- aster, Ardelia's instinctive refuge was "the great Arminda." �What Nature, or refining Art, All that Fortune cou'd impart, Heaven did to Arminda send ; Then gave her for Ardelia's Friend. �The good Lord Thanet evidently agreed with Ardelia's estimate of his young wife. He outlived her for many years, but had carved on his tombstone as the most notable fact in his career that he had been married to Catherine Cavendish, and that he " believed no woman on earth would have made him so happy as she did ; " so Mr. and Mrs. Finch were not alone in their unfashionable domestic felicity. The daugh- ter, Catherine Tufton, chose Ardelia as the recipient of "the first letter that ever she writt," and she is thereupon cele- brated as the high-born Serena, fair and young. Of more interest is the probable relation between Ardelia and the second daughter, Anne Tufton, who was married in 1708-9, when she was but fifteen or sixteen, to the Earl of Salisbury. Is she then the "Salisbury" praised in the Nocturnal Rev- erie? Leigh Hunt, in Men, Women, and Books, says posi- tively, but without giving his authority, that the " Salisbury" ��� �