110 



Sir Thomas Wharton and Sir John Lowther of Lowther, Knight 

 and Baronett ; and for Burgesses of the Burrough of Appleby, my 

 Cousin, Sir Henry Chohnsley, and Christopher Clapham, Esquire : 

 which Parliament proved to be a happy Parliament, by calling in 

 our rightfull Prince, King Charles the second, into England." 



In this truly wonderful journal of hers, we have her personal 

 doings, local incidents, and frequent national events, births and 

 marriages of grand-children ; births of grand-children's babies are 

 recorded minutely to the day und hour, and always to her "great 

 and unspeakable comfort," and with a text from the Psalms 

 appropriate to the occasion. Sometimes, too, we have deaths of 

 grand-children, to her "great grief," with a text from Job or other 

 suitable sacred writer. Then there are innumerable visits recorded 

 of daughters- and sons-in-law, with their babies ; and, as time went 

 on, of grandsons and granddaughters with their babies, all flocking 

 to the throne of the venerable Countess, who writes down in her 

 day-book, that when they came unto her, she "kissed them all 

 with much joy and comfort." 



And as we go through her pages, we note that while her eldest 

 daughter's progeny, the Tuftons, increase and multiply exceedingly, 

 those of her second daughter fade away, until in 1662 death has 

 not left one to share with the Tuftons the immense wealth the 

 aged dame will ere long leave behind her. 



Another thing we note, that by her extraordinary memory and 

 clear mind, she daily lives over again her early life. "I remember," 

 she will say, "how this day was sixty years ; I went," etc., and 

 then every minutiae is given as if it had been but yesterday. I will 

 give a few short extracts from the last pages of her diary, written 

 at Brougham Castle, commencing twelve days before her death :■ — ■ 



" March- loth, 1676. And this morning I saw George Gorgeion 

 paid for 249 yards of linen cloth that he bought for me at Penrith, 

 designed for 20 pairs of sheets and some pillow purses, and after 

 dinner I gave away several old sheets amongst my servants, and 

 this afternoon did Margaret Montgomery, from Penrith, the semp- 

 stress, come hither, so I had her into my chamber and kissed her, 

 and talked with her ; she came to make up the 24 pair of sheets 



