28 The 'Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History. 



our clay ; but if we have done nothing that shall, as it were^ fasten 

 our name and provide for its enduring; in short, if we are not 

 weighted, we shall be, like those light papers, mercilessly and un- 

 ceremoniously puffed away into oblivion. 



Hamlet allows but a very short time even for a great man to be 

 remembered ; and, even then, not without a certain expense on his 

 own part. " O heavens ! dead two months and not forgotten yet ! 

 Then there's hope a great man's memory may outlive his life half-a- 

 year. But, by our lady, he must build churches then ; or else he 

 shall suffer not thinking on." So true it is that people whose names 

 are in everybody's mouth one year almost cease to be talked of in 

 the next. " The present eye praises the present object." " After 

 one well-graced actor leaves the stage, all eyes are bent on him that 

 enters next." The ladies must please to observe that this applies 

 to them as well as to men, because " All the world's a stage, and 

 all the men — and women — merely players." 



But now about this eminence we are speaking of. How is it to 

 be obtained by the ladies ? One of the Roman historians, commonly 

 read at schools, tells us that eminence is to be acquired in two ways, 

 either in Peace or in War. Two courses open to the ladies. Among 

 those who have done us the honour of attending here this evening, 

 there may possibly be some resolute and ambitious spirits who ad- 

 jnire, and not only admire, but would like to take part in the pride, 

 pomp, and circumstance of glorious war. It is more likely that 

 most of them would be quite satisfied to bind their brow with the 

 olive of peace rather than the laurel of battle. But there have been 

 times and may be again, when ladies have had to face great personal 

 danger, and how they acquitted themselves in this county you shall 

 hear in the course of my story. 



Among the ways of Peace, none in former times helped more to 

 bring ladies into an enduring celebrity, than works of Piety and 

 Religion ; not merely by their leading such lives themselves, but 

 by providing Institutions for the maintenance of Religion for (as 

 they fondly hoped) all time to come. Of this we have several cases 

 in Wiltshire. 



The Monastery of Wilton, for an Abbess and nuns, was founded 



