44 The Eminent Ladies of Wiltshire History. 



Green. Her coffin and shroud she had kept in her apartment for 

 more than twenty years. 



To these instances of audacity is to be added one of eccentricity. 



In 1776 died Julian Pobjoy. She was born at Warminster, or 

 the neig-hbourhood, and used to boast that she was related to the 

 Beckfords of Fonthill. She was a woman of " strong mind," and, 

 in the days of Beau Nash mingled in the fashionable and dissipated 

 society of Bath. In later life she returned to Warminster, and 

 lived — with a little dog — in a hollow tree ! How that was managed, 

 and how a lady who had moved in Bath drawing-rooms contrived 

 to lodge in such a place, she only could tell. One would say it was 

 a case of eminent insanity ; but it does not appear to have been so. 

 She was always scrupulously clean and neatly dressed, and never 

 went abroad without her dog under her arm. She got her livelihood 

 as general errand-bearer, and used to walk many miles a day col- 

 lecting herbs for the apothecaries. She was the chief medium of 

 communication between Longleat and Warminster. 



Glancing back over the list of names that have been mentioned, I 

 can only say that these are really all I have been able to meet with 

 in books about Wiltshire; so that we have some eminent for their 

 piety, some for their valour, and some — for their oddity. 



You naturally say — Surely there must have been many more? 

 About that there can be no doubt ; but if you would know the 

 reason why we do not hear of them, you shall have it in the words 

 of the author of " Curiosities of Literature," Mr. Isaac Disraeli, 

 father of the late Lord Beacon sfield : — 



" The nation has lost many a noble example of men and women 

 acting a great part on great occasions ; and we may be confident 

 that many a name has not been inscribed on the roll of national 

 glory, only from wanting a few drops of ink. Such domestic annals 

 may yet be viewed in the family records at Appleby Castle, in 

 Westmoreland. Anne, Countess of Pembroke" (a Wiltshire lady 

 for a short time by residence) " was a glorious woman, the descendant 

 of two potent northern families, the Veteriponts and the Cliffijrds. 

 She lived in a state of regal magnificence and independence, in- 

 habiting five or seven castles ; yet though her magnificent spirit 



