xxxii Editor's Preface 



be praised, in this, by the most, although not the best ; for 

 all I desire is fame, and fame is nothing but a great noise, 

 and noise lives most in a multitude'. By a curious reversal 

 of her wishes, exactly the contrary of what she hoped for has 

 happened. What fame she has is with the few, and not with 

 the many, with the best and not with the most. To some 

 she is still the ' incomparable Princess ', as contemporary 

 panegyrists termed her, and Lamb delighted to style her. 

 But to most she is and will be merely the fantastic figure 

 which flits for a moment across the pages of Pepys. 



The last work written by the Duchess was the Grounds of 

 Natural Philosophy, published in 1668. She died on Decem- 

 ber 15, 1673, leaving, it is said, three volumes of poems in 

 manuscript. She was buried in Westminster Abbey, on 

 January 7, 1674, near the chapel of St. Michael. Her husband 

 survived her three years, dying on December 25, 1676 K On 

 their monument, erected by the Duke during his lifetime, is 

 the following inscription : 



Here lyes the Loyall Duke of Newcastle, and his Dutches, his second 

 wife, by whom he had noe issue : Her name was Margarett Lucas, yongest 

 sister to the Lord Lucas of Colchester, a noble familie ; for all the Brothers 

 were Valiant, and all the Sisters virtuous. This Dutches was a wise, wittie, 

 and Learned Lady, which her many Bookes do well testifie ; she was a 

 most Virtuous and a Loveing and carefull wife, and was with her Lord 

 all the time of his banishment and miseries, and when he came home, 

 never parted from him in his solitary retirements. 



l The date of the death of the Duchess is given by Anthony Wood in his account of 

 Walter Charlton, who translated her life of the Duke into Latin (Athena? Oxonienses). 

 The date of the Duke's death, and the epitaph, are from Collins, who gives an engrav- 

 ing of the monument (Collins, Historical Collections, p. 44). 



