152 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



duties of society. Indeed, she appears rather to have 

 been famed for hospitality, and for " noble and splendid 

 way of living." Her funeral sermon, in the high-flown 

 language of the day, tells us that " as a neighbour she 

 was so kind and courteous it advanced the rent of the 

 adjacent houses to be situated near her"; "and not 

 only her house and table, but her countenance and 

 very heart was open to all persons of quality in a 

 considerable circuit." When at Warwick House in 

 London she mixed constantly in the highest society, 

 and was in familiar intercourse with the most distin- 

 guished persons in the political and the scientific 

 world. At Leighs she moved freely among her Essex 

 neighbours, and appears to have devoted nearly every 

 afternoon to receiving or paying visits. Within a 

 radius of ten or twelve miles of Leighs Priory a large 

 number of stately houses were to be seen, and the 

 Warwick coach seems to have been for ever on the 

 roads. There was " my Lady Everard " of Langleys, 

 and old Lady Vere of Kirby Hall. At Little Easton 

 Lodge, of which parish the saintly Ken was minister, 

 lived my Lord and Lady Maynard, the best beloved of 

 Mary's friends. Once, on her way thither, an accident 

 befell her, which may be told in her own language : 

 " 1 66 1, July the 23rd. I was going from Lees to 

 Easton to visit my Lady Maynard, and had in my 

 coach with me my Lady Anne and my Lady Essex 

 Rich ; and when I was just out of Dunmow town the 

 horses ran with us, and flung out the coachman and 

 overthrew us in the coach, in which fall the Lady 

 Essex escaped being hurt ; but I was much so, having 

 a great blow on my head, and a great and dangerous 

 cut in one of my knees. I was, by the great blow in 

 my head, so disordered, that for a long time I knew 



