154 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



and unexpectedly it came about. For some days she 

 had been suffering from an " aguish distemper," a 

 complaint not uncommon in the damp neighbourhood 

 of the priory fishponds, but her condition excited no 

 alarm, and she was able to sit up and to discourse 

 cheerfully and piously with those around her. " Well, 

 ladies," she said, "if I were one hour in heaven, I 

 would not be again with you, as well as I love you." 

 Then, in the narrative of Dr. Walker, the aged minister 

 who three-and-thirty years before had guided her feet 

 into the way of peace, and who was with her at the 

 end, " having received a kind visit from a neigh- 

 bouring lady, she said she would go into her bed, but 

 first would desire one of the ministers then in the 

 house to go to prayer with her; and asking the 

 company which they would have, presently resolved 

 herself to have him who was going away, because 

 the other would stay and pray with her daily; and 

 immediately he (Dr. Walker) being called, and come, 

 her ladyship, sitting in her chair, by reason of her 

 weakness for otherwise she always kneeled holding 

 an orange in her hand, to which she smelt, almost at 

 the beginning of her prayer she was heard to fetch a 

 sigh or groan, which was esteemed devotional, as she 

 used to do at other times. But a lady looking up, 

 who kneeled by her, saw her look pale, and her hand 

 hang down, at which she started up affrighted, and all 

 applied themselves to help; and the most afflictively 

 distressed of them all, if I may so speak, when all 

 our sorrows were superlative, catched her right hand, 

 which then had lost its pulse and never recovered it 

 again." It was on Friday, April 12, 1678, at the 

 comparatively early age of fifty-two, that Mary Rich 

 died. A few days later the mournful but magnificent 



