xiv The Duchess of Newcastle 



wards; but the speculation if Civil War had not come 

 would not have been an unprofitable one." The Life 

 by the Duchess tells us how splendid these King-and- 

 Queen's entertainments were, and how costly. Possibly 

 she had them in mind when she wrote afterwards of 

 Hospitality and the small return to be got by its lavish 

 displays. " So much kindness of a kind, and so much 

 good nature, good cheer begets," she says, " yet it will 

 last no longer than the meat sticks in the teeth." . . . 



Her lord's later career, during and after his period of 

 exile, is told with a certain stately fidelity in the Life. 

 Her feeling for the court was very much his own, when 

 his energies had grown less, and the whole fashion and 

 temper of society had changed with the Restoration. 

 In her play. Love's Adventures, the Duchess makes her 

 hero, Lord Singularity, say, " I had rather march ten 

 miles with an Artillery, than travel one with a Court; 

 and I had rather fight a battel, than be bound to cere- 

 mony or flattery, which must be practised if one lives 

 at Court." To which the heroine, who is simply her- 

 self in a twin disguise, responds: " I think they are the 

 most happiest, that are least acquainted with a great 

 Monarch's Court." Whether or no she was a good mate 

 to her lord in his efforts to retrench, and build up again 

 his fallen fortunes, may be argued both ways. She tells 

 us in her letters that she was too much wrapt up in her 

 ideas and the business of getting them set down before 

 their savour was gone, to give much of her time to her 

 maids and her housekeeping. 



The most tell-tale ghmpses of their life abroad to be 

 got outside her two memoirs are to be had in the letters 

 reprinted at the end of this volume. A more stately 

 commentary upon the Duke's doings in exile, as a 

 chevalier par excellence lies in his amazing great folio on 

 horsemanship and the art of training horses, which he 

 wrote in English and had translated into French, and 

 published with lavish extravagance at Antwerp. It 

 cost ;;^I300, a huge sum for those days, and two friends 

 helped him to print and publish the work. 



The original French title runs, when somewhat 



