By tlie Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 37 



It was through this Countess of Hertford's influence with Queen 

 Caroline, that the Poet Savage was saved from the gallows for having 

 killed a man. Southey, in his book called "The Doctor/' has an 

 interesting chapter upon this amiable lady, who died in 1754. 



Another literary lady lived about the same time, Miss Jane 

 Collier. She was one of the daughters of the Rev. Arthur Collier, 

 Rector of Langford, near Salisbury, a clergyman of much celebrity 

 in his day, whose life has been written in a separate volume. Miss 

 Jane was a quick-witted observant young lady, and a good Latin 

 and Greek scholar; and the use to which she turned her scholarship 

 and shrewdness was to write a satirical little book called " The Art 

 of ingeniously Tormenting"; containing " (1) Rules for the Husband, 

 &c. ; (2) Rules for the wife, &c. ; and (3) General Rules, for 

 plaguing all your acquaintance/'' 



In 1777 died a lady of much celebrity in her day, the Duchess of 

 Queensberry. She was, by birth, Lady Catharine Hyde, second 

 daughter of Henry, Earl of Clarendon, and was born at their family 

 place, Purton, near Swindon. Her husband, the Duke of Queens- 

 berry, was at that time owner of, and lived at, Ambresbury. Her 

 beauty and wit are mentioned by some of the poets of the day, 

 especially Gay and Prior, the latter of whom wrote a rather famous 

 ballad about her, beginning " Fair Kitty, beautiful and young." 

 She corresponded with Horace Walpole and Dean Swift, and judging 

 from some of her letters, she appears to have been rather an original. 

 Gay passed much of his time at Ambresbury, before the Duchess of 

 Queensberry was acquainted with Swift ; but the Duchess wishing 

 to know him desired Gay to write from her house an invitation to 

 Swift, which Gay did. To this she added a postscript : — " I would 

 fain have you come to Ambresbury. I can't say you'll be welcome, 

 for I don't know, and perhaps shall not like you ; but if I do not, 

 you shall know my thoughts as soon as I do myself."" Swift did 

 not make his appearance, so Gay writes a more pressing invitation, 

 in which he says : — " I think her so often in the right that you will 

 have great difficulty in persuading me that she is in the wrong. 

 The lady of the house is not given to show civility to those she does 

 not like. She speaks her mind and loves truth. But I say no 



