Hamilton has generally been supposed a favoured admirer. The vivacity and indiscretion of the lady were at least equal to her beauty; and it was soon after the final parting, that, setting decency and decorum at defiance, Miss Chudleigh appeared at a masquerade in the character of Iphigenia, almost in the unadorned simplicity of primitive nature. At this period, however, she was highly distinguished for the graces of her person. Mr. Walpole thus commemorates her: Exhausted all the heav'nly train, Chudleigh, or name her of the tribe. For a series of years she indulged in hours of dissipation, revelling in scenes which, we apprehend, would not then bear the light, or could now be described, until at length the silent hand of Time began to exert its secret but slow influence. With the departure of youth, the sordid passions took possession of her bosom, and, after twelve years' absence from her husband, the infirm state of Lord Bristol's health seemed to open the prospect of a rich succession and a title. It was therefore thought, in 1759, worth while, as nothing better had then offered, to be Countess of Bristol, and for that purpose to adjust the proofs of her marriage. Mr. Amis, the minister who performed the ceremony, was at Winchester, in a declining state of health. Miss Chudleigh appointed her cousin, Mr. Merrill, to meet her there on the 12th of February, 1759, and, by six in the morning, she arrived at the Blue Boar Inn, opposite Mr. Amis's house. She sent for his wife, and communicated her business, which was to get a certificate from Mr. Amis of her marriage with Mr. Hervey. Mrs. Amis invited her to her house, and acquainted her husband with the occasion of her coming. He was ill in bed, and desired her to come up. But nothing was done in the business of the certificate till the arrival of Mr. Merrill, who brought a sheet of stamped paper to write it upon. They were still at a loss about a form, and sent for one Spearing, an attorney. Spearing thought that the merely making a certificate, and delivering it out in the manner proposed, was not the best way of establishing the evidence which might be wanted. He therefore proposed that a cheque-book, as he called it, should be bought, and the marriage registered, in the usual form, in the presence of the lady. Accordingly, his advice was taken, the book was bought, and the marriage registered. She was then in great spirits, thanked Mr. Amis, and told him it might be one hundred thousand pounds in her way. She sealed up the register, and left it with Mrs. Amis, in charge, upon her husband's death, to deliver it to Mr. Merrill. This event happened in a few weeks, and the register was handed over to his clerical successor. It happened, however, that the Earl of Bristol recovered; and the register was forgotten until it was sought for another purpose. In a short time after, the connexion between her and the Duke of Kingston was formed. To ascertain the exact time is hardly material. From Lord Chesterfield's Letters we find, in 1765, she was in Germany; and his opinion of her may be learnt from the following extracts: "As for the lady, if you should be very sharp set for some English flesh, she has it amply in her power to supply you, if she pleases." (Letter 356.) "Your guest, Miss Chudleigh, is another problem which I cannot solve. She has no more wanted the waters of Carls badt than you did. It is to show the Duke of Kingston he cannot live without her! A dangerous experiment, which may possibly convince him that he can. There is a trick, no doubt, in it, but what, I neither know nor care: you did very well to show her civilities, cela ne gate jamais rien." (Letter 357.) "Is the fair, or, at least, the fat Miss Chudleigh, with you still? It must be confessed that she knows the arts of Courts, to be so received at Dresden, and so connived at in Leicester Fields." (Letter 365.) Time, which had brought to view events as strange, in a short time exhibited another of the caprices of fortune. Mr. Hervey by this time had turned his thoughts to a more agreeable connexion. He, therefore, actually entered into a correspondence with his wife, for the purpose of setting aside a match so burdensome and hateful to both. The scheme he proposed was rather indelicate: not that afterwards executed, which could not sustain the eye of justice a moment; but a simpler method, founded in the truth of the case, that of obtaining a separation by sentence, a mensâ et thoro propter adulterium, which might serve as the foundation of an Act of Parliament for an absolute divorce. He sent her a message to this effect, in terms sufficiently peremptory and rough, by the only person then living who was present at the marriage. He bade her tell her mistress that he wanted a divorce; that he should call upon her (the servant) to prove the marriage, and that the lady must supply such other evidence as was necessary. This might have answered Hervey's purpose well enough; but the lady's required more reserve and management, and such a proceeding might have disappointed it. She therefore spurned at that part of the proposal, and refused, in terms of high resentment. She took the proper steps to prevent his proceeding without notice to her, and in Michaelmas Session instituted a suit of jactitation of marriage, in the common way, which, by connivance and artifice, went through the necessary forms; and on the 10th of February, 1769, she obtained a sentence, which it was thought would be a sufficient bar to any claims of her husband for the future. In consequence of this sentence she was, on the 8th of March, 1769, married at St. George's, Hanover Square, to the Duke of Kingston.* With this nobleman she lived until the 23rd of September, 1773, when his Grace died at Bath, after a short illness. During the time of their marriage he had made three wills, and each succeeding one more favourable to her than the other. By the last he gave the lady the possession of his estates for life, and devised the remainder to his nephew Charles Medows, Esq., and his heirs. This will was deposited in the custody of the Duke of Newcastle. At the opening of it, Mr. Medows, who had married the Duke of Kingston's sister, was requested to attend. He retired with displeasure and disappointment. Resentment took place of all other feelings, and revenge was determined on. Both the civil and criminal jurisdiction of the country were resorted to, and the Dowager, partly from motives Evelyn Pierrepont, Duke of Kingston, was the representative of one of the oldest and most opulent families in the kingdom. His immediate ancestor, Robert, first Earl of Kingston, espoused with the most devoted zeal the cause of royalty during the great Civil War, and is said to have brought no fewer than four thousand men to the standard of the King. He bore the popular designation of "the good Earl of Kingston," and was universally esteemed among the cavalier commanders. The Duke referred to in the text died without issue in 1773: his extensive estates eventually devolved on his nephew, Charles Medows, Esq., who assumed by sign manual, in 1788, the surname of Pierrepont, and was created Earl Manvers. of health, and partly from fear, left the kingdom, to which she was, at length, compelled to return, to avoid an outlawry. An indictment had been preferred at the Old Bailey, where she did not like to appear; but the death of the Earl of Bristol, on the 18th of March, 1775, gave her, in all events, the privilege of peerage. While matters were depending in this uncertain state, an unexpected enemy to her ladyship's repose started up in the person of Mr. Foote, the Dramatist, who, eager to catch the flying topics of the day, produced, in 1775, a comedy called "A Trip to Calais," in which he introduced a character called Lady Kitty Crocodile, evidently intended for the Duchess of Kingston. This she was soon informed of, and had interest to obtain a prohibition to its representation. The letters which passed on the occasion are too curious to be omitted. The first, from Mr. Foote to Lord Hertford, was in the following terms : 66 To Lord Hertford. My Lord, I did intend troubling your lordship with an earlier address, but the day before I received your prohibitory mandate, I had the honour of a visit from Lord Mountstuart, to whose interposition I find I am indebted for your first commands, relative to the Trip to Calais,' by Mr. Chetwynd, and your final rejection of it by Colonel Keen. "Lord Mountstuart has, I presume, told your lordship, that he read with me those scenes to which your lordship objected, that he found them collected from general nature, and applicable to none but those, who, through consciousness, were compelled to a self-application. To such minds, my lord, the Whole Duty of Man,' next to the Sacred Writings, is the severest satire that ever was wrote; and to the same mark if Comedy directs not her aim, her arrows are shot in the air: for by what |