—In the first canto of Hudibras, part ii. l. 885., are these lines:
"Did not a certain lady whip
Of late her husband's own lordship?
And though a grandee of the house
Claw'd him with fundamental blows;
Ty'd him uncover'd to a bed-post,
And firk'd his hide, as if sh' had rid post.
And after in the Sessions Court,
Where whipping's judg'd, had honor for't?"
My copy of the poem, with Hogarth's plates, has no note on this passage. To whom does it refer? A Bury Guide, published in 1833, states that it occurred in that town in 1650 to a nobleman who had discovered an inclination to desert the Hanoverian cause.