[158] In the Crace Collection (Small Catalogue No. 898) is a water-colour drawing, 'View of Old Devonshire House, formerly Berkeley House, about 1730.' This was the house which passed from the Berkeleys to the first Duke of Devonshire, and was destroyed by fire 16th Oct., 1733. It stood where Devonshire House stands now.
[159] Lady Silvius, to whom Evelyn dedicates his book, written long after Margaret's death. The original MS. was sold at Puttick and Simpson's, in 1861.
[160] In the sense of having depressed spirits.
[161] The entry in the Register is that she was buried on the 27th Sept., 1678. On the north side of the church is a door, now blocked up, which is said to have been the entrance to the Godolphin pew.
[162] In the familiar correspondence of the period between the Marlborough and Godolphin clique, the Queen was referred to as 'Mrs. Morley,' Marlborough as 'Mr. Freeman,' the Duchess as 'Mrs. Freeman,' and Godolphin as 'Mr. Montgomery.' Most of this correspondence is preserved at Blenheim; many parts of it are in cypher, and the cypher is frequently changed.
[163] It was under this name that Sacheverell attacked Godolphin in his celebrated sermon.
[164] He wears the collar and jewel, (recalling the line which refers to the star 'That gleam'd on Wise Godolphin's breast,') in his portrait by Sir Godfrey Kneller, and carries in his hand his white wand of office.
[165] An event to which it may be remembered Andrew Fairservice referred 'every symptom of depravity or degeneracy which he remarked among his countrymen, more especially the inflammation of reckonings, the diminished size of pint-stoups, and other grievances.'
[166] Especially that 'fiery, forward tool's' (as he was called by one of his opponents) sermon at St. Paul's, on 5th Nov., 1709, for which he was ordered to appear at the bar of the House of Commons.
[167] It is curious and instructive to notice how Marlborough himself had suffered from the attacks of his assailants. Green, in his 'Short History of the English People,' says: 'In the bitter moments before his fall, he bade Godolphin burn some querulous letters which the persecution of his opponents had wrung from him. 'My desire is that the world may continue in their error of thinking me a happy man, for I think it better to be envied than pitied.' Yet he could write philosophically enough, and in somewhat similar vein, from Tirlemount, to his irritated Duchess, who had been deeply stung by one of the many libellous pamphlets which were now making their appearance: 'The best way of putting an end to that villany is not to appear concerned. The best of men and women in all ages have been ill-used. If we can be so happy as to behave ourselves so as to have no reason to reproach ourselves, we may then despise what rage and faction do.'