FROM LADY RUSSELL TO HER HUSBAND,
WILLIAM LORD RUSSELL,

TO WHICH ARE ADDED, ELEVEN LETTERS

FROM DOROTHY SIDNEY COUNTESS OF SUNDERLAND, TO
GEORGE SAVILLE MARQUIS OF HALLIFAX.

IN THE YEAR 1680.

PUBLISHED FROM THE ORIGINALS

IN THE POSSESSION OF

HIS GRACE THE DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE.

LONDON:

Printed by Strahan and Spottiswoode, Printers-Street;

FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, AND BROWN,

ADVERTISEMENT.

THESE Letters were sorted and arranged for the Duke of Devonshire, by a friend, to whom he had permitted the examination of a considerable mass of family papers. They were returned to the Duke with the following letter. When he was solicited by several persons, to whom he had communicated Lady Russell's correspondence in its present state, to allow of its publication, the same friend was applied to, for some account of her life. It is here prefixed to the letters.

Those of Lady Russell will be found devoid of every ornament of style, and deficient in almost every particular that constitutes, what are generally called, entertaining letters. Their merit must arise entirely from a previous knowledge of the character and habits of their writer, and from the interest which the subsequent circumstances, in which she was placed, inspire. They are sometimes overcharged, sometimes confused with a repetition of trifling details; and sometimes the use of words antiquated in the signification here given to them, adds to this confusion. Very inconsiderable alterations might