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INTRODUCTION.
The first of Sidney's correspondents, whose letters are now offered to the public, in point of age, is his sister, the Dowager Countess of Sunderland, the eldest daughter of Robert, Earl of Leicester, and of Dorothy, the daughter of Henry, Earl of Northumberland.
Dorothy Sidney was born in 1617, at Sion House, the seat of her grandfather, the Earl of Northumberland, who at the time of her birth was a prisoner in the Tower, on suspicion of having been acquainted with the intention of one of the parties engaged in the Gunpowder Plot.
Her mother seems to have watched over her early years with the greatest care and tenderness; and, as she grew up gifted with great personal attractions, and the object of flattery from the most
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