FROM LADY BETTY GERMAIN.
I HAVE not answered yours of the 15th of June so soon as I should; but the duke of Dorset had answered all yours ere your letter came to my hands. So I hope all causes of complaint are at an end, and that he has showed himself, as he is, much your friend and humble servant, though he wears a garter, and had his original from Normandy, if heralds do not lie, or his grannams did not play false; and while he is lord lieutenant, (which I heartily wish may not be much longer) I dare say will be very glad of any opportunity to do what you recommend to him. Thus far will I answer for his grace, though he is now in the country, and cannot subscribe to it himself.
Now to quite another affair. The countess of Suffolk (whom you know I have long had a great esteem and value for) has been so good and gracious as to take my brother George Berkeley[1] for better, for worse; though I hope in God the last will not happen, because I think he is an honest good natured man. The town is surprised; and the town talks, as the town loves to do, upon these ordinary extraordinary occasions. She is indeed four or five years older than he, and no more; but for all that, he has appeared to all the world, as well as me, to have long had (that is, ever since she has been a widow, so
- ↑ Fourth and youngest son of Charles, earl of Berkeley. He was many years representative for Dover, and master of the hospital of St. Catharine's near the Tower.
