"My dear Lady Huntingdon is always so very good to me, that I must accept your very obliging invitation to accompany you to hear Mr. Whitefield. I do hope that I shall be all the better for all your excellent advice. God knows we all need mending, and none more than myself. I have lived to see great changes in the world, have acted a conspicuous part myself, and now hope, in my old days,[159] to obtain mercy from God, as I never expect any at the hands of my fellow-creatures. The Duchess of Ancaster, Lady Townshend, and Lady Cobham were exceedingly pleased with many observations in Mr. Whitefield's sermon at St. Sepulchre's Church, which has made me lament ever since that I did not hear it, as it might have been the means of doing me some good; _for good, alas! I do want_, but where among the corrupt sons and daughters of Adam am I to find it?"[160]
[159] She died five years afterwards, in 1744.
[160] "Life and Times of Countess of Huntingdon," vol. i., p. 25.
Another aristocratic lady, who, in these early days of Methodism, attended the preaching of Whitefield and the Wesleys, was the proud Duchess of Buckingham, a natural daughter of King James the Second, whose first husband was the Earl of Anglesey (from whom she was divorced), and her second, John Sheffield, Duke of Buckingham, in whose house (now Buckingham Palace) she died, in 1742. This quasi-royal duchess heard the Methodists, but disliked their doctrines. Writing to the Countess of Huntingdon, she said:--
"I thank your ladyship for the information concerning the Methodist preachers. Their doctrines are most repulsive, and strongly tinctured with impertinence and disrespect towards their superiors, in perpetually endeavouring to level all ranks, and do away with all distinctions. It is monstrous to be told that you have a heart as sinful as the common wretches that crawl on the earth. This is highly offensive and insulting; and I cannot but wonder that your ladyship should relish any sentiments so much at variance with high rank and good breeding. However, I shall be most happy to accept your kind offer of accompanying me to hear your favourite preacher, and shall wait your arrival. The Duchess of Queensbury insists on my patronising her on this occasion; consequently, she will be an _addition_ to our party."[161]