38                                      Dallas Pratt

Duchess, "1 wish m\' lord Duke's health depended on my wishes.
I am almost inclined to think that c\cr\thing is in your power,
and I hope the greatest man upon earth w ill ow e a long preserva¬
tion to the care of the worthiest lady."

However, the Duke's death and the melodramatic scenes which
accompanied it were still five years ahead when the Duchess sud¬
denly received word that her granddaughter, the Duchess of
Newcastle, was d\"ino. This \\ as the Lad\' Harriet whose mar¬
riage is referred to in two letters (C 9 and 10)—a marriage which
the Duchess had arranged. A coolness had sprung up because
Harriet Newcastle, in the perpetual warfare between her mother
and grandmother, insisted on siding with the former. Ne\xrthe-
less, this did not pre\ent Sarah from rushing to the stticken
household, where she beha\ed with unwonted restraint, and
abided by the utgent request of the Duke not to agitate his young
wife b) visiting the sickbed. She boasts of her deportment in a
letter to a friend; "I am sure you have often heard of my passions
and assautments (sic), but I fancy you will think that I governed
them upon this occasion—if I have such things—as well as wise
people do." To .Mrs. Godolphin she wrote: "I can't but think
there is a reason to hope she will do well if Doctor Mead does
not kill her, for I know by woeful experience that he is the most
obstinate and ignorant doctor that we ha\'c had a great while,
though he is much followed at present. Dr. Sloane is there and
Sir S. Garth was expected. One doctor I think is better than a
great many if one can rely upon him—and as the practise is among
them, you have really but the advice of one when you call for
twenty, for they all submit to that doctor that is most cried up,
either for a quiet life, or for fear of not being sent for to his
patients." (C 11).

Dr. .Mead was to receive the full brunt of her "passiims and
assautments" when the Duke lay dying in June, 1722. Frantic
at the doctor's ineffectiveness, she threatened to pull off his wig,
and put him to ignominious flight. Sir Winston describes the