No wonder that he left to this accomplished relative the privilege of living, after his death, at Strawberry Hill, of which she took possession in 1797, and where she remained twenty years; giving it up, in 1828, to Lord Waldegrave.

She was, as we have said, before her time in her appreciation of what was noble and superior, in preference to that which gives to caste alone, its supremacy.  During her last years she bravely espoused an unfashionable cause; and disregarding the contempt of the lofty, became the champion of the injured and unhappy Caroline of Brunswick.

From his retreat at Strawberry, Horace Walpole heard all that befel the object of his flame, Lady Sophia Fermor.  His letters present from time to time such passages as these; Lady Pomfret, whom he detested, being always the object of his satire:—­

’There is not the least news; but that my Lord Carteret’s wedding has been deferred on Lady Sophia’s (Fermor’s) falling dangerously ill of a scarlet fever; but they say it is to be next Saturday.  She is to have L1,600 a year jointure, L400 pin-money, and L2,000 of jewels.  Carteret says he does not intend to marry the mother (Lady Pomfret) and the whole family.  What do you think my Lady intends?’

Lord Carteret, who was the object of Lady Pomfret’s successful generalship, was at this period, 1744, fifty-four years of age, having been born in 1690.  He was the son of George, Lord Carteret, by Grace, daughter of the first Earl of Bath, of the line of Granville—­a title which became eventually his.  The fair Sophia, in marrying him, espoused a man of no ordinary attributes.  In person, Horace Walpole, after the grave had closed over one whom he probably envied, thus describes him:—­

  ’Commanding beauty, smoothed by cheerful grace,
  Sat on each open feature of his face. 
  Bold was his language, rapid, glowing, strong,
  And science flowed spontaneous from his tongue: 
  A genius seizing systems, slighting rules,
  And void of gall, with boundless scorn of fools.’

After having been Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Carteret attended his royal master in the campaign, during which the Battle of Dettingen was fought.  He now held the reins of government in his own hands as premier.  Lord Chesterfield has described him as possessing quick precision, nice decision, and unbounded presumption.  The Duke of Newcastle used to say of him that he was a ‘man who never doubted.’

In a subsequent letter we find the sacrifice of the young and lovely Sophia completed.  Ambition was the characteristic of her family:  and she went, not unwillingly, to the altar.  The whole affair is too amusingly told to be given in other language than that of Horace:—­