An instructive feature of Mary’s literary activities during her last days is her correspondence with Elizabeth Jeffries.  “That unsavoury person” was, with her paramour, John Swan, convicted at Chelmsford Assizes on 12th March, 1752, of the murder at Walthamstow, on 3rd July, of one Joseph Jeffries, respectively uncle and master to his slayers.  Elizabeth induced John to kill the old gentleman, who, aware of their intrigue, had threatened, as the Crown counsel neatly phrased it, “to alter his will, if she did not alter her conduct.”  This unpleasant case, as was, perhaps, in the circumstances, natural, attracted the attention of Miss Blandy.  She read with much interest the report of the trial.  “It is barbarous,” was her comment—­for, in truth, the murder was a sordid business, and sadly lacking in “style”—­“but I am sorry for her, and hope she will have a good divine to attend her in her last moments, if possible a second Swinton, for, poor unhappy girl, I pity her.”  These sentiments shocked a lady visitor then present, who, expressing the opinion that all such inhuman wretches should suffer as they deserved, withdrew in dudgeon.  Mary smilingly remarked, “I can’t bear with these over-virtuous women.  I believe if ever the devil picks a bone, it is one of theirs!” But the murderess of Walthamstow had somehow struck her fancy, and she wrote to her fellow-convict to express her sympathy.  That young lady suitably replied, and the ensuing correspondence (7th January-19th March, 1752), published under the title of Genuine Letters between Miss Blandy and Miss Jeffries, if we may believe the description, is highly remarkable.  At first Elizabeth asserted her innocence as stoutly as did Mary herself, but afterwards she acknowledged her guilt.  Whereupon Mary, more in sorrow than in anger, wrote to her on 16th March for the last time.  “Your deceiving of me was a small crime; it was deceiving yourself:  for no retreat, tho’ ever so pleasant, no diversions, no company, no, not Heaven itself, could have made you happy with those crimes unrepented of in your breast.”  So, with the promise to be “a suitor for her at the Throne of Mercy,” Miss Blandy intimated that the correspondence must close; and on the 28th Miss Jeffries duly paid the penalty of her crime.

In A Book of Scoundrels, that improving and delightful work, Mr. Charles Whibley has, well observed:  “A stern test of artistry is the gallows.  Perfect behaviour at an enforced and public scrutiny may properly be esteemed an effect of talent—­an effect which has not too often been rehearsed.”  This high standard, the hall-mark of the artist in crime, Mary Blandy admittedly attained.  The execution, originally fixed for Saturday, 4th April, was postponed until Monday, the 6th, by request of the University authorities, who represented that to conduct such a ceremony during Holy Week “would be improper and unprecedented.”  The night before her end the doomed woman asked to see the scene of the