'So much for books - saving that Sir John Murray hath found the whole correspondence of the Earl of Chesterfield, who flourished in King Charles the Second's time, in Bath House, containing most curious letters of the Duchess of Cleveland, Lady Southesk, and many other personages whom Count Hamilton has rendered so interesting. I will try to get Sir John to publish them, for such things should not run the risk of fire, not to mention rats and mice. There is a sort of memoir of Lord Chesterfield at the beginning of the volume, in which he says his second wife died of the spotted fever or plague; but in fact he is said to have poisoned her in the wine of the sacrament, to be revenged for her gallantries, which were notorious: that old villain, Sir John Denham, having shown him the way, by getting rid of his wife after a fashion nearly similar'.
Century: 1800-1849 Reader/Listener/Group: Charles Kirkpatrick Sharpe Manuscript: Letter