add any further information as to
the part which Dorothy played in the matter.

After their retirement to Sheen and Moor Park, Surrey, we know nothing
distinctively of Lady Temple, and little is known of their family life.
They had only two children living, having lost as many as seven in their
infancy. In 1684 one of these children, their only daughter, died of
small-pox; she was buried in Westminster Abbey. There is a letter of
hers written to her father which shows some signs of her mother's
affectionate teaching, and which we cannot forbear to quote. It is
copied from Courtenay, vol. ii. p. 113.

SIR,--I deferred writing to you till I could tell you that I had
received all my fine things, which I have just now done; but I thought
never to have done giving you thanks for them. They have made me so very
happy in my new clothes, and everybody that comes does admire them above
all things, but yet not so much as I think they deserve; and now, if
papa was near, I should think myself a perfect pope, though I hope I
should not be burned as there was one at Nell Gwyn's door the 5th of
November, who was set in a great chair, with a red nose half a yard
long, with some hundreds of boys throwing squibs at it. Monsieur Gore
and I agree mighty well, and he makes me believe I shall come to
something at last; that is if he stays, which I don't doubt but he will,
because all the fine ladies will petition for him. We are got rid of the
workmen now, and our house is ready to entertain you. Come when you
please, and you will meet nobody more glad to see you than your most
obedient and dutiful daughter,

D. TEMPLE.

Temple's son, John Temple, married in 1685 a rich heiress in France, the
daughter of Monsieur Duplessis Rambouillet, a French Protestant; he
brought his wife to live at his father's house at Sheen. After King
William and Queen Mary were actually placed on the throne, Sir William
Temple, in 1689, permitted his son to accept the office of Secretary at
War. For reasons now obscure and unknowable, he drowned himself in the
Thames within a week of his acceptance of office, leaving this writing
behind him:--

"My folly in undertaking what I was not able to perform has done the
King and kingdom a great deal of prejudice. I wish him all happiness and
abler servants than John Temple."

The following letter was written on that occasion by Lady Temple to
her nephew, Sir John Osborne. The original of it is at Chicksands:--