Wiltshire, and has been celebrated both for
her beauty and parts.

In the year 1648, distinguished to posterity, by the fall of Charles
I. who suffered on a scaffold erected before the window of his own
palace, our author was born at Dichley, near Woodstock, in the same
county, the scene of many of his pleasures, and of his death. His
lordship's father had the misfortune to reap none of the rewards of
suffering loyalty, for he died in 1660, immediately before the
restoration, leaving his son as the principal part of his inheritance,
his titles, honours, and the merit of those extraordinary services he
had done the crown; but though lord Wilmot left his son but a small
estate, yet he did not suffer in his education by these means, for the
oeconomy of his mother supplied that deficiency, and he was educated
suitable to his quality. When he was at school (it is agreed by all
his biographers) he gave early instances of a readiness of wit; and
those shining parts which have since appeared with so much lustre,
began then to shew themselves: he acquired the Latin to such
perfection, that, to his dying day, he retained a great relish for the
masculine firmness, as well as more elegant beauties of that language,
and was, says Dr. Burnet, 'exactly versed in those authors who were
the ornaments of the court of Augustus, which he read often with the
peculiar delight which the greatest wits have often found in those
studies.' When he went to the university, the general joy which
over-ran the nation upon his Majesty's return, amounted to something
like distraction, and soon spread a very malignant influence through
all ranks of life. His lordship tasted the pleasures of libertinism,
which then broke out in a full tide, with too acute a relish, and was
almost overwhelmed in the abyss of wantonness. His tutor was Dr.
Blandford, afterwards promoted to the sees of Oxford and Worcester,
and under his inspection he was committed to the more immediate care
of Phinehas Berry, fellow of Wadham College, a man of learning and
probity, whom his lordship afterwards treated with much respect, and
rewarded as became a great man; but notwithstanding the care of his
tutor, he had so deeply engaged in the dissipations of the general
jubilee, that he could not be prevailed upon to renew his studies,
which were totally lost in the joys more agreeable to his inclination.
He never thought of resuming again the pursuit of knowledge, 'till the
fine addres