he
subject of reputation was well known, objected to receiving her
(Lady Berkeley called her, rather disrespectfully, "Old Charlotte"
all the time, but spoke of George III. as "the King"), but was
overruled by the King, who had a personal friendship for Lord
Berkeley.

The strangest thing in her whole account of herself, however, was
the details she gave me of her singular power over her husband. She
said that in a very few years after their marriage (by courtesy) she
perceived that her husband's affairs were in the most deplorable
state of derangement: that he gambled, that he was over head and
ears in debt, that he never had a farthing of ready money, that his
tenantry were worse off than any other in the country, that his
agents and bailiffs and stewards were rogues who ground them and
cheated him, that his farmers were careless and incompetent, and
that the whole of his noble estate appeared to be going
irretrievably to ruin; when the earl complaining one day bitterly of
this state of things, for which he knew no remedy, she told him that
she would find the remedy, and undertake to recover what was lost
and redeem what remained, if he would give her absolute
discretionary power to deal with his property as she pleased, and
not interfere with her management of it for a whole year. He agreed
to this, but, not satisfied with his promise, she made him bind
himself by oath and, moreover, execute documents, giving her legal
power enabling her to act independently of him in all matters
relating to his estate. The earl not unnaturally demurred, but at
length yielded, only stipulating that she should always be prepared
to furnish him with money whenever he wanted it. She bound herself
to do this, and received regular powers from him for the
uninterrupted management of his property and administration of his
affairs for a whole year. She immediately set about her various
plans of reform, and carried them on vigorously and successfully,
without the slightest interference on the part of her dissipated and
careless husband, who had entirely forgotten the whole compact
between them. Some months after the agreement had gone into effect,
she perceived that he was harassed and disturbed about something,
and questioning him, found he had incurred a heavy gambling debt,
which he knew not h