d from the Herberts
of Powis Castle, who were ennobled in the reign of James the First. She
was the fourth daughter of William, Marquis of Powis, who followed James
the Second, after his abdication, to France, and was created by that
monarch Duke of Powis, a title not recognised in England.[28] The
titular Duke of Powis, as he is frequently called in history, chose to
remain at St. Germains, and was at length outlawed for not returning
within a certain period. He died at St. Germains in 1696. Upon the death
of her father, Lady Winifred Herbert was placed with her elder sister,
the Lady Lucy, in the English convent at Bruges, of which Lady Lucy
eventually became Abbess. A less severe fate was, however, in store for
the younger sister.

Under these adverse circumstances, so far as related to the proper
maintenance of her father's rank in England, was Winifred Herbert
reared. How and where she met with Lord Nithisdale, and whether the
strong attachment which afterwards united them so indissolubly, was
nurtured in the saloons of St. Germains, or in the romantic haunts of
Nithisdale, we have no information to decide, neither have the
descendants of the family been able even to ascertain the date of her
marriage.

It is not improbable, however, that, before his marriage, Lord
Nithisdale visited Paris and Rome, since the practice of making what was
called "the grand tour" not only prevailed among the higher classes, but
especially among the Jacobite nobility, many of whom, as in the case of
Lord Derwentwater, were educated abroad; and this is more especially
likely to have been the case in the instance of Lord Nithisdale, since,
as Lady Nithisdale remarks in her narrative, her husband was a Roman
Catholic in a part of Scotland peculiarly adverse to that faith, "the
only support," as she calls him, "of the Catholics against the
inveteracy of the Whigs, who were very numerous in that part of
Scotland."

In her participation of those decided political opinions, which were
inbred in Lady Nithisdale, she appears not to have departed from that
feminine character which rises to sublimity when coupled with a fearless
sacrifice of selfish considerations. It was the custom of the day for
ladies to share in the intrigues of faction, more or less. Lady
Fauconbridge, the Countess of Derwentwater, Lady Seaforth, all appear to
have taken a lively part in the interests of the Jacobites. The Duchess
of Marlborough was, politically speaking