THESE the last two months of the year 1775, when my Lady Cheriton's absence from home gave me leisure to prosecute my task. I undertook it with eagerness; for I was never to know how much of my past my lady might come to discover. In this apprehension I determin'd to set down a plain and sincere narrative of my conduct whilst I was at Dr. Aston's (embellished for her diversion with notices of the distinguish'd characters I met at Wimpole Street), conceiving that the best remedy against the prejudice any discovery would raise in her, would lie in an account of |