George-Whitefield-Field-Preacher

252 GEORGE WHITEFIELD
when she was again in a similar condition, and evidently
indulged in hopes such as had previously buoyed Whitefield
up. She seemed to prefer Methodism for times of trial.
The Countess of Suffolk was neither so calmly impartial as
Bolingbroke, nor so obligingly changeful as Lady Townshend.
Her circumstances—the loss of her husband and only son—at
the time that Lady Guildford took her to the Countess's to
hear the Methodist chaplain, might have been thought favour-
able to her acceptance of the truths of religion : but she was
stung and enraged by every word which Whitefield, ignorant
both of her presence and her condition, said. Her self-control
gave way as soon as he withdrew, at the close of the service.
She then abused Lady Huntingdon to her face, in the presence
of the illustrious congregation, and ' denounced the sermon as
a deliberate attack upon herself.' Her relatives who were
present—Lady Betty Germain, Lady Eleanor Bertie, and the
Dowager Duchess of Ancaster—attempted in vain alternately
to pacify her, by explaining to her that she was mistaken, and
to silence her by command. Thinking herself insulted, she
would not for some time hear reason ; but at length she was
prevailed upon to apologise, though only with a bad grace, to
Lady Huntingdon for her rudeness. She was never seen again
among Whitefield's hearers, nor did she ever really forgive the
Countess ; on her death-bed she denied the Countess per-
mission to come and speak with her.
Lady Fanny Shirley, an aunt of Lady Huntingdon, the
friend and neighbour of Pope, and the rival of Lady Mary
Wortley Montague, became, through the efforts of the Countess
Delitz, a conspicuous member of the aristocratic Methodist
circle, and had her change of mind duly chronicled in the
gossiping letters of Walpole.
' If you ever think of returning to England,' he writes to Sir Horace Mann,
' as I hope it will be long first, you must prepare yourself with Methodism.