Steele to have possessed infinite power over the passions of the human heart. Devoted to the House of Hanover, reviled by Swift, and expelled from the House of Commons for his paper, the Englishman, in which he advocated principles congenial to those of the Duchess of Marlborough, Steele was doubtless an approved acquaintance, though perhaps not on the footing of an intimate friend. A strange contrast to the preceding characters whose peculiarities have been faintly touched, was the celebrated William Penn, who appears among the list of the Duke of Marlborough’s correspondents; and, if slight expressions may be trusted, was among the number of the Duchess’s privileged acquaintance. Penn, in a letter to the great general, whom he addresses as “my noble friend,” in 1703, speaks of sending a letter under “my Lady Duchess’s cover,” and mentions the Lord Treasurer Godolphin, whose correct judgment he commends in the incidental manner of one, intimate with the circle to which he refers. This singular and high-minded personage, whom Burnet severely calls “a vain, talking man,” came into constant collision with the Duke and Duchess at the court of James the Second, where, in spite of his refusal to uncover in the King’s presence, he was received with distinction. Penn was perhaps not the less acceptable to the Duchess from his non-conformist principles. His fearlessness, and the persecutions which, for conscience sake, he sustained in the early part of his life, perhaps redeemed, in her eyes, the visionary nature of his religious impressions, the absurdity, to her strong mind, of his secret communications from God, and the suddenness of his conversion. At all events, the sterling character of Penn, and his contempt of worldly advantages, must have formed an agreeable variety among her numerous, and dissimilar associates. CHAPTER XVII. The different places of residence which belonged to the Duchess—Holywell-house, Wimbledon, Blenheim—Account of the old mansion of Woodstock—Its projected destruction—Efforts of Sir John Vanburgh to save it—Attack upon the Duchess, relative to Blenheim, in the Examiner. Having given a short sketch of those associates in whose conversation the Duchess delighted, or on whose aid, public or private, she depended, it remains now to describe those stately abodes where she lived in sober grandeur, but the splendour of which could not procure her peace of mind, nor ensure her even the attentions due to her rank and years.