After Lady Mary's return to England in 1718 we come upon a long period of quiescence. Domestic affairs, events of social and political life, her friendships and hatreds, her economies and stock speculations, completely occupied her. During the first part of this period she was extravagantly praised. Steele said of her in his essay on Inoculation: This ornament of her Sex and Country, who ennobles her own Nobility by her Learning, Wit and Virtues, accompanying her consort into Turkey, observed the Benefit of this Practice, with its frequency, even among these obstinate Predestinarians, and brought it over for the service and safety of her native England, where she consecrated its first effects on the persons of her own fine children. In 1720 Pope wrote In beauty and wit No Mortal as yet To question your empire has dared: But men of discerning Have thought that in learning To yield to a lady was hard. Impertinent schools, With musty dull rules, Have reading to females denied; So Papists refuse The Bible to use, Lest flocks should be wise as their guide. * * * * * But if the first Eve Hard doom did receive When only one apple had she, What a punishment new Shall be found out for you, Who, tasting, have robbed the whole tree. And in 1727 he wrote in _Sandys' Ghost_: Ye ladies, too, draw forth your pen, I pray where can the hurt lie? Since you have brains as well as men, As witness Lady Wortley. Before 1724 Dr. Young had sent her his tragedy _The Brothers_, requesting her criticism. In 1725 Richard Savage dedicated his _Miscellanies_ to her as one through whose elevated and immortal wit England had been honored, and who had firmly established the fact that women have "strength of mind in proportion to their sweetness." And Henry Fielding, her second cousin, sent her his comedies, "exceedingly anxious" for her opinion of them. But after 1724 or 1725 the years seem to slip on in an aimless fashion, the only breaks in the monotony coming from the intermittently virulent quarrels with Pope, the religious and medical animosities roused by the inoculation process, family sorrows and family discords, with no literary output to mark any personal achievements. From thirty to fifty should have been harvest years after so brilliant a beginning. But the early promise faded into a middle age disillusioned, unambitious, and rather commonplace. The only writing of any importance was in the correspondence kept up in a desultory fashion with various friends. Such of the letters of this period as have been preserved are so vivid and picturesque, so witty, and so pleasantly caustic in their comment, that we can only regret their small number. Take for instance the following description of a feminine riot in the House of Commons: