The following letter from Mrs Osborn, the famous Dorothy Osborn’s great-niece by marriage, and a daughter of the first Lord Torrington, and wife of John Osborn, of Chicksands, in Bedfordshire, to her son, Sir Danvers Osborn, dated 9th December 1745, gives an interesting picture of the state of public feeling. She writes of the “most shameful panick” which had seized London on the news of the advance of the Scottish army. People were hurrying from their country houses for shelter in the capital, and bringing their plate with them wherever they could. This “panick” lasted for four days, and then came the news of the retreat from Derby northwards, and people went home again. She says: “The Prisoners come to the Tower a fryday, ’tis not yet clear if the Pretender’s brother is there. They have strong suspicion still, but the Ministry don’t choose to talk about it.” In the following June, Mrs Osborn writes from Kensington: “’Tis thought ’twill be August before the Lords can be try’d. After some forms are past, the Peers must have 20 days notice. Lady Cromarty is in town, has been at the Tower to enquire after her lord. She was at Williamson’s, and cryd most bitterly, but no one is suffered so much as to look up at the windows. They were all brought into Williamson’s, and from there one by one conducted to their apartments. No one knows where the other is, and they are kept very strict, since the King of France has ordered a most insolent Letter, and takes himself to be King of England to forbid us punishing the Rebels. Is the Prelates got off or not?” asks Mrs Osborn, adding rather cold-bloodedly: “I wish they could have been beheaded at Edinburgh, and not make such a long piece of work as the forms will do here.”