Mrs Catharine Sidney Bidulph, was the daughter of Sir Robert Bidulph of
Wiltshire. Her father died when she was very young; and of ten children
none survived him but this lady, and his eldest son, afterwards Sir
George Bidulph. The family estate was not very considerable; and Miss
Bidulph's portion was but four thousand pounds; a fortune however at
that time but quite contemptible: it was in the beginning of queen Ann's
reign.
Lady Bidulph was a woman of plain sense, but exemplary piety; the
strictness of her notions (highly commendable in themselves) now and
then gave a tincture of severity to her actions, though she was ever
esteemed a truly good woman.
She had educated her daughter, who was one of the greatest beauties of
her time, in the strictest principles of virtue; from which she never
deviated, through the course of an innocent, though unhappy life.
Sir George Bidulph was nine or ten years older than his sister. He was a
man of a good understanding, moral as to his general conduct, but void
of any of those refined sentiments, which constitute what is called
_delicacy_. Pride is sometimes accounted laudable; that which Sir George
possessed (for he had pride) was not of this kind.
He was of a weakly constitution, and had been ordered by the physicians
to Spa for the recovery of a lingering disorder, which he had laboured
under for some time. It was just on his return to England that the busy
scene of his sister's life opened. An intimate friend of hers, of her
own sex, to whom she revealed all the secrets of her heart, happened at
this juncture to go abroad, and it was for her perusal only the
following journal was intended. That friend has carefully preserved it,
as she thinks it may serve for an example to prove, that neither
prudence, foresight, nor even the best disposition that the human heart
is capable of, are of themselves sufficient to defend us against the
inevitable ills that sometimes are allotted, even to the best. 'The race
is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong.'