ON August 24th, 1791, seven months before the expected.
birth of her baby, Mrs. Sheridan gathered together the
letters of her dead sister Mary. She wrote on their cover:

"In February 1787, my dear sifter came to London in a
bad ftate of health. On the 15th of May she returned to
Hampton Court without having received any benefit from
the various remedies prescribed for her. The three last let-
ters written between the 15th and 25th when she was once
more brought to town, dangerously ill of a fever which.
turned to a hectic that never afterwards left her.

"On the 15th of June she was carried back to Hampton
Court, where I remained with her, and on the 19th we went
by slow degrees to Clifton Hill near the Hot Wells, with a
faint hope that the air and waters might reftore her, but after
ftruggling with this moft dreadful of all diseases, and bear-
ing with gentlest patience and resignation the various pains
and horrors that which mark its fatal progress, on the 27th of
July she ceased to suffer, and I for ever lost the friend and
companion of my youth, the beloved sifter of my heart,
whose loss can never be repaired, whose sweet and amiable
qualities endeared her to all those who were so happy to
know her. She died in the 29th year of her age, universally
regretted and lamented, and she was buried in the Cathedral
at Wells, where she spent her infancy, and where she en-
joyed happiness and poverty the firft year of her marriage.

"In less than two years afterwards Mr. Tickell married
again, a beautiful young woman of 18!

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