And to Parnassus sure that sound
Had never yet been sent.
At least no such compromising request had been received at the sacred Mount "since Grizzel's Days," and it would have gone hard with Ardelia's poem had she not luckily found in her own breast so many tender memories that the aid of the Nine was superfluous. Domestic felicity of this idyllic sort was certainly not in harmony with the prevailing court standards. This age had defined courtship as a "witty prologue to a dull play;" marriage was but "an ecclesiastical mouse-trap," and all marriage was said "to end in repentance;" while the accepted similes for a wife were "a clog," "a tether-stake," "a yoke," "a galling load." In such a state of public opinion a home-life so unaffectedly good, so frankly happy, as that of this court-bred lady and gentleman was of itself a mark of distinction.
With the accession to the throne of James in February, 1685, Mr. Finch became more than ever occupied with public affairs. He was colonel in the army; he was groom of the bedchamber to the king; he was three years deputy lieutenant for the county of Kent; and he sat one year as member of parliament for Hythe. During this period Mr. and Mrs. Finch lived in London with but occasional short visits in other parts of England. A brief stay in Somersetshire in 1688 (probably in the summer) had, as its outcome, the following statement made by Lord Winchilsea August 12, 1722:
