Author: [DALRYMPLE (Sir David), Lord Hailes)], editor:
Title: The Opinions of Sarah Duchess-Dowager of Marlborough, Published from original Mss.
Description: No place No publisher 1788. FIRST AND ONLY EDITION. 12mo, 158 x 91 mms., pp. [v] vi - xx], 120, including half-title, contemporary calf, red leather; some repairs to front joint, but with rubbing present. A good copy. "Sarah Churchill was a woman of extraordinary energy and vibrancy and a brilliant and forthright intellect. Her long and devoted marriage to John Churchill, and her close association with Queen Anne, set her amid many of the most tumultuous events in British history at a time when the doting queen would have refused her dearest friend almost nothing. For all the turbulence and exasperation that her conduct frequently caused him, Sarah was the first duke of Marlborough's inspiration and he looked to her for approval. It is arguable that without the goad of her spirited influence he would not have risen so far or so fast. Sarah prided herself on her sense of logic, but her extraordinarily stubborn nature was not receptive to reasoned argument by others, with the occasional exception of her husband. This robust quality was of immense value when she was right, but quite disastrous when wrong, and her brusque temper contributed enormously to the eventual breach with Anne and her failure to exert enduring political influence in the reigns of George I and George II. She was too self-righteous to maintain a position at court through flattery and dissimulation, but her ambition and ability kept her near the centre of British political life for seventy years." James Falkner, OxfordDNB. Sources

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