8vo. xvi, 207pp, [1]. Title page in red and black. With half-title and an engraved portrait frontispiece of the author. Original publisher's blind-stamped dark brown cloth, lettered in gilt to spine. Rubbed and marked, slight loss to head and foot of spine, corners bumped. Occasional light spotting.

The witty and revealing diary of Mary, Countess Cowper (1685-1724), Lady of the Bedchamber to Caroline, Princess of Wales, and wife of William Cowper. Fluent in French, Mary Cowper used her position in court to influence the Princess's political thought - on her first day in attendance, she delivered to Her Majesty Bernstorff’s 'A Treatise on the State of Parties' which she 'had transcribed and translated for my Lord, in French and English, to give the King'.