wretches, whose praise could reflect but little honour, and who would
be ready to boast of favours they never received, nor indeed ever
endeavoured to obtain.

This salutary council was rejected; she told him, that she did not
think fit to reform a conduct, which she reckoned very innocent;
and still continued to receive the whispers of flatterers, 'till
experience taught her the folly of her behaviour, and she lived to
repent her indiscretion.

Her virtue was now nodding, and she was ready to fall into the arms of
any gallant, like mellow fruit, without much trouble in the gathering.
Sir Thomas Skipwith, a character of gaiety of those times, and, who
it seems had theatrical connections, was recommended to her, as being
very able to promote her design in writing for the stage. This knight
was in the 50th year of his age, and in the 60th of his constitution,
when he was first introduced to her, and as he had been a long
practised gallant, he soon made addresses to her, and whether or no
this knight, who was more dangerous to a woman's reputation, than her
virtue, was favoured by her, the world was so much convinced of it,
that her character was now absolutely lost. Sir Thomas was a weak,
vain, conceited coxcomb, who delighted in boasting of his conquests
over women, and what was often owing to his fortune, and station in
life, he imputed to his address, and the elegance of his manner, of
both which he was totally destitute. He even published Mrs. Manley's
dishonour, and from that time our sprightly poetess was considered, by
the sober part of the sex, quite abandoned to all shame.

When her affair with this superannuated knight was over, she soon
engaged in another intrigue, still more prejudicial to her character;