The chain that has connected each of the characters whose history has been sketched in these pages, has yet a link added to them in the name of ‘Sidney's sister’—she who is familiar to every one through Jonson's famous epitaph—for the two first wives of the man she married, were Catherine Grey and Anne Talbot, daughter of George, Earl of Shrewsbury, and her son was united to the grand-daughter of Bess of Hardwick and the Earl.

Mary Sidney was the daughter of parents eminent for their private worth, patterns of domestic virtue, and distinguished for their example. Sir William Sidney, knight, her grandfather, was chamberlain and steward of the household to Henry VIII., and, both for valour and prudence, was remarkable in his time; gaining laurels at Flodden field, and being always highly honoured by his sovereign. Henry, his son, was brought up with, and was the chosen friend of, young Edward VI., who was snatched away too soon for the nation's hopes: he married Mary, eldest daughter of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, one of the victims of ambition so frequently offered up in those days on that fatal altar. The brothers of this amiable woman were the Earls of Warwick and Leicester, and her sister-in-law, that innocent martyr, Lady Jane Grey.