Her husband was a friend of Addison's, and a Whig; and she accompanied him on an embassy to Constantinople in 1716-17, where she wrote the excellent letters published after her death, and whence she imported the practice of inoculation in spite of much opposition.

A distinguished leader of society, she was also a woman of shrewd intellect and masculine character.

In 1739 she left her husband, though no quarrel preceded or followed the separation, and settled for many years in Italy.

Her letters are characteristic of the keen woman of the world, with an underlying vein of nobler feeling, perverted by harsh experience into a prevailing cynicism.

Pope had made her acquaintance before she left England.