ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the nature and practice of Talbot's exemplary sociability before discussing her work with Secker and assessing the different ways in which her life might be seen as a public concern. Talbot was an educated, well-informed, well-connected and articulate member of the Church of England. Her talents meant that she gradually adopted an increasing number of practical roles in the Secker household. Talbot and Secker had a profound respect and love for one another, and their interest in one another's spiritual welfare is an extremely important context for their joint efforts to put faith into practice. The institutional, devotional and personal strands identified by Nicky Hallett in her discussion of the life-writing of early modern nuns are useful for thinking about Talbot and Secker's personal and published papers. Damaris Masham, Occasional Thoughts in Reference to a Vertuous or Christian Life.
