 As a young woman, Damaris Cudworth (as she then was) was able to escape ‘the learned dullness’ of Cambridge by visiting London where she frequented the more stimulating environment of the circle of Elizabeth Stillingfleet, whom she nicknamed ‘Urgunda’ in her letters. Elizabeth Stillingfeet was the second wife of Edward Stillingfleet, future Bishop of Worcester, who later engaged in controversy with Locke. It was probably here, that she met her husband, Sir Francis Masham, who was a relative of Elizabeth Stillingfleet.