Chapter III
1758, 1759--BEGINNING OF CORRESPONDENCE WITH MRS. CARTER, WITH DR. JOHNSON, AND WITH BURKE.
[Year: 1758] 1758 commences with a letter on March 2, from Mrs. Montagu to her husband, who had left London for Sandleford. In it she says--
“I shall enclose an Advertizer in which you will find a curious article from Warsaw. It astonished all Europe to find the King of Prussia had got copies of the plans of the Imperial Court and Dresden, the means by which he obtained them are now discover’d. To this contrivance his Prussian Majesty and his Country owe their present being, but one cannot envy the state of a King if it is necessary to take such means for preservation as would startle a vulgar man of Honour. To get false keys to cabinets is but a poor low trick, and it is very strange to see a hero guilty of burglary, but as Mr. Pope observes, ‘the story of the great is generally a tale that blends their glory with their shame.’ Mr. Stanhope call’d on me as I was writing, and I am to dine with my brother Morris, so must abridge my letter. I can’t hear what pass’d in the House of Lords yesterday in Delany’s trial.... I was at the Oratorio last night, where I heard the Dublin man-of-war was sent to Mr. Boscawen to supply the loss of the Invincible. I am to be at Lady Hillsborough’s assembly to-night.”
The Delany trial had lasted for nearly ten years. It was on account of Dr. Delany, in inadvertence, having burnt a paper of importance belonging to his first wife. Sometimes it appeared to be at an end, but it was as often renewed. At last, on March 5, Lord Mansfield,[180] after an hour and a half’s speech, decided in favour of Delany. The cost of the suit exceeded the disputed sum, but the relief to the good dean and his wife on its decision balanced everything.
[180] “Silver-tongued Murray.”
[Page heading: BISHOP CLAYTON]
On March 9 Mrs. Montagu writes--
“I met Mrs. Delany to-day at Mrs. Donnellan’s, and she is very happy, the Irish decree is reversed, tho’ even as matters stand, they will have little left when the £7000 is paid. Lady Frances Williams is still in grief for her husband,[181] who in his madness has writt (sic) letters to half the crowned heads in Europe. I am going to the play to-night, to-morrow I shall give up the Oratorio to stay with Lady Frances Williams as comforter.
“That bright luminary of the Church, Dr. Clayton, Bishop of Clogher, is dead.... The Bishop has left his wife his whole fortune, which is very considerable. It is thought we shall not send troops to the King of Prussia, but whether he will accept of our money[182] we shall not know till the return of the Express. The King of Pegu has wrote a letter to the King on a gold plate, and the stops are made with rubies; I should be glad of his correspondence tho’ his letters had no wit in them.”
[181] Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, poet and writer, had been attacked with madness.
[182] Another letter says the King of Prussia will not accept money.
[Page heading: EMIN ADDRESSES PITT]
Emin, anxious for re-employment, now addressed Mr. Pitt. The letter was addressed to Mr. Pitt, Secretary of State.
“SIR,
“Though I never had the honour to be known to you, yet I have the boldness to write. I have been over a great variety of the world, and have seen much people, but I wanted to see men; for the Design of my Travel was knowledge, and I thought knowledge of real men was better than books, therefore I have turned my Eyes upon all ways and at last had the great happyness of seeing and hearing you in that potent House of Commons, and there I discovered like the light breaking upon me, what my Friends had often told me, of your great love to your Country and your wise Eloquence that conquers more than the Sword of a Hero. I own I grew a little envious; for I thought no man loved his country better than I have mine, but I confess it that I am nothing, tho’ I have been sailor, porter, slave, and suffered everything in every shape, to make my country what you have made yours. This is my small merit and the only recommendation I can make to you. Sir, I will observe that a cloudy day in winter is light enough to see what is about us and to serve common business, but permitt me to say no man is happy nor in good spirit untill the sun shines out. Then there is joy upon all men’s faces. Thus it is, great Sir, with me in this country, I along with the rest in this happy land, find Benefit of the Light you give us all by your great wisdom of governing, but I am not happy, and my Life is dead untill I see the Vezirazam of England.
“If you do me this high Honour, you will see a poor soldier whose only Fortune is a character with all people which I have been amongst. I was a Porter for learning not for livlihood, and I was honest in that low way. This is known when by the goodness of great Souls I was raised from that. I was not idle nor ingreatefull; I have been high and low and I was not bad. When I served the last campaign in Germany, all the officers, both English and the German, will say more of me than I dare think of myself. I have, Sir, in my studies for my country, found the way to advance it, and do some service to your noble Nation at the same time. My humble plan for this good design I will do myself the Honour to show to you and be instructed by your great Wisdom and to give me new rights in this great matter. My scheme has two Qualities which make some laugh at me, others seem to like me for it. Whatever it is, it is little without your assistance. If you approve of it, I laugh at those that laugh at me, at any rate I am resolved and nothing shall stop me but Death, which is common to everybody, and an honest Heart need not fear any. I am, with the greatest Respect and Veneration,
“Great Sir, “Your most obedient most obliged devoted humble Servant, “J. EMIN.
“In the Month of March, 1758, “To the R. H. William Pitt, etc., etc.”
In her next letter to her husband Mrs. Montagu says--
“Emin dines with Lady Medows to-day, if joy can give appetite, he will make a good meal, for by the solicitation of Lady Yarmouth,[183] Mr. Pitt has received him, and promised to see what can be done for him, as great minds are akin. Mr. Pitt was much pleased with him. Emin repeated to me his discourse to Mr. Pitt, and it was full of Asiatick fire and figure--if it did not touch the man, it must the Orator. Mr. Pitt made him great compliments. I hope they will be realized, and they surely will if Lady Yarmouth continues her desire to serve him.”
[183] Amelia S. de Walmoden, created 1740, Baroness Yarmouth, mistress of George II.
[Page heading: EMIN JOINS MARLBOROUGH]
Emin was sent to join the English army under the Duke of Marlborough in their attempted invasion of France at St. Malo, and wrote on June 11 to say that “Captain Howe had burnt 73 ships and from 10 to 16 guns, besides small vessels.” After this expedition, Emin joined the army with the King of Prussia.
[Page heading: AFFAIRS IN PARLIAMENT]
Writing to Dr. Stillingfleet on June 13, after alluding to the attack on St. Malo, Mrs. Montagu says--
“So much for war and war’s alarms; as to our civil occurences, they have been so boisterously carried I need not change the tone of my narrative; the Judges, the Lord Keeper, the Chief Justice, and the late Lord Chancellor gave their opinions against the Habeas Corpus bill.[184] Lord Temple, much in wrath, insulted the Judges in some of his questions; Lord Lyttelton warmly and sharply reproved him upon which words rose high, the House of Lords interfered. The last day of this bill, Lord Mansfield and Lord Hardwicke[185] spoke so full to the matter, even Tory Lords, and these most violent in their wishes for it, declared they were convinced the new bill was dangerous to liberty in many respects, in many absurd; so that had there been a division there would not have been four votes for it, but Mr. Pitt’s Party discreetly avoided a division. This affair has not set the legislative wisdom of the House of Commons in a very high light, but the great Mr. Beckford,[186] whom no argument can convince, no defeat make ashamed, nor mistake make diffident, did on the motion for a vote of credit stand up in the House of Commons and say he would not oppose that measure, as he had an opinion of the two Commoners in the administration, but in the Peers that composed it, he had no confidence, and ran in foul abuse of them and then ended with a severe censure of the House of Lords in general. Lord Royston[187] answered him that this was unparliamentary where personal, and indecent in regard to the House of Peers in general, to which Mr. Pitt answered with great heat that he was sorry to hear such language from a gentleman who was to be a Peer; he set forth the great importance and dignity of Mr. Beckford personally, and above all the dignity and importance of an alderman, concluding it was a title he should be more proud of than that of a Peer. This speech has enraged the Lords, offended the Commons, and the City ungratefully say was too gross. Those who wish well to this country, and consequently to a union of parties at this juncture, are sorry for these heats; it is well if they do not unsolder the Union.... I began Islington Waters to-day.... You make a false judgment of your own letters. I will allow you to say it gives you some trouble to write them, but pray do not assert that I have not great pleasure in reading them; it becomes not a descendant of the great Bishop Stillingfleet[188] to tell a fib.”
[184] This was occasioned by a gentleman having been impressed for service in the Navy and illegally detained prisoner. The motion was to administer the Act more decisively.
[185] Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, born 1690, died 1764.
[186] Alderman Beckford, a remarkable city man and father of the great millionaire and author.
[187] Son of the Earl of Hardwicke, eventually 2nd Earl.
[188] Edward Stillingfleet, Bishop of Worcester, author of “Eirenicon,” born 1635, died 1699.
[Page heading: JOHN ROGERS]
[Page heading: ROGERS’ WILL]
Mention has been made of Mr. John Rogers, first cousin on his mother’s side to Mr. Montagu, also of Mr. Montagu becoming his trustee in 1746, when he was pronounced a lunatic. At first it seems that he suffered from epileptic fits, which increased to lunacy, but of a mild order. On June 23 Mr. Edward Steuart wrote to say Mr. Rogers was seriously ill, and his death expected hourly; he was being attended by Dr. Askew, then a famous north-country doctor, and several surgeons, for a mortification in his leg.[189] On the 24th he expired, in his seventy-fourth year, at his house in Pilgrim Street, Newcastle-on-Tyne. Mr. Montagu was his principal heir. Mrs. Montagu, in a letter respecting the estate of East Denton, etc., wrote in later days, “Mr. M. has half the estate by descent, a share by testamentary disposition, and a part by purchase.” Mr. Rogers’ lunacy seems to have been made worse by the death of his wife, Anne Delaval, daughter of Sir John Delaval, whom he married in 1713, and who died in 1722–23. His will was made in 1711, and a codicil added 1715, in which he left his property, after the death of his mother, Mrs. Elizabeth Rogers, to his wife, and failing issue by her, to the Montagus and Creaghs, all first cousins. Mary Creagh had married Dominick Archdeacon, and her sister Margaret, Anthony Isaacson; Mr. Montagu’s two brothers, Crewe and John, being dead, the only other heir was Jemima, Mrs. Medows, afterwards Lady Medows. The estates were very large; besides Denton, with its coal-mines, houses in Newcastle, and in Bramston, Lamesley, Harburn, Parkhead, and Jarrow, in the county of Durham; lands at Hindley, Sugley, Throckley, Newbiggin, Scotswood, etc., etc.; collieries and saltpans in Cullercoats, Monkseaton, Whitley, and Hartley, etc., etc. Mrs. Montagu was at Ealing with the Bothams when the express came. She writes to her husband, “It gives me pleasure to think I shall see you with unblemished integrity and unsoiled with unjust gain, enjoying that affluence many purchase with the loss of honesty and honour.”
[189] Mr. Rogers’ leg swelling, the doctors feared dropsy, and made him drink two bottles of Hock daily.
Her brother Morris fetched her from Ealing in order to accompany her husband to the north. Mr. Rogers was embalmed and buried on July 5 at St. Nicholas’ church in Newcastle. The Montagus did not start for the North till Tuesday, August 1. A letter from Dr. Monsey of June 26, while staying with the Garricks at Hampton, congratulates Mrs. Montagu on her inheritance, but scolds her for leaving her friends to go North. This contains the first mention of his acquaintance with the Garricks, who were great friends of Dr. Monsey’s, and he says, “Mr. Garrick[190] was very near in a apoplectic fit when he found you were gone.... Mrs. Garrick[191] also abus’d herself for not pressing you to return to the Temple[192] and enjoy another half-hour.”
[190] David Garrick, born 1716, died 1779; famous actor.
[191] Eva Marie Veilchen, or Viegel, known as “la Violette,” once an opera danseuse.
[192] The temple at Hampton, on the lawn by the river, still existent; once held Roubilliac’s bust of Shakespeare.
[Page heading: ELIZABETH CARTER]
[Page heading: MRS. MONTAGU’S LETTER]
The next letter is the first I possess to Elizabeth Carter, whose learned translation of Epictetus was first printed in April of 1758. Miss Carter, or Mrs. Carter (as courtesy termed her), was the daughter of a clergyman, the Rev. Nicholas Carter, D.D., Perpetual Curate of Deal, Kent, where he resided; he had been twice married, and Elizabeth was his child by his first marriage. To his children by both marriages Mr. Carter gave an excellent education, and at an early age Elizabeth studied Latin, Greek, and eventually Hebrew. She was a proficient in French, and taught herself Italian, Spanish, and German; later in life Portuguese and Arabic were added. Her application to study produced severe headaches, principally brought on by drinking green tea and taking snuff to keep herself awake. It appears that Mrs. Montagu had met her in 1757, but Mrs. Carter had rather avoided such a brilliant acquaintance, being herself of a most humble and unambitious character, despite her learning. From the following portions of Mrs. Montagu’s letter we learn that Miss Carter had been paying her a visit:--
“Hill Street, July 6, 1758.
“What must my dear Miss Carter think of the signs of brutal insensibility which I have given in not answering her obliging letter? As my heart has had no share in the omission, I have no apologies to make for it; no day has passed since you left us in which I have not thought of you with esteem and affection; I look upon my introduction to your acquaintance as one of the luckiest incidents of my life, if I can contrive to improve it into friendship; this is, and has been the state of my mind and I am proud of it: as to my conduct in the commencement of our correspondence, I am ashamed of it. I was ill when I received your polite and agreeable letter. I have ever since been drinking Islington waters, from which I receive some benefit, but with this inconvenience, that I am unable to write till late at night, and even then not without headache. The death of a relation of Mr. Montagu’s in the North, which happened about a fortnight ago, with a large accession of fortune, has brought me the usual accompaniment of riches, a great deal of business, a great deal of hurry, and a great many ceremonious engagements. The ordering funeral ceremonies, putting a large family in mourning, preparing for a journey of 280 miles, and receiving and paying visits on this event, has made me the most busy miserable creature in the world. As the gentleman from whom Mr. Montagu inherits had been mad above 40 years and almost bed-ridden the last ten, I had always designed to be rather pleased and happy when he resigned his unhappy being and his good estate. I thought in fortune’s as in folly’s cup, still laughed the bubble joy; but though this is a bumper, there is not a drop of joy in it, nor so much as the froth of a little merriment. As soon as I rise in the morning, my housekeeper with a face full of care, comes to know what must be packed up for Newcastle; to her succeeds the Butler, who wants to know what wine, etc., is to be sent down; to them succeed men of business and money transactions; then the post brings twenty letters, which must be considered and some answered. In about a week we shall set out for the North, where I am to pass about three months in the delectable conversation of Stewards and managers of coal mines, and this by courtesy is called good fortune, and I am congratulated upon it by every one I meet; while in truth, like a poor Harlequin in the play, I am acting a silly part dans l’embarras des richesses. I would not have troubled you with this detail, but as part of my defence for not having written to you. I can perfectly understand why you were afraid of me last year, and I will tell you, for you won’t tell me; perhaps you have not told yourself. You had heard I set up as a wit, and people of real merit and sense hate to converse with witlings, as rich merchant-ships dread to engage privateers, they may receive damage and can get nothing but dry blows. I am happy you have found out I am not to be feared; I am afraid I must improve myself much before you will find I am to be loved. If you will give affection for affection tout simple I shall get it from you....”
Mention is made of Emin’s joining the King of Prussia, so he was known to Mrs. Carter, probably through Lord Lyttelton.
“I have the pleasure of hearing infinite commendations of Epictetus every day; from such as are worthy I taste a particular pleasure; from the multitude I take it in the gross, as it makes the sum of universal fame. Some praises I heard a few days ago at the Bishop of London’s I put in the first class.”
[Page heading: LORD LYTTELTON TO DR. MONSEY]
A most amusing letter from Lord Lyttelton to Dr. Monsey of July 24 now occurs, in which he returns a letter of Mrs. Montagu’s to the doctor, and summons him to a duel of words in her praise on Hagley turf. He teases Dr. Monsey with the idea of her going north, and advises him “to quit Lord Godolphin to follow love, follow him over the Cheviot Hills and down to the coal-pits at Newcastle.” After a great deal of chaff it ends, “Your most affectionate, humble Servant,--LYTTELTON.”
[Page heading: MRS. MONTAGU’S SYMPTOMS]
This frightened Monsey, so on July 30 he writes from St. James’s and gives her strings of advice as to her health.
“I know the generality of Physicians will be cautious of blooding you, as being what is called nervous; I know nothing of nerves in the usual sense of the word, if indeed it has any precise meaning at all, it is used by the wise to quiet fools, and by fools to cover ignorance.” Then he adds in high fever she may be blooded, “5, 6 or 7 ounces, and if you flag a blister! will set matters to right. I say nothing of vomits, you can’t bear ’em, but you will gentle purging, your lemon mixture and contrayserva with a little saffron, be cautious of hot medicines, but do not wholly throw them away, as to spasms and cramps they are such Proteuses, one does not know how to catch or hold them, Valerian and Castor are in such reputation for vanquishing those Hussars.... Assafœtida you can’t bear, I wish you cou’d ... if feverish 3 spoonfuls of a decoction of the bark by boyling one ounce and half in a quart of water to a pint, and if your stomach flags put in from 5 to 10 drops of Elixir of Vitriol, so arm’d a common cold will not have courage to attack you.”
Finally he consigns her to a Dr. Ramsay’s care, should she require a physician!
On August 1 Mrs. Boscawen wrote from Hatchlands a long letter describing a visit to London. Her letters are sprightly, but too much larded with French words and phrases; the end is interesting--
“Enfin we left this dear odious London at 4 in the afternoon, chemin faisant I thought within myself, what if I should meet an express from America, and sure enough upon Cobham Common I met a post-chaise containing an officer, on him I star’d attentively, he star’d again; then he cry’d ‘Stop,’ I echoed ‘Stop,’ enfin I heard him ask ‘is Admiral Boscawen’s[193] lady in that coach?’ I make quick reply in the affirmative, and soon he produced himself at my coach window, and told me he was express sent by the Governor of Nova Scotia with news of our troops having taken the Forts of Beau Sejour and Chignecto, that he attended Admiral Boscawen for his orders twenty-three days ago, and left him in perfect health; he added that Admiral Boscawen had saved North America, where all our Colonies were in the utmost danger, as well as consternation till he came. Papers having been found which showed the French had a design to destroy Halifax, where the people imagin’d the French wou’d let in the Indians to massacre them.... He added, ‘Mr. Boscawen had taken, or as the phrase there is detain’d, six French merchant ships, and had blocaded Louisbourg.’”
She adds that her letters from her husband were with Mr. Cunninghame (the Officer), addressed to Mr. Cleveland, so she let them go, and sent on her black servant “Tom” next day to fetch them, and was going to Portsmouth to meet the Admiral, who thought he should soon be back.
[193] Admiral Boscawen, Major-General Amherst, and Brigadier-General Wolfe were combined in this campaign.
[Page heading: ON THE WAY NORTHWARDS]
To return to the Montagus, they set out on August 1 for the North, and the first letter is from her to Lord Lyttelton on August 6, from Darlington--
“I am now about 25 miles short of Newcastle, having travelled above 250 miles since last Tuesday, and am better to-night than I was when I left London, so I will no longer endure that Dr. Monsey shall call me flimsy animal, puny insect, and such opprobrious names. I have had a surfeit of being in a post-chaise, that I have not made many excursions to see the fine places that lay in the road. In my way to Nottingham I went to see Sir Robert Clifton’s,[194] which appears to me for beauty of prospect equal to any place I ever saw. You are led to it from the turnpike road by a fine terrace on the side of the Trent. From a pavillion in the garden you see the town and Castle of Nottingham standing in the most smiling valley imaginable, in which the Trent serpentizes in a most beautiful manner.... I return your Lordship many thanks for having lent me so agreeable a companion as Antonio de Solis.”[195]
[194] Clifton Hall.
[195] “The History of the Conquest of Mexico,” by Antonio de Solis, a Spaniard; born 1610, died 1686.
[Page heading: MARY WEST]
To this Lord Lyttelton writes from Hagley on August 17, to say how glad he is she bore the journey so well, and the book entertained her. He had been drinking the waters at Sunning Hill, Berks, and found benefit. In the end of a long letter he writes, “Miss West and Captain[196] Hood will be as happy next Monday as mutual love can make them.” Miss West was Gilbert West’s sister, and her future husband, Captain Hood, became afterwards first Viscount Bridport. Mary West lived till 1786, but had no children. Lord Lyttelton alludes to her not being very young and “having no time to lose.”
[196] He became the celebrated Admiral Hood.
In another letter of August 22, written from Lindridge Vicarage, Worcestershire, where the Vicar, Mr. Meadowcourt, was a great friend of his Lordship’s, he writes--
“Tom and I came this afternoon to this sweet abode on our way to Hampton Court.... I told you in my last that Miss West was to be married to Captain Hood. Yesterday I had the pleasure to give her away to him at Hagley Church, after which we made a party to Mr. Shenstone’s[197] Arcadian Farm in very fine weather. The pastoral scene seemed to suit the occasion, and the bride owned to me that the cascades and rills never murmured so sweetly before.... The Dean[198] came to Hagley just time enough to give Hood and her the Nuptial Benediction.”
[197] William Shenstone, poet, born 1714, died 1763. His place, the “Leasowes,” adjoined Hagley.
[198] Charles Lyttelton, Dean of Exeter.
Further on, alluding to Mr. Montagu’s going north to take possession of the Rogers’ estate, he says--
“I suppose this will find you, like Guyon in Mammon’s Cave, got down the bottom of your mines,[199] and beholding your treasures with all the indifference that the Knight of temperance showed when the Demon of Riches revealed to him his hidden wealth. I paint to myself the wonder and admiration of the subterraneous inhabitants when you first came among them. Since the time that Proserpina was carried by her husband to his Stygian Empire, the infernal regions have not seen such a charming goddess. But is it sure they will let you return again to daylight? Upon my word I am afraid you are in some danger, as the Habeas Corpus Bill was thrown out; for all the women of the upper world will make interest with the Judges to let you stay there. Yet I verily think Baron Smith will release you in spite of them all, and even if he should fail, you have still a resource, Emin shall come back and deliver you from the Shades as Hercules did Alcestis.”
[199] Denton was, and is, full of coal-mines, copper, etc.
[Page heading: ARRIVAL AT CARVILLE]
[Page heading: “HURRYS AND CEREMONIES”]
The best description of the Montagus’ arrival in the north is contained in a letter to Dr. Stillingfleet at “Robert Price’s, Esqre., Herefordshire,” sent open to Dr. Monsey, who forwards it with a few words of his own. It is dated, “Carville, ye 22nd day of August.” Carville Hall had been hired by them; it was situated at the end of the Roman Wall, called Wallsend. Portions of the letter I give--
“I desired Dr. Monsey to acquaint you with the death of Mr. Rogers. Many letters were to be written in order to procure him most pompous funeral obsequies, according to the fashion of Northumberland, as he was allied to the people of the first rank in the county, and they were all to be at the funeral.... The 7th of August at noon we got to Durham, and there began hurrys and ceremonies that have continued to this day, and I know not when I shall see a quiet hour. At Durham we were met by a great number of Mr. Rogers’ relations, and the Receivers and Agents of his estate, who attended in great form till we got to Newcastle, where we were to stay two or three days, with a relation of Mr. Montagu’s till our house was aired. We had not been an hour at Newcastle before we had the compliments of the principal persons of the Corporation and in the town. The next morning visits began.... We had fifteen people to dine here on Sunday, a family yesterday, people about business to-day, and three families to dine here to-morrow; in the morning I am up to the elbows in dusty parchments and accounts, after dinner as busy as an hostess of an Inn attending her guests, at night as sick as an invalid in Hospital, and these are the woes of wealth, and I am not une malade imaginaire.... Mr. Rogers’ family Mansion[200] having been uninhabited many years, was not fit for our reception, his house[201] in Newcastle was not agreeably situated for the summer, so we hired a house on the banks of the Tyne for the occasion. It is a very pretty house, extreamly well furnished and most agreeably situated, ships and other vessels from Newcastle are sailing by every hour. The river here is broad and of a good colour, and we have a fine reach of it: we have a very good turnpike road to the sea-side, where I should pass a great deal of my time if it was not all engross’d by company, but we are in the midst of the largest neighbourhood I ever saw, and some of these gentlemen by means of coal mines have immense fortunes.”
[200] Denton Hall.
[201] In Pilgrim Street.
[Page heading: NEWCASTLE]
In a letter to her sister, Mrs. Scott, Newcastle is described.
“The town of Newcastle is horrible, like the ways of thrift it is narrow, dark and dirty, some of the streets so steep one is forced to put a dragchain on the wheels: the night I came I thought I was going to the center. The streets are some of them so narrow, that if the tallow chandler ostentatiously hangs forth his candles, you have a chance to sweep them into your lap as you drive by, and I do not know how it has happened that I have not yet caught a coach full of red herrings, for we scrape the Citty wall on which they hang in great abundance. There are some wide streets and good houses. Sir Walter Blackett’s seems a noble habitation.”
Mention is made of the Claverings, Bowes, and Lord Ravensworth calling.
In a letter of August 25 to Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Montagu tells her, that en route to Newcastle, she had visited “Althorpe, the seat of Mr. Spencer, worthy of regard only on account of a very fine collection of pictures. The park is planted in a dull uniformity, the ground flatt (sic), little prospect, has not the advantage of a river or lake.” After repeating the details of her journey, she adds that Denton Hall
“had not been inhabited for 30 years, the poor gentleman having long been a lunatick, so I imagined the rats and ghosts[202] were in such full possession, it would require time to eject them, and I am now placed as I could wish, being within 4 miles of Tinmouth.... We have a very good land as well as water prospect. We see from our windows the place where once lived the Venerable Bede,[203] some little ruins show still, I believe, where the Monastery stood: the place is called Jarrow, the estate belong’d to Sir Thomas Clavering and the late Mr. Rogers. I shall visit it more from respect to the old Historian than curiosity to see a new possession.”
[202] Did she know? It is supposed to be haunted to this day.
[203] The monk Beda, or Bede, born 672, died 735.
[Page heading: ITS NEIGHBOURHOOD]
On August 27 Mrs. S. Montagu wrote to young Tom Lyttelton a long letter describing the country round Newcastle.
“After dinner I ferried over the river Wear to Sunderland, a good sea-port town. They are making a new pier there, which is done at the expense of the coal-owners, who have mines near the Wear. I got a very pleasant walk on the sea-shore; several ships were sailing out of the harbour fraught only with the comforts and conveniences of life, they carry out coal and salt and bring home money. I question whether those who carry out death and bring home glory are concerned in so good merchandize, though they account their occupation more honourable. On Thursday I went to see Lumley Castle; it is a noble habitation, but so modernized by sash windows and other fashionable ornaments, I admired it only as a good house. There are many family pictures in the Hall, a succession of 16 Lumleys, all martially accoutred, the Lumley arms on their shields, their figure and attitudes make them look like scaramouches. They hang so high I could not read the inscriptions, but I imagine it is intended one should suppose each picture was taken from life; but from the dress and character, I am sure they have been done by one hand from the genealogical tree. There are many old pictures in the house, and many fair testimonies of the ancient nobility of the family, but I cannot pass them sixteen[204] generations. There are large plantations of firs at Lumley Castle, a large park behind the Castle, to the front a good prospect, and the river Wear at a due distance.”
[204] She was wrong; the Lumleys descend from Liulph, a Norman nobleman of merit in 1060.
Mrs. Montagu was connected with the Lumleys, her cousin, Mrs. Laurence Sterne, being the daughter of the Rev. Robert Lumley, of Lumley Castle. At the end of the letter she complains of the tediousness of the post--three weeks before she had any letters from her friends!
[Page heading: THE CAPTURE OF LOUISBURG]
This accounts for the news of the taking of Louisburg on July 27, under Admiral Boscawen, General Amherst, and Wolfe, not having reached her when she wrote, as Lord Lyttelton wrote to congratulate her on August 22, “upon the glorious success of Admiral Boscawen. I wrote last post to his lady, whom I love for a thousand good qualities in herself and because she loves you. Had her husband commanded in the Mediterranean, and Amherst or Wolfe at Fort St. Philips, we had not lost Minorca.”
[Page heading: TOM LYTTELTON]
In another letter of August 31, Lord Lyttelton having had a pleasant tour to Lady Coningsby’s,[205] where he met Sir Sidney Smith, and to Lord Oxford’s,[206] Brampton Brian,[207]--
“I carried Tom with me through the whole tour, and a more delightful fellow traveller I never can have, unless his Mother was raised from the dead or Heaven would give me another Lucy! Wherever we went he won all hearts, and you may believe mine beat with joy at the sight of his conquests, my only fear is that hereafter he may please the ladies too well. You must instruct him, Madonna, as Minerva did Telemachus to avoid the dangers of the Calypsos he may meet with in his travels, and let him learn by admiring you that no charms are truly amiable, but those that are under the government of wisdom and virtue.”
[205] Hampton Court, Herefordshire, built by Henry IV.
[206] Edward Harley, 24th Earl of Oxford.
[207] In Herefordshire.
Tom was fifteen at this time, having been born January 30, 1743–4. His father’s fears as to his attractions for the fair sex were prophetic.
Tom writes to Mrs. Montagu on September 9, giving her an account of his travels. Here is a description of Hampton Court, Herefordshire, the seat of Lady Coningsby--
“The house stands at the end of a line of regular planted trees, and looks more like a Monastery than a nobleman’s house. The garden is very large, and would have been pretty enough if Nature had been left in it unmolested. In the middle of it is a piece of water of about an acre, cut into two square lines, in which, to the astonishment of the beholder, you see Neptune upon his throne, and twenty Tritons waiting behind him. The carver has express’d great fierceness in his countenance, and well may the god who shakes the earth with his Trident, be angry at being confined in a Pool, which would scarce hold two hundred fish. From the garden one might see a noble lawn bounded with an amphitheatre of wood, was it not for the high Yew Hedges clipt into a thousand ridiculous shapes which hinder the eye from passing them, the park, too, is very large, but so overrun with Bushes that some of the Lawns resemble bogs.... From my Lady Coningsby’s we went to my Lord Oxford’s, a place where nature has done a great deal, which by a little money judiciously laid out may be made the prettiest ferme ornée in England. My Lord’s House is a very good one, built in a remarkable good taste for the times of Queen Anne.”
Lord Lyttelton, as usual, adds a few words at the end of the letter, and congratulates Mrs. Montagu on the King of Prussia’s “most glorious success, but I am in pain till I hear what has become of Emin.”
Dr. Monsey writes from Claremont on September 6--
“DEAR MADAM,
“I should be asham’d of myself to be in the house of a Prime Minister, and not let you know the King sent a long letter from the King of Prussia hither this evening, giving a long detail of his last victory[208] over the Russians, but it being in French and the Duke of N(ewcastle) not being the best reader, I am unable to give you an account, though my Lord G(odolphin) heard it as well as I, and wou’d have interpreted for me, if he cou’d. However there is an English account too of which I will give you some particulars. Eighteen thousand killed by their own account, 6 generals killed, I don’t remember how many wounded, 7 Generals prisoners in the King’s Camp, 73 pieces of cannon taken, the military chest with 850,000 Rubles. General Brown killed, refusing quarter. The Russian infantry as they had behaved like Bears, fought like Lyons, part of Count Dohna’s foot gave way, or else it had been a most compleat victory. The King himself took the colours in his hand and brought ’em on again, sure this is too bold for anybody but an immortal and invulnerable. He had two aide-de-camps killed.”
[208] Battle of Zorndorff, fought August 25.
Monsey picked up the cover to the letter, addressed--
“A Monsieur mon frère, “Le Roy de grande Bretagne.”
This he intended to send Mrs. Montagu, but the Duke asked for it. It was sealed with two large seals, the arms and royal Crown under a camp canopy in black wax.
[Page heading: EMIN DISCONSOLATE]
[Page heading: THE KING OF PRUSSIA]
On September 9 Emin wrote a long letter from the Duke of Marlborough’s Quarter in Germany, whither he had retired disconsolate at not being allowed to fight in the battle by General Yorke, Lady Anson’s brother, to whom he had been recommended by her. Meanwhile he had marched four days with the Army, and the King of Prussia had taken notice of him, staring at him hard and saying to Mr. Mitchell he wished he had 12,000 men like him. Emin wished he had a letter to the King, and was furious at General Yorke’s forbidding him to fight; probably the General was too anxious for his safety. The following description of the King of Prussia is so interesting I insert it, the whole letter to Mrs. Montagu, a folio sheet closely written, being too long:--
“I will do my endeavour to describe the King of Prussia’s person, and his way of living. He is no taller than Emin the Persian, he has a short neck, he has one of the finest made heads ever I saw in my life, with a noble forehead; he wears a false wigg, he has very handsome nose. His eyes are grey, sharp and lively, ready to pearce one through and through. He likes a man that looks him in the face when he is talking to him. He is well made everywhere, with a bend back, not stupid (sic, stooped?) at all, like many Europeans. His voice is the sweetest and clearest ever I heard. He takes a great quantity of Spanish snuff, from his nose down to the buckles of his shoes or boots is all painted with that confounded stuff. His hands are as red as paint, as if he was a painter, grizy all over. He dines commonly between twelve and one, and drinks a bottle of wine at his dinner. I was told that he was very unhealthy in the time of peace, but since this war he has grown healthy, and left off drinking a great quantity of coffee, which he did formerly. All the satisfaction that I have, which is great enough that I have seen Cæsar alive, nay twenty times greater, he is more like King Solomon, for he rules his nation by wisdom and understanding.... His armies are not only disciplined to the use of arms, but very religious, and say their prayers three times a day: it is never neglected, even when they are on the march.”
Emin winds up with a message of apology to Mr. Burke at not having written to him from want of time.
[Page heading: A STRUGGLE FOR LIFE]
Meanwhile his adored Mrs. Montagu had nearly lost her life through the carelessness of a maid. It happened on September 3. Writing to Sarah Scott, she gives this description--
“On this day sennight at 4 in the morn I was seized with a fainting fit, in which I lay some time, my maids in their fright let the eau de luce fall into my eye, nostril and mouth, my eyes were enflamed and nostril, the mouth and uvula of the throat excoriated. After a long and cruel struggle for life,[209] a most sharp contention with this medicine, I awaken’d to find myself in this terrible condition. Dr. Askew unhappily lay at Durham that night, so had no assistance till 2 at noon, then I was blooded, which abated the inflammation so far I could articulate. The Doctor told me my safety depended on frequent gargling and drinking, so for, four days, I was never a quarter of an hour without doing so, the spitting was more violent than from a mercurial salivation.... When I came out of my fit, to see blood running from eye, nose and mouth drove Mr. Montagu almost distracted, and I knew not which way my agonies would end.... Mr. Montagu has shown on this occasion the most passionate love imaginable. Dr. Askew has been very careful, and an excellent apothecary has watched me night and day.”
[209] For two days her life was despaired of; for four days she could swallow no solid, and was salivated for a week.
In a second letter she says, “On the fourth day when I was able to look up I was surprized at the impression concern had made on Mr. Montagu, and I should hardly have known him, he looked 20 years older at least.”
In a letter of Monsey’s we learn eau de luce was made of strong sal ammoniac and quicklime.
[Page heading: LADY BURLINGTON]
Mr. Montagu’s sister, now Lady Medows, wrote on September 14 to say her brother-in-law, Sir Philip, had been nearly killed in the same way by hartshorn. At the end of the letter she says, “Lady Bath dyed at two this morning of the Palsy.” This was the wife of Pulteney, Earl of Bath, soon after this to become one of Mrs. Montagu’s most intimate friends. Lady Bath’s maiden name was Maria Gumley, daughter and heiress of a great glass manufacturer. She had the character of great penuriousness, and her husband was credited with the same character, but I hope to show later that he could be very generous. When the news of Mrs. Montagu’s accident spread amongst her numerous friends, many were the letters of condolence and rejoicing at her safety from Lord Lyttelton and a host of others. Dr. Monsey had been staying with the Garricks; he was a great admirer of Mrs. Garrick, whom he often quotes in his letters. It was whilst staying with them he heard of it. Both he and Lord Lyttelton were quite frantic at the risk she had run, and distressed at her fainting fit. Monsey was suffering from a bad cough, for which, when staying with Sir John Evelyn at Wooton, he tried bleeding, cathartics, and syrup of white poppies. He returned to St. James’s, where Mrs. Garrick came to sit with him, and cheer him up. In a letter of his to Mrs. Montagu of September 23, mention is made of Lady Burlington’s death. “Lady Burlington is dead. Mrs. G(arrick) gets nothing, but rid of her, and that’s a great deal, I think. She gives the Duke of D. £3000 per annum ... not a farthing to any one servant, she had some lived with her 20 or 25 years.”
[Page heading: MRS. GARRICK]
Lady Burlington, widow of the 3rd Earl, the celebrated amateur architect, was the daughter of William, Marquis of Halifax. On Eva Marie Viegel’s[210] arrival in England from Austria, the Empress Queen, Maria Theresa, gave her a recommendation to Lady Burlington, who received her at Burlington House as an inmate. It is said “La Violette,” as she was called from her exquisite dancing in the operas, had attracted the Emperor of Austria’s attention so much as to alarm the Empress, and that she therefore sought to remove her from Austria. Lady Burlington strongly objected to Garrick’s attachment to La Violette, having more ambitious projects for her protégée, but it was a true love affair from the beginning even to the end, and not one word could ever be said against Mrs. Garrick; theirs was indeed a love match, and after fifteen years of married life Garrick presented her with a ring on her birthday, with the most touching love verses. From the letters, I gather it was Dr. Monsey who brought Mrs. Montagu into personal intercourse with the Garricks.
[210] Eva Maria Viegel, or Veilchen, born at Vienna, 1725; married David Garrick on June 22, 1749.
Dr. Monsey was so disturbed at Mrs. Montagu’s accident that he wrote almost daily to her, and no one who reads his letters could imagine, however eccentric he was, that he was a free thinker in religion, as is asserted in the “Dictionary of National Biography.” His letters are so long that it is impossible to print them in full in this book. He had a bad cough and a sort of vertigo at this time, in the midst of which he was called to the Earl of Northumberland, who was desperately ill, whose sufferings Monsey succeeded in alleviating. In a letter of October 8 we learn that his birthday and Mrs. Montagu’s were on the same day, viz. October 2.[211] He promises in joke to marry Mrs. Stuart, a widow lady who had nursed Mrs. Montagu with the greatest attention. To add to Mrs. Montagu’s troubles, her faithful housekeeper, Mrs. Crosby, a lady by birth, but reduced to poverty, died of a quinsy in twelve days.
[211] Monsey, in a letter, said he was sixty-four then.
In a letter of Dr. Monsey’s of October 27, mention is made of Lord Godolphin drinking “absent friends” as a toast, coupled with special mention of Mrs. Montagu, and also of Allan Ramsay,[212] the artist. “Ramsay is one of us, he was born on October 2. I jumped for joy, but hang it, ’tis the old October. I tell him he must be regenerated, become a child of grace, and then he shall be adopted into our family....” Dr. Monsey’s little grand-daughter “loves Missy Montagu dearly.”
[212] Eminent portrait painter; son of the Scotch poet of the same name; born 1709, died 1784.
A letter of Atkinson, the farm bailiff at Sandleford, on October 3, to Mrs. Crosby, the late housekeeper, shows the current price of food: “Everything continues dear for ye pour, and will do so all this winter, I am afraid, befe is sold in our market for 3_d._ for a pd. Muton 4_d._ to 4½_d._, it is beyond prise wich I never heard before at this time of ye year, pork and veal 5_d._ a pound.”
[Page heading: MRS. SHERLOCK]
[Page heading: GEORGINA POYNTZ]
Mrs. Donnellan wrote from Fulham on October 21 condoling with Mrs. Montagu on her accident, and the loss of Mrs. Crosby. She says--
“I told you how near we were losing our respectable friend Mrs. Sherlock, she is now quite recovered ... they say there never was a more moving scene than between her and the Bishop,[213] who would be carried up to her in the worst of her illness; he got hold of her hand and it was with difficulty they could get him to let it go and separate them.” (Bishop Sherlock was born in 1678, so was then eighty years of age.) “I went yesterday pour égayer a little to see Mrs. Spencer[214] after her lying in, and there is nothing but joy and magnificence; the child[215] is likely to live tho’ it came, they reckon, six weeks before its time. Mrs. Poinne showed me all the fineries; the pap boat is pure gold, etc., etc. I like Mrs. Spencer, she is a natural good young woman, no airs, no affectation, but seems to enjoy her great fortune by making others partakers, and happy with herself.”
This was Georgina, née Poyntz, who had married Mr. John Spencer, afterwards 1st Earl Spencer, by whom she had Georgiana, afterwards the beautiful Duchess of Devonshire; George John,[216] who was born on September 1, 1758, was the owner of the gold pap boat. and Lady Besborough. Mrs. Donnellan adds--
“Mrs. Poinne (Poyntz) has the practical moral virtues, and when I see her good works I think she is worth a hundred such poor spectators as I am; her present business is attending the foundling Hospital, and she has six and twenty children nursing under her care.... The Duchess of Portland and her family are at Bath.”
[213] Thomas Sherlock, then Bishop of London.
[214] Née Georgina, daughter of Stephen Poyntz, of Midgham, Berks.
[215] Became Earl Spencer, born September, 1758.
[216] Became 2nd Earl Spencer in 1783.
The next letter is from Lord Lyttelton on October 10, full of anxiety as to Mrs. Montagu’s health, and urging her to return South as soon as possible. In this he says--
“You inquire about my new house,[217] and my History,[218] both are going on but the first much faster and better than the other. When the History will be finished I cannot tell, and when it is, I fear it will be little better than a gothick house modernised. The Goths will think it too Græcian and the Græcians too Gothic.” He winds up with, “Adieu, best Madonna, take great care of yourself, your late danger has shown you how dear you are to your friends. Don’t try their affection that way any more.”
[217] He was rebuilding Hagley.
[218] His “History of Henry II.”
[Page heading: CARVILLE]
Writing on October 20 to Dr. Stillingfleet, who was exploring Wales with Charles Lyttelton, the Dean of Exeter and brother of Lord Lyttelton, Mrs. Montagu says--
“Carville[219] is just at the end of the Picts’ Wall, it makes part of our enclosures, and we have a Roman Altar in the stables. The din of War has so frightened the rural Deities that even the long time that has passed since the Union with Scotland, has not brought them to make their residence with us. Pan, Ceres, and Pomona, seem to neglect us; we are under the domination of the god of mines. There is a great deal of rich land in this country, but agriculture is ill understood. The great gain made by several branches of the coal trade has turned all attention that way. Every gentleman in the country, from the least to the greatest, is as solicitous in the pursuit of gain as a tradesman. The conversation always turns upon money; the moment you name a man, you are told what he is worth, the losses he has had, or the profit he has made by coal mines. As my mind is not naturally set to this tune, I should often be glad to change it for a song from one of your Welch Bards.”
[219] Carville, the house they had hired.
[Page heading: “ATHENIAN” STUART]
Mrs. Lowther had asked her to spend some time at Lowther Hall,[220] of which she says, “Lowther is much greater than Gibside, which is too great for me.” In the next letter of Lord Lyttelton’s he mentions Mr. Anson and Mr. Steward being at Hagley--
“Stuart seems almost as fond of my hall as of the Thessala Tempe,[221] which I believe you heard him describe when I brought him to see you.... He is going to embellish one of the Hills with a true Attick building, a Portico of six pillars, which will make a fine object to my new house, and command a most beautiful view of the country. He has also engaged to paint me a Flora and four pretty little Zephyrs in my drawing-room ceiling, which is ornamented with flowers in Stucco, but has spaces left for these pictures. He thinks all my Stucco work is well done.”
This was James Stuart,[222] nicknamed “Athenian Stuart,” traveller and antiquary, author of “The Antiquities of Athens.” Alluding to Tom, he says, “Dr. Bernard[223] offered to putt him into the Remove, but rather advised him to stay in the fourth form in order to learn more Greek, which advice he has prudently and cheerfully followed.”
[220] Now Lowther Castle.
[221] Mr. Bower’s place.
[222] James Stuart, born 1713, died 1788.
[223] Head-master of Eton.
Mrs. Montagu, being attacked by a choleraic disorder, which kept her in her room a week, and being still very hoarse from the eau de Luce, Mr. Montagu insisted on her returning to London before himself, so as to be in reach of Dr. Monsey. On November 6, from Wexford, she writes to Sarah Scott to inform her she is returning to London. Mr. Montagu had accompanied her three days’ journey; he then returned to Carville. She had left behind the post-chaise, and travelled in the “body coach, but my horses are so stout I believe they will perform the journey from Carville to London in seven days.” En route she picks up Mr. Tom Pitt,[224] nephew of Miss Pitt and a friend of his, and carries them to Durham, putting her maid into their post-chaise. “My gentlemen leave me at Stilton, from whence they go to Cambridge.” She mentions that Mr. Montagu had bought all the jewels belonging to Mr. Rogers for her, “and to-day intimated he should give me a great purse of old gold which fell to his share in the division; some of the pieces are curious, but there will be between £60 to £70 of money that one may spend with a good conscience.”
[224] 1st Lord Camelford, Thomas Pitt, junior, son of Lord Cobham’s brother Thomas and his wife, née Christian Lyttelton.
[Page heading: VIPER BROTH]
Arrived in London, Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband that his sister, Lady Medows,[225] was in very bad health, and she had recommended her to take “Viper broth!” if her doctor approved it, “as it is a nourishing food, and by its quality supplies deficiency of food.” I believe vipers are still used as medicine in France, but whether in England I know not; perhaps “Brusher Mills,”[226] the famous New Forest snake-catcher, could inform one; it does not sound inviting! In the same letter she mentions having secured a berth as midshipman for Montagu Isaacson,[227] Mr. Montagu’s cousin, with Admiral Boscawen. The Admiral had been most graciously received by the King, “and nothing can exceed the honours the Admiral meets with from all quarters.”
A Scotch gardener had been hired for Sandleford, and she adds, “The Scotch Gardener was tired a little, so I thought you would not dislike his recreating himself and resting his horse a little. I have sent him to the play to-night.”
[225] She was suffering from cancer and dropsy.
[226] Since this was written, “Brusher” died.
[227] Son of Margaret, née Creagh, and Anthony Isaacson.
In the next letter she writes, “The Carville gardener will set out to-morrow, he is more happy in London than a young toast, he has seen St. Paul’s, Westminster Abbey, etc., and sees them with taste; his mind was made for a higher condition of life.” Mentioning the horses, she says she shall send three to Sandleford, “it is a shame for a little animal as I am to keep 7 horses in town.” The team for a big coach was then six, but a seventh was ridden alongside by a servant in case of accidents on the way.
[Page heading: ANXIETIES AND ILLNESSES]
George II. had been very ill. “Princess Emilia not well, and the Duke[228] has got the gout.... Sixteen thousand pounds a year of annuities on the Duke of Marlborough[229] expire with him, so there are many sincere mourners; the Duchess[230] bears her loss better than could have been imagined. Lord Bath[231] is so apparently rejoiced at his deliverance, it makes people smile, he ordered a plentiful table to be kept as soon as she was dead, and is gay and jolly, and at the Bath like a young heir just come to his estate.... It is thought Mr. Charles Montagu[232] can live but a few days.”
[228] Cumberland.
[229] 3rd Duke of Marlborough, died October 20, 1758, at Munster in Westphalia.
[230] Elizabeth, daughter of 2nd Baron Trevor.
[231] William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, had just lost his wife.
[232] Charles Montagu, son of the Hon. James Montagu, cousin of Mr. Edward Montagu. He died in 1759.
Great anxiety reigned for some days about the health of little Morris Robinson, Morris’s son. Dr. Monsey stayed with the child four days and nights, and he pulled through, but it painfully reminded his aunt of her loss in little “Punch,” Morris being much of the same age. Dr. Monsey wrote to Mr. Montagu to say he had insisted, when the child was at its worst, that Mrs. Montagu should not come to see it. Mention is made of young Mr. Pitt “just come to town, not so well as when you saw him; he was here on Tuesday night, and I thought looked ill; his chairmen were drunk and threw him in the street, and cut his face and hurt him a little, and he had a bad fit that night from the surprise.” This was Thomas Pitt, junior, son of Thomas Pitt, of Boconoc, Cornwall, brother of Mr. William Pitt, and afterwards 1st Lord Camelford.
[Page heading: MEETING OF PARLIAMENT]
On November 23 both houses of Parliament met at Westminster, and Mrs. Montagu writes on the 28th to her husband--
“Mr. Pitt opened the session on Tuesday with a very fine speech, Mr. Beckford stood up and said the turn things had taken of late had put him in good humour, so that he was willing to give two millions towards the war on the Continent; he thought it too little to be of service, but rather more than could be got. Mr. Pitt answered the sum must not be limited, a great deal indeed would be wanted, he knew not how it would be raised, for he did not concern himself with Treasury business, but the honourable gentleman, signifying Mr. Legge, understood these matters, and he did not doubt would raise a proper sum. Poor Legge looked distressed. No one knows how these great sums are to be raised, taxes on Dogs and publick diversions are talked of, the King is much pleased with his Secretary’s declaration of a support of the continent interest at any rate. I hear Mr. Pitt’s speech was much admired, and nowhere more than at St. James’s.... Mr. Pitt has a personal dignity that supports open measures, and I am glad he does not learn the political art of prevarication. He has the people’s intire confidence, and I hope he will use it to good ends.”
[Page heading: EMIN HOME AGAIN]
On December 2, writing to Mr. Montagu, she says--
“Emin is come home, he has a great loss of the Duke of Marlborough, who called him his Lion and kept him always with him. He has been a sort of aide-de-camp to Count Schullenburg; he has lately been in Holland where the Armenians have promised to assist his schemes. Lady Yarmouth has him with her in a morning and promises him her interest with a very great man; Lord Northumberland, Lord Anson, and General York are to be his advocates with Mr. Pitt. He is an astonishing creature to take thus with all kinds of people. He hopes to go home in January in a sort of public character. He is full of anecdotes of the King of Prussia. He says his eyes and forehead are just like mine, and he is as particular in his description of him as a portrait painter would be. He marched with him seven days, the Prussian Hero is as easy and familiar as a private man, knowing his character will give him more respect than his rank: it is not advisable in general for Princes to lay aside their rank lest they should not otherwise gain respect, but a truly great man is above all respect that is not personal.”
A set of verses sent by Dr. Monsey from North Mimms to Lord Lyttelton is amusing, but too prolix to insert. Lyttelton had a bad cold, and wanted to go to Eton to see his boy--
“L. I must go to Eaton.”
“M. You shall not go to Eaton.”
Much allusion is made to Mrs. Montagu in the verses, which are rank doggerel.
Louisburg had been taken on July 27. On December 7 Mrs. Montagu writes, “The House of Commons yesterday returned thanks to Admiral Boscawen and General Amherst for their services at Louisburg, and to Admiral Osborne for his conduct in the Mediterranean.”
Dr. Monsey had been reading the “Memoirs of Madame de Maintenon,” in whom he sees a strong likeness to Mrs. Montagu.
“I take her into my hand and you into my mind as I go along ... tho’ Lewis was a scrub of a scoundrel and not worthy a crown which he would not put upon her head, he now and then thought right about her, instead of a foreign Princess whom he must study to please, he chose a woman who made it her whole business to please him, the only one who could inspire him with a lasting passion, and so revered that in the admiration which the recital of her vertues occasioned he cried, ‘Let us go and shut ourselves up to talk of this woman.’ That’s my Lord (Lyttelton), and I!”
[Page heading: LORD ARRAN DEAD]
On December 17 the Earl of Arran died; he had married Mr. Montagu’s relation, Elizabeth, daughter of Lord Crewe of Stene, who brought him a large fortune. It was an unhappy marriage, and Mrs. Montagu hints that, had Lady Arran treated her husband as he deserved, her money would have come to Mr. Montagu and Lady Mary Gregory. He died at eighty-eight. His sister, Lady Emily Butler,
“is a surprising woman, healthy and lively at past 99! Mr. Boscawen yesterday show’d us a box of horrid implements with which the French cannon was charged at Louisbourg, rusty locks, pieces of pokers, curling tongs, nails in abundance and all sorts of iron instruments, and this not for want of ammunition, but wanton cruelty. He found the cannons loaded with these as well as ball. General Wolfe had a gridiron shot at him; it fell short of him, but he had it taken up and straiten’d and eat a beef steak broil’d upon it.”
[Page heading: EDMUND BURKE]
In a letter undated, but presumably at the end of December, Mrs. Montagu says--
“Lord Bath said there had been but three speeches in Parliament this year; one was Lord Middleton’s,[233] who said he would give all he was worth to support the war; the other Sir Michael Grosvenor’s,[234] who said he would lend all he was worth; and the third, Mr. Pitt’s, who said he would take all they were both worth.... If Mr. Isaacson wants any enquiries made at Cork, I can get good intelligence by means of Mr. Burke, a young lawyer by profession, tho’ an author by practice, for he wrote Natural History[235] preferable to Artificial; he has several acquaintance of credit at Cork, you have often heard me mention him.”
[233] 3rd Viscount Middleton.
[234] Sir Richard Grosvenor, afterwards 1st Earl Grosvenor.
[235] “Vindication of Natural Society,” his first avowed work copied for him by Emin, and published in 1756.
This is the third mention of Edmund Burke, the first being in a letter of Emin’s, whose patron he was, to Dr. Monsey.
On December 28, writing to her husband, who was still at Carville, Mrs. Montagu says--
“The Parliaments meet on the 16th ... the ardour for carrying on the war is such it will be rather a point of contention who shall give most money. Some people think Mr. Boscawen will be sent against Quebec. General Conway is taken into favour again, he is going to settle ye dispute between us and the Dutch concerning the ships we have taken. The Princess of Orange is thought in a desperate state of health.... My Father call’d on me on Monday; he was not well, which put him a little out of sorts, he seems uneasy that he is not immortal, however, he takes the best means for long life, and I daresay will attain it unless fears of the inevitable moment should hurt his spirits. Life has been to him one long play day, he must not expect the rattles and sugar plumbs will hold good to the last. He has never tasted business, care, or study; vivre du jour la journée, as the French saying is, has been his moral maxim; it may make a merry day, but it does not make the best evening; the mind that has employ’d itself in study and application or in active life has more to look back upon, and old age’s joy is in the retrospect.”
This ends the letters for 1758.
[Page heading: 1759]
[Page heading: HELVETIUS]
On January 2, 1759, writing to Mr. Montagu, who was still in the north, his wife says--
“I am now reading a very ingenious, pernicious French author, his name is Helvetius,[236] a descendant of the famous Helvetius;[237] he is a man of fortune in France, very amiable in his private character, good-natured, liberal and witty, so has many disciples at Paris from respect to his person; I fear he will have many here from respect to his doctrines well adapted to the corruptions of the human heart. He endeavours to show it is custom makes virtue and vice, like Epicurus, placing his good in pleasure but not his pleasure in good. He thinks a less strict observation of some moral rules would make man in general happier. He would trust everything to laws, Legislature is to be the god and conscience of mankind. He does not consider how many by their situation are above laws, how many one may say are below it, and how many more by fraud, evasions, concealment would hope to escape it. I hope conscience, call’d by Mr. Pope ‘the god within the mind,’ will keep her empire in spite of Mr. Helvetius.... The church has obliged him to a retractation, which indeed may in some measure mortify the author but will not alter the argument of his book.... Lord Clarendon’s other volume[238] will soon be published.... I forgot to tell you I have receiv’d great compliments from Mr. Pitt, the Secretary, since I came to town, congratulations on your accession of fortune, congratulations on my recovery from the eau de Luce, high expressions of esteem and friendship, but being a person of moderate ambition, I have not ask’d for a place at Court.”
[236] Claude Adrien Helvetius, born 1715, died 1771. Published “De l’Esprit” in 1758.
[237] John Claude Helvetius, his father, celebrated physician and author; died 1755.
[238] His “History of the Rebellion.”
[Page heading: SOCIAL FESTIVITIES]
In the next letter of January 4 she says--
“I was last night at Lady Cowper’s concert, where there was much good company and good musick. The night before I was at an assembly at Mrs. Pitt’s, where I found Sir John Mordaunt playing at cards with Lady Hester Pitt; this might be accident, but among political folks one is apt to look deeper perhaps than the truth lies, but this and General Conway being received into grace and sent to Le Cas[239] to settle the cartel for exchange of prisoners, makes me suspect some coalition may be designed between the folks at Leicester House and the D(uke).... I am to go to the play with Miss Pitt to-morrow night. Mr. Garrick is to act Anthony, he will make but a diminutive hero; I should not think it a part he would shine in, but he has taken great pains about it.”
[239] He was sent to Sluys, for which the French is L’Ecluse, not Le Cas, to meet Monsieur de Bareil.
On January 18, writing to her husband, Mrs. Montagu says--
“It is apprehended the loss of the King of Spain[240] will be a misfortune to Great Brittain. There is a great conspiracy discovered in Portugal; it was at first surmised that the assassination[241] of the King arose from jealousy, but people now think there was more of ambition than jealousy in it. The Marquis of Tavora’s family had a nearer claim to the crown than that Duke of Braganza who got it, but not being personally so well qualified for so great an attempt, or for want of alliances or other means, they were quietly governed by Spain, but when the Braganzas gained the Royal dignity, they grudged it to them, and ambition and envy may easily form conspiracy and assassination. Twelve of the first nobility will be brought to the scaffold.”
[240] Ferdinand VI.
[241] Attempted assassination of Joseph I., led to the expulsion of the Jesuits.
[Page heading: ROUSSEAU]
On the 24th occurs a very long letter to Mrs. Carter. In this mention is made of Rousseau: “There is a letter from Rousseau to Mr. D’Alembert[242] upon the project of settling a theatre at Geneva, which treats of Dramatical performances in general; it is ingeniously written and with great eloquence.” She also adds that she is sending Mrs. Carter Dr. Newton’s “Dissertation on the Prophecies,” Leland’s “Life of Philip of Macedon.”
“Lord Lyttelton’s History is not yet ready to appear; the work goes on slowly, as the writer is scrupulously exact in following truth. His delicacy in regard to characters, his candour in regard to opinions, his precision in facts, would entitle him to the best palm history can claim, if he had not added to these virtues of History (if I may call them so) the highest ornaments of style, and a most peculiar grace of order and method.... I shall send you a treatise on the ‘Sublime and Beautiful,’[243] by Mr. Burke, a friend of mine. I do not know that you will always subscribe to his system, but think you will find him an elegant and ingenious writer. He is far from the pert pedantry and assuming ignorance of modern witlings; but in conversation and writing an ingenious and ingenuous man, modest and delicate, and on great and serious subjects full of that respect and veneration which a good mind and a great one is sure to feel, while fools mock behind the altar, at which wise men kneel and pay mysterious reverence.”
[242] Lettre à d’Alembert (Sur les Spectacles), Amsterdam 1758; translated into English in 1759.
[243] First published in 1757.
[Page heading: KITTY FISHER]
Soon after this letter, Mrs. Carter paid her first visit to Mrs. Montagu in Hill Street. Mrs. Carter had been much troubled by the severe illness of Miss Talbot, her bosom friend, and of Archbishop Secker, with whom the Talbots lived. Mrs. Montagu, writing to condole about this, mentions that Lord Waldegrave[244] was going to marry the illegitimate daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, and she continues--
“Miss Kitty Fisher modestly asked Earl Pembroke[245] to make her a Countess; his family love forms, so perhaps the fair one thought he would approve the legal form of cohabitation; but he hesitated, and so the agreement is made for life, a £1000 per annum, and a £1000 for present decorations.”
[244] 2nd Earl Waldegrave, married Maria, daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, on May 15, 1759. She survived him, and married in 1766 the Duke of Gloucester, brother to George III.
[245] Henry, 29th Earl of Pembroke, born 1734, died 1794.
Mr. Montagu had now returned to his wife, having bought another portion of the Denton estate from Mr. Archdeacon, his cousin. He made a codicil to his previous will of 1752, leaving his wife the whole property, as well as all he possessed besides. The codicil was witnessed by Ben Stillingfleet, William Archdeacon, and Samuel Torriano, on April 12, 1759.
On June 7, writing to Mrs. Carter, who was drinking the waters at Bristol, Mrs. Montagu chaffs her as to her surroundings. “Do you like pompons or aigrettes in your hair? if you put on rouge, dance minuets and cottillions? that I may describe and define you in your Bristol State.” Mention is made of Mr. Mason’s “Caractacus.”
“It is a Drama not dramatized; his Melpomene is too chaste, too cold for the theatre. She is a very modest virgin, pure in sentiment and diction and void of passion; her sober ornaments are a Greek veil and some Druidical Hieroglyphicks, all which I mightily respect and do not like at all.... Lord Northampton had a fine suit for the birthday, the wastecoat silver and gold, the coat gold and silver.”
[Page heading: DR. JOHNSON]
On June 9 occurs the first letter of Dr. Johnson[246] to Mrs. Montagu.
[246] Dr. Samuel Johnson, born 1709, died 1784; the famous lexicographer and critic.
“MADAM,
“I am desired by Mrs. Williams to sign receipts with her name for the subscribers which you have been pleased to procure, and to return her humble thanks for your favour, which was conferred with all the grace that elegance can add to Beneficence.
“I am, “Your most obedient and humble servant, “SAM. JOHNSON.
“June 9, 1759.”
This letter is printed in Boswell’s “Life of Johnson,”[247] vol. ii. p. 113; but who introduced him first to her I have not yet been able to discover, but I fancy it might be through Mrs. Carter. His mother had died at the age of ninety in January of this year. His “Rasselas,” published in the following April, is said to have been written to pay the expenses of the funeral of his beloved parent. Mrs. Williams was one of Dr. Johnson’s protégées, a woman of talent and literary attainments, who had been a constant companion of his late wife. Her eyes being affected with an incurable cataract, she became blind, and Dr. Johnson was trying to raise money enough to buy an annuity for her. In 1766 she became a permanent inmate of Johnson’s house, and on Mr. Montagu’s death in 1775, Mrs. Montagu settled £10 per annum on her.
[247] By John Wilson Croker revised, and by John Wright published, 1880.
Dr. Johnson’s writing is singularly clear, and, once seen, is unmistakable, from his peculiar long s’s.
On June 9 also, Emin wrote on board the Prince Edward, from the Mole of Genoa, where they were in quarantine. The letter begins, “To the most learned and most magnanimous Mrs. Montagu.” He was on his way to see Prince Heraclius with letters of recommendation from his father and all the principal Armenians of Calcutta and India to the Prince and the Archbishop of Armenia. At last his transcendent merit as a leader had been acknowledged by his own countrymen, who now designated him “their chief, their Shepherd and Protector.” Emin’s affectionate heart was rent at the thought of parting with his kind English protectors, and in this letter he says he was almost glad when he found most of them out or away from home when he called to bid adieu. He was to cross Turkey by land to get to Armenia, a most dangerous Journey, and on the way out two ships had chased them for four or five hours off Spain.
[Page heading: LADY ESSEX’S DEATH]
Writing from Sandleford on July 25 to Mrs. Carter, Mrs. Montagu narrates the sad death of Lady Essex, carried away at the early age of nineteen by puerperal fever and throat disease. She was the daughter of Lady Frances Williams, who was bowed down with this affliction, added to the terrible lunacy of her husband. Mrs. Carter was at Bristol drinking the waters for her constant violent headaches. At the end of the letter we read--
“I am glad you agree with me in detestation of Voltaire’s Optimism. Are not you provoked that such an animal calls itself a Philosopher? What pretence can he have to philosophy who has not that fear of God which is the beginning of wisdom? This creature is a downright rebel to his God. Some good may arise indeed from the division of Satan’s household; Voltaire directly opposes Lord Bolingbroke and those who affirm whatever is is right, and that there wants not a future state to make the system just.”
[Page heading: “CALVES PLUCK WATER”]
Lady Medows writes that her appetite has been mended by drinking “Calves Pluck water!”
[Page heading: HARLEYFORD]
On August 3 Mrs. Montagu thanks Lady Barbara Montagu for “the great favour you have done me in behalf of Mr. Burke,” but what that favour was I know not. The letter proceeds thus--
“I conducted Mrs. Pitt to Maidenhead Bridge on Tuesday, and on Wednesday dined at Mrs. Clayton’s[248] at Harleyford.[249] I think it the most agreeable situation I have seen on the Thames, I mean as a place of residence, every object speaks peace and plenty, the silver Thames glides at the foot of their garden, lofty trees crown the summit, they have fine prospects, sweet lawns, fine cornfields and distant villages.... I could not get permission from Mr. Montagu to stay a day or two, but had barely leave for a dining visit; to my great mortification, my Landlord at the Bridge told me that to go by Marlow would carry me 8 or 9 miles out of the Road, so I gave up my scheme, but met Mr. Amyand, who was travelling through Maidenhead town: he jumped out of his post-chaise, got into the coach to tell me all the news of the town, and on my complaining of my disappointment in regard to Mrs. Clayton, he assured me if I would go two miles out of my road I should find myself on the bank of the river opposite Mrs. Clayton’s house, that then I might go on board a flat-bottom’d boat and invade her territories. I followed his directions, but as my coach could not pass the river, I proposed only to drink a dish of Chocolate, walk round her gardens, and proceed to Reading. She kindly desired to carry me thither early in the afternoon, said she would get Mrs. Southwell[250] of the party, that my coach should go on to Reading and I should find my horses refreshed and ready to set forward for Sandleford: no magical wand could have made a metamorphosis more to my advantage than converting the rose Parlour at the Inn in Reading into an elegant salon, and my Landlord and his wife into Mrs. Clayton and Mrs. Southwell; and an empty coach into one filled with good company. A most incomparable dinner appeared, and Mrs. Southwell; we went together to Reading, and by 11 I got back to my darksome pines.”
[248] Presumably the widow of Bishop Clayton, and sister of Mrs. Donnellan.
[249] Now the seat of Sir William Clayton.
[250] Of King’s Weston.
Soon after her return to Sandleford, Mr. Montagu fell ill of a bad throat, caught, she thought, at a place built by a Mr. Cottington near Newbury, on such a hill that, as she says to Lyttelton,
“it would have made a good situation for a college of Augurs, for here they might conveniently make observations on the flight of Birds; the ascent is so steep a goat can hardly climb to it; he built a Belvidere at the top of the house, where perhaps he hoped to sit as umpire in the battles between the cranes and the pigmies, for as to looking down from it, it is rather horrible.”
Fortunately, Dr. Monsey was at Sandleford, and promptly “blooded” and doctored Mr. Montagu. Mention is made of a “magnificent epistle of Emin to the noble daughters of Brittain,” too long to be inserted here.
[Page heading: INVERARY]
Lord Lyttelton and “Tom” were taking a tour to the Highlands, having gone from Hagley to Durham, thence to Lord Ravensworth’s and Morpeth, “on our way to Alnwick.” Lord Lyttelton alludes to the Battle of Minden, fought on August 1, between the English, Hessians, and Hanoverians, against the French. Prince Ferdinand[251] of Brunswick commanded, and under him Lord George Sackville,[252] who commanded the English and Hanoverians, and incurred some obloquy on the score of disobeying orders; but Lyttelton says--
“The necessity the French will be under of restoring their army in Germany by large reinforcements must, I think, putt an end to their intended invasion, and you Ladies of Britain will not be exposed to the outrages and brutalities which the poor Ladies of Hildesheim have suffered from the rage of those polished barbarians.... I had writt thus far at Taymouth, Lord Breadalbane’s fine seat, but was forced by some interruption to delay ending my letter till I came to Inverary, from whence I now write. The House deserves to be call’d, as it was stil’d by Lord Leicester, ‘the Royall Palace of the King of the Goths.’ He reigns here in great state, but Nature reigns in still greater. I have scarce ever seen her more sublimely majestick; nor does she want some sweet graces to soften her dignity and make it more amiable. As the Duke of Argyll[253] is one of your admirers, and, I think, a favoured one too, you ought to make him a visit here when next you return to your northern dominions.”
[251] Brother of the Duke of Brunswick.
[252] Afterwards Lord George Germaine.
[253] Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of Argyll, born 1682, died 1761, ætat 79.
[Page heading: ALNWICK]
Tom Lyttelton, who was travelling with his father in Scotland, writes on September 10 from Edinburgh to Mrs. Montagu. Some portions of his letter I copy--
“The first place I shall mention to you is Alnwick, the seat of the Earl of Northumberland. The Castle is very gracious, and stands on the brow of a hill; it was formerly very strong. His Lordship has shown great judgment in the manner of fitting it up, for instead of using the modern stile of architecture (as Mr. Lumley has done at Lumley Castle), he has left it for the most part as it was in Harry Percy’s time, with this difference, that two or three rooms which were before ill proportioned and quite unfurnished, are now much enlarged and fitted very handsomely in the Gothick stile. He will add many more rooms on the other side of the court, and will make it in time a very good house, still preserving its original character. From thence we went to Berwick to Sir Hugh Dalrymple’s.... The Bass Island is all a vast Rock broken into many rough and irregular pieces; it is inaccessible to very large ships, there is but one place where a boat may safely land; in the middle of the ascent there are still the remains of an old castle, which was a state prison with houses for soldiers built in the rock; they tell you that within these sixty years it was garrisoned, but it is now become the habitation only of an infinite number of sea birds, of which the Solan goose is the most remarkable.... We went to dine with Mr. Charters, and from thence the same night reached Edinburgh, and were lodged in the Royal Palace called Holy Rood House.... My next shall be from Bishops Auckland (a seat of the Bishop of Durham’s)....”
As usual, Lord Lyttelton adds a postscript, and in it says--
“We dined to-day with the Magistrates and corporation of Edinburgh, and supped with the Duke of Argyll, who honoured me with his presence at the dinner, a distinction he never paid to any other than upon this occasion. Tom and I had our freedoms given us, as we have had from many other towns with as great compliments as if I had been a minister of State, or the Head of a faction.”
Young Edward Wortley Montagu writes on September 13 to Mr. Montagu from “Mrs. Lyster’s in Hyde Street, Bloomsbury Market,” to say--
“I am really greatly concern’d that it has hitherto been out of my power to wait upon you, and I am afraid will be so the whole summer, for my book is sold off, and Millar presses me for a second edition, which I am now about, and since I wish it should appear in the world as perfect as possible, I must beg the favour of you to let me know what corrections you think it may want; the world received the first edition with great indulgence, but the second will have a right to approbation when it has received a greater degree of perfection from the corrections of a gentleman of your abilities.”
[Page heading: YORK]
In an answer to Lord Lyttelton’s letter from Inverary, too long to be inserted, Mrs. Montagu mentions that she is sending the letter to York--
“I shall be glad to hear that your Lordship and Mr. Lyttelton like York, to which perhaps I am partial as to the place of my nativity. One of the strongest pictures in my mind is the funeral of a Dean of York, which I saw performed with great solemnity in the Cathedral when I was about 4 years old.... I know, my lord, you will rejoice with me for Mr. Boscawen’s[254] victory, both from public spirit and private friendship.”
[254] Admiral Boscawen defeated the French off Cape Lagos on August 18.
Emin, after a serious illness, was setting off on his dangerous journey through Turkey, and on September 20 wrote “To the Montagu the Great,” ending up with, “My dearest, brightest and the wisest Queen of the East, your very affectionate and faithful, obedient, humble servant and soldier, Emin of Hasnasari in Persia.”
Lord Lyttelton and his son travelled from Edinburgh to Lord Hopetoun’s place, Hopetoun House. In a letter to Mrs. Montagu of September 21, Tom says, “There is one chimney piece done by Risback that cost £600, my father thinks it the finest he ever saw.” Thence they proceeded to Stirling, and paid visits to Lord Cathcart and Lord Kinnoull; thence to Glamis Castle, which he describes “as a very old castle, but has not a tolerable apartment, and can never be altered much for the better.” He does not mention the ghost; probably he was not told about it. From thence to the Duke of Athole’s at Dunkeld, where he is enraptured with the country, and mentions the window at the Hermitage,[255] “through which the falls of the Braan appear as a surprise to the visitor.” The Lytteltons accompanied the duke to his other seat, Blair Athole, after which they proceeded to Taymouth, Lord Breadalbane’s splendid place, which enchanted Tom.
[255] Ossian’s Hall.
[Page heading: SCOTCH CHARACTERISTICS]
He now gives Mrs. Montagu a sort of character sketch of the Scottish nobility--
“The characteristical virtues of the Scotch are courage, temperance, prudence, economy and hospitality. This last is not only peculiar to the nobility, but is universally practised by all kinds of people. Good breeding, though it cannot be properly styled a virtue, is of the highest consequence to Society. This the Scotch universally possess, and there is not in the North such a character as that of an English country Squire, whose whole life is spent in the laudable customs of hunting, drinking, swearing and sleeping.... Scotch ladies are very handsome and very sweet-tempered. It is their general character to be rather too free of their favours before marriage; however that may be, they are very chaste after that ceremony. They breed up their children in a particular manner, for they are accustomed from their infancy to go without shoes and stockings, nor in the coldest weather do their parents permit them to wear a great-coat; if they are of a puny constitution they die, if not, they are the better for it all their life.”
He also remarks that “few of the nobility omit going to Church on a Sunday, and what is of more importance, when they are there they do not trifle, but seem seriously to reflect upon the duty they owe their Maker.” This description from a boy of fifteen is remarkable, and throws light upon English manners of that period. After several other visits, Tom returned to his studies at Eton.
[Page heading: MR. EDMUND BURKE]
[Page heading: CONSULSHIP AT MADRID]
Next to this comes a letter from Mr. Burke, which, being the first, is given in extenso. His handwriting is beautiful and very even, but of a feminine cast.
“MADAM,
“I have now the honour of writing to you for the first time, and the subject of my letter is an affair that concerns myself. I should stand in need of many more apologies than I know how to make both for the liberty I take and for the occasion of it, if I had not learned by experience that I give you a pleasure when I put it in your power to exert your good-nature. I know it is your foible to carry this principle to an extream, and one is almost sure of success in any application, or at least for pardon for having made an improper one, when we know judiciously to take advantage of a person’s weak point. I do not know anything else which could give me confidence enough to take the Liberty I am now going to use. The Consulship of Madrid has been vacant for several months; I am informed that it is in the gift of Mr. Secretary Pitt, and that it is valuable. I presume, however, that it is not an object for a person who has any considerable pretensions, by its having continued so long vacant, else I should never have thought of it. My interest is weak, I have not at all the honour of being known to Mr. Pitt; nor much to any of his close connections. For which reason I venture to ask your advice whether I can with propriety proceed at all in this affair, and if you think I ought to undertake it, in what manner it would be proper for me to proceed. If my little suit either in itself or in the persons through whose hands it must necessarily pass, should be attended with any circumstances that may make it disagreeable to you to interfere in it, I shall take it as a favour equal to that I have asked, if you will be so good to tell me you can do nothing in it. I shall think such a declaration a great mark of your confidence. I am sensible that there are in all people’s connections many points that may make a person of delicacy unwilling to ask a favour in some quarters, and yet more unwilling from the same delicacy to tell the person for whom it is to be asked that they have such difficulties. There are undoubtedly many circumstances of propriety in every person’s situation, which none can feel properly but themselves. I am not, however, if I know myself, one of those expectants who think everything ought to be sacrificed to their Interest. It occurred to me that a letter from you to Miss Pitt might be of great service to me. I thought too of mentioning Mrs. Boscawen. The Admiral has such great merit with the Ministry and the Nation, that the want of it will be the more readily overlooked in any person for whom he may be induced to apply. But these are crude notions and require the understanding they are submitted to, to bring them to form and dwelt so long upon so indifferent a subject. Your Patience is almost equal to the rest of your virtues if you can bear it. I dwell with far more pleasure on my acknowledgments for what you have done for my friend[256] in so obliging and genteel a manner. He has but just now succeeded after a world of delays, and no small opposition. He will always retain a very grateful sense of what you have done in his favour. Mrs. Burke[257] desires me to present her respects to you, and her best wishes for your health. When last I had the pleasure of seeing Dr. Monsey, he told me that the country still agreed with you, else I should most wickedly wish this fine weather over that you might be the sooner driven to town. This fine weather suffers nothing good to be in Town but itself. We are much obliged to the Doctor for the satisfaction he gave you in uniting his care with yours for Mr. Montagu’s recovery. I congratulate you very sincerely on that event. If I could find some agreeable circumstance in your affairs for congratulation as often as I wish I should be the most troublesome correspondent in England, for nobody can be with greater respect and gratitude,
“Madam, “Your most obliged and obedient humble servant, “EDMUND BURKE.
“Wimple Street, Cav. Sq., Sepʳ 24, 1759.”
[256] This was Emin.
[257] Mrs. Burke’s maiden name was Nugent. She was a Roman Catholic.
[Page heading: GENERAL TOWNSHEND]
[Page heading: GENERAL WOLFE]
In a letter to Lord Lyttelton of October 23, Mrs. Montagu mentions visiting Lady Townshend to congratulate her on the taking of Quebec, which had happened on September 13, and in which her son, General Townshend, had taken a prominent part. In this she says--
“The encomiums on Mr. Wolfe run very high, a great action is performed and every one can endure to give praise to a dead man; and there was certainly something very captivating in his character; he took the public opinion by a coup de main, to which it surrenders more willingly than to a regular siege. The people had not time to be tired of hearing him called the brave; he is the subject of all people’s praise, and I question whether all the Duke of Marlborough’s conquests gained him greater honour.”
In answer to this Lord Lyttelton says--
“I wish that a French invasion from Havre de Grace, which I have particular reasons to be more afraid of than ever, may not correct the extravagance of our joy for our unexpected success at Quebec, and the false security it has produced in the minds of our ministers.... Mr. Bonus, the picture cleaner, has come down and has restored my old family pictures to such a state of perfection that I can hardly believe my eyes when I see them. Few gentlemen, I assure you, have a finer collection than mine appears to be now. If Lady Coventry ever comes here, she will cry at the sight of some of the beauties of Charles the Second’s court, which by Mr. Bonus’ help exceed hers as much as she does my milkmaids. There is particularly a Duchess of Richmond whom you have read of under the name of Mademoiselle Stuart in the ‘Memoirs of the Count de Grammont,’ whose charms are so divine that my nephew Pitt is absolutely falling in love with her and does nothing but gaze upon her from morning till night. What would you living beauties give if twenty years hence, when you begin to suffer by time, there could be found a Mr. Bonus to restore you again, as he has done this fair lady and others at Hagley? Pray come and see the miracles of his art....
“Pitt sends his best compliments, and we both agree you have indeed a great deal of a witch about you, but nothing of a Hag.”
Mrs. Montagu evidently refused to exert her influence in favour of Mr. Burke’s desire to obtain the Madrid Consulship, as on October 6 he writes--
“MADAM,
“For many publick as well as private reasons I am sorry that you have not an influence on Ministers of State; but the qualities which some persons possess are by no means those which lead to Ministerial influence. The reasons you have been pleased to give me for not making the application are very convincing and obliging. Before I applied I was well aware of the difficulties that stood in my way.”
Further down in the letter (which is not sufficiently interesting to be given in extenso) he says--
“It is not very easy to have access to Mr. Pitt, especially for me, who have so very few friends. I mentioned those methods, not that I was satisfied of their propriety, but because I would try every method which occurred to me.”
[Page heading: MRS. OGLE]
On December 17 Dr. Johnson writes--
“MADAM,
“Goodness so conspicuous as yours will be often solicited and perhaps sometimes solicited by those who have little pretension to your favour. It is now my turn to introduce a petitioner, but such as I have reason to believe you will think worthy of your notice. Mrs. Ogle who kept the music room in Soho Square, a woman who struggles with great industry for the support of eight children, hopes by a Benefit Concert to set herself free from a few debts, which she cannot otherwise discharge. She has, I know not why, so high an opinion of me as to believe that you will pay less regard to her application than to mine. You know, Madam, I am sure you know, how hard it is to deny, and therefore would not wonder at my compliance, though I were to suppress a motive which you know not, the vanity of being supposed to be of any importance to Mrs. Montagu. But though I may be willing to see the world deceived for my advantage, I am not deceived myself, for I know that Mrs. Ogle will owe whatever favours she shall receive from the patronage which we humbly entreat on this occasion, much more to your compassion for honesty in distress than to the request of, Madam,
“Your most obedient and most humble servant, “SAM. JOHNSON.
“Gray’s Inn, Dec. 17, 1759.”
This letter is printed in Croker’s edition of Boswell’s “Life of Johnson,” vol. ii. p. 115, published in 1880 by George Bell and Sons. He probably received the copy, as he did a former letter, from my grandfather, the 4th Baron Rokeby, as he would have been too young to obtain it from Mrs. Montagu, who died in 1800, and John Wilson Croker was not born till 1780.
[Page heading: “TRISTRAM SHANDY”]
[Page heading: THE REV. LAURENCE STERNE]
Though undated, the following letter of Laurence Sterne may be placed here. Early in 1759 he had been writing the first two volumes of “Tristram Shandy,” towards the end of the year he was in London arranging for their publication with Dodsley the publisher, who declined the venture. They were printed for and sold by John Hinxham, bookseller in Stonegate, according to Mr. Traill’s volume on Sterne in the “Englishmen of Letters” series. The allusions to the Dean of York, etc., referred to a dispute between a Dr. Topham and Dr. Fountayne (Dean of York), in which Sterne sided with the Dean when he wrote his “History of a Good Warm Watchcoat,” “a sarcastic apologue,” as Mr. Traill terms it. I have not time or knowledge enough to enter into the details of this affair, but hope the letter may throw light upon it to students of Sterne’s character.
“MADAM,
“I never was so much at a loss as I find myself at this instant that I am going to answer the letter I have had the honour and happiness to receive from you by Mr. Torriano; being ten times more oppress’d with the excess of your candour and goodness than I was before with the subject of my complaint. It was entirely owing to the Idea I had in common with all the world of Mrs. Montagu’s that I felt sorrow at all--or communicated what I felt to my friend; which last step I should not have taken but from the great reliance I had upon the excellency of your character. I wanted mercy--but not sacrifice, and am obliged, in my turn, to beg pardon of you, which I do from my soul, for putting you to the pain of excusing, what in fact was more a misfortune, than a fault, and but a necessary consequence of a train of Impressions given to my disadvantage. The Chancellor of York, Dr. Herring, was, I suppose, the person who interested himself in the honour of the Dean of York, and requested that act of friendship to be done to the Dean, by bringing about a separation betwixt the Dean and myself--the poor gentleman has been labouring this point many years--but not out of zeal for the Dean’s character, but to secure the next residentiaryship to the Dean of St. Asalph, his son; he was outwitted himself at last, and has now all the foul play to settle with his conscience without gaining or being ever likely to gain his purpose. I take the liberty of enclosing a letter I wrote last month to the Dean, which will give some light into my hard measure, and show you that I was as much a protection to the Dean of York--as he to me. The answer to this has made me easy with regard to my views in the Church of York, and as it has cemented anew the Dean and myself beyond the power of any future breach, I thought it would give you satisfaction to see how my interests stand, and how much and how undeserved I have been abused: when you have read it--it shall never be read more, for reasons your penetration will see at once.
“I return you thanks for the interest you took in my wife, and there is not an honest man, who will not do me the justice to say, I have ever given her the character of as moral and virtuous a woman as ever God made--what occasion’d discontent ever betwixt us is now no more--we have settled accounts to each other’s satisfaction and honour, and I am persuaded shall end our days without one word of reproach or even Incivility.
“Mr. Torriano made me happy in acquainting me that I was to dine with you on Friday; it shall ever be my care as well as my Principle ever to behave so that you may have no cause to repent of your goodness to me.
“I am, Madam, “With the truest gratitude, “Your most obliged and affᵗᵉ “Kinsman, LAUR. STERNE.”
[Page heading: MRS. STERNE]
A fragment, also undated, from Mrs. Sterne may be placed here, but I have failed to find any allusion to it in other letters--
“Cou’d Mrs. Montagu think this the way to make a bad husband better, she might indeed have found a better, which I have often urg’d, though to little purpose, namely some little mark of kindness or regard to me as a kinswoman, I meant not such as would have cost her money, but indeed this neither she or any one of the Robinsons vouchsafed to do, though they have seen Mr. Sterne frequently the last two winters, and will the next, so that surely never poor girl who had done no one thing to merit such neglect was ever so cast off by her Relations as I have been. I writ three posts ago to inform Mrs. Montagu of the sorrow her indifferation had brought upon me, and beg’d she wou’d do all that was in her power to undo the mischief, though I can’t for my soul see which way, and must expect to the last hour of my life to be reproach’d by Mr. Sterne as the blaster of his fortunes. I learn from Mr. Sterne that there was both letters and conversations pass’d betwixt them last winter on this subject, and though I was an utter stranger to that and every part of this affair till ten days ago, when the Chancellor wrote his first Letter, which Mr. Sterne communicated to me. Yet in several he wrote to me from London he talk’d much of the honours and civilities Mrs. Montagu show’d him, which I was well pleas’d to hear, as the contrary behaviour must have wrought me sorrow. I only wish’d that amongst them she had mixt some to her cousin, but that I heard not one syllable of. I beg you will give me one gleam of comfort by answering this directly. Mr. Sterne is on the wing for London, and we remove to York at the same time, so that I fear thy letter will not arrive before me. Direct to Newton. Mine and Lydia’s love,
“Thine most truly and affectionately, “E. STERNE.”
Commenting on Mrs. Sterne’s character some years after this date, Mrs. Montagu said she was a woman of good parts, of a temper “like the fretful Porcupine, always darting her quills at somebody or something!”
[Page heading: LADY MEDOWS’ DEATH]
Lady Medows, Mr. Montagu’s sister, who had long been suffering from cancer, died at the end of October. Horace Walpole says in his letter to George Montagu that she left Lady Sandwich’s daughter £9000, after the death of her husband, Sir Sydney Medows.
Chapter IV
1760 TO THE DEATH OF GEORGE II.--IN LONDON, AT TONBRIDGE, AND IN NORTHUMBERLAND--CORRESPONDENCE CHIEFLY WITH LORD LYTTELTON.
[Year: 1760]
The year 1760 opens on January 1 with a letter to Lord Lyttelton from Mrs. Montagu, a portion of which I copy--
“Can I begin the new year more auspiciously than by dedicating the first hours of the New Year’s Day to that person from whose friendship I hope to derive so much of the honour and happiness of every year of my life? Among the wishes I form for myself, not the least earnest are those of seeing Lord Lyttelton and his son enjoy all the health, felicity and fame that can be attained in this world, with the chearing prospect of a better state.... The world much admires the Pamphlet,[258] and Lord Bath does not deny he is the author as I am told. I ordered Mr. Bower to send it to your Lordship, but it is out of print.... The Hereditary Prince[259] is gone to the King of Prussia with 18,000 gallant men. I was at Lady Hervey’s last night, she is very well.”
[258] Probably the “Letter to two Great Men” of Walpole’s Memoirs of George I. Ed. 1847. Vol. iii. p. 250.
[259] Prince Ferdinand of Brunswick.
[Page heading: LORD BATH]
The next letter of January 15, to the same, is as follows:--
“My eyes have at last served me to read the collection of letters which have afforded me much entertainment, those from the illustrious I consider as written in their theatrical character, for though they are written behind the scenes, which gives them an air of reality, they are made to suit the assumed character. Lord B(ath) is Patriot and Philosopher, after the manner of the Ancients, his letters bear a consular and stoical dignity, and when I expect to see them signed Marcus, Cato or Caius Cassius, he surprises me with a Christian name and modern title. Those of another eminent person appear more natural, though perhaps they are not more sincere, but the modes we are used to by their familiarity appear less constrained and artificial.... I will send Mr. Lyttelton the Gazette extraordinary from Quebec next post, it is from the Indian Savages, and expressed in hieroglyphicks; it will give him an idea of the expresses sent by the Mexicans and Montezuma. I will send him the explanation with it.... Mr. Stewart gave me this curious piece this morning.... I did not say Lord Bath own’d, but that he did not stoutly deny the pamphlett. Mr. Pitt and his party are angry at it, and I hear H. Walpole has answer’d it.”
Tom Lyttelton writes from Eton, March 8, to Mrs. Montagu, to beg her to write to him. Her eyes had been very weak lately, and writing was an effort. In this Tom says--
“I hear my cousin Pitt is gone abroad with Lord Kinnoul.... I wish his tour may afford him as much pleasure as it will improvement. But nothing can ever hinder a mind like his, active and desirous of knowledge from improving itself everywhere, but particularly in foreign countries.... I only wish the eyes of the handsome Spanish Ladies may not make a greater impression on his heart than the beautiful Vales of Arragon and Castile.”
[Page heading: LISBON]
Thomas Pitt had gone to Lisbon with the Embassy under Lord Strathmore,[260] which England sent after the attempted assassination of the King of Portugal. In a letter to Lord Lyttelton from Lisbon on March 27, 1760, Mr. Pitt describes Lisbon--
[260] John Lyon, 7th Earl of Strathmore.
“The Tagus is extremely noble, and the shore on the other side is covered with woods of pine and fir. The city is quite destroy’d, and though they talk of magnificent plans for the rebuilding it, there is little likelihood that it should rise out of its ruins for many years.”
He then alludes to the late attempted assassination of the king, but his account is too long to copy in extenso--
“The story of a conspiracy is universally disbelieved, the whole is attributed to the malignity of the Duke of Aveiro, and the resentment of the old Marquis and Machioness of Tavora for the dishonour[261] done to their family since the late dreadful execution, which is followed by the erection of the Bastile, into which people of the first rank are committed without any cause assigned, makes them afraid to be even seen with one another.... I hear my little friend Tom has not forgot me in my peregrinations, has apprehensions from the impressions I may receive from the Spanish ladies. Pray give my love to him, and assure him if they resemble those of Portugal I never was in less danger.”
[261] The king had opposed the marriage of the Duke of Tavora’s son to a sister of the Duc de Cadaval.
In his next letter of April 14, to Mrs. Montagu, he says--
“I am going in about a week or ten days into the true country of Knight Errantry. I shall set out for Spain and pass through Andalousia and Granada before I go to Madrid, but instead of Rosinante and the Barber’s basin I shall provide myself with side-creeping mules and a heavy crazy old coach that has outlived the earthquake. I propose being at Madrid about the time the King makes his public entry, which is to be extremely magnificent. I shall dispute the prize at every tilt and tournament, and expect to send you a lock of hair plucked as a trophy from the forehead of a wild bull that I have laid dead at my feet. We have a very good chance of escaping the Corsairs, and sea-sickness, as the French Ambassador[262] here has had the goodness to write to his Court for a passport to enable us to get to Italy through the South of France.”
[262] Monsieur de Merle.
[Page heading: LORD CHESTERFIELD]
The next letter is from Lord Chesterfield[263] to Lord Lyttelton.
“Blackheath, May 7, 1760.
“MY LORD,
“I return you my sincerest and warmest thanks for your most entertaining and instructive present.[264] When I heard that you had undertaken that work, I expected no less, and now that I have it, without a compliment I could wish for no more from you. You have applied History to its best use, the advantage of morality; you have exposed vice and folly, but with so noble a hand, that both fools and knaves must feel that you would rather correct than execute them. You have even shown mercy to one who never showed nor felt it; I mean that disgrace to humanity, that sanguinary monster of the North, distinguished only by his Barbarism and his Barbarity, Charles the 12th[265] of Sweden. I would fain have homicide no longer reckoned as hitherto it has been, a title to Heroism, and the infamous but fashionable traffick of human blood, no matter for or against, who, if they pay but well, called by its true name assassination. Your Lordship has still a great field left open to you for another and yet another volume, which nobody can range in so usefully to mankind as yourself. I must take the liberty of troubling your Lordship with a petition to your brother the Governor of Jamaica,[266] whom I have not the pleasure of being acquainted with myself. It is to recommend to his protection and favour a relation of mine, one Captain Stanhope, who is now there, and, I believe, has some little employment given him by the present Deputy Governor, Mr. Moore. My kinsman was formerly an Officer of the footguards, but being a man of wit and pleasure, shared the common fate of that sort of gentleman, and was obliged to leave England and go to Jamaica, for (I doubt) more than suspicion of debt. I am assured that he is now quite reformed, and has a mind to be an honest man.
“I am with the greatest honour and esteem, “Your Lordship’s Most faithfull, humble servant, “CHESTERFIELD.”
Lord Chesterfield’s handwriting is beautiful, and the easiest possible to read.
[263] Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield; born 1694, died 1773.
[264] His “Dialogues of the Dead,” just published.
[265] Allusion to Dialogue No. 20 on Charles XII. and Alexander the Great.
[266] William Henry, son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton; he was created Baron Westcote of Ballymore in 1776; died in 1808.
[Page heading: “DIALOGUES OF THE DEAD”]
Lord Lyttelton’s “Dialogues of the Dead” had just appeared. Of these Mrs. Montagu wrote three, viz. Dialogues 26, 27, 28. Writing to Mrs. Carter, she says--
“I have just received my dear Mrs. Carter’s letter, and am very happy in her approbation of ‘the Dialogues.’ With her encouragement I do not know but at last I may become an author in form. It enlarges the sphere of action and lengthens the short period of human life. To become universal and lasting is an ambition which none but great genius’s should indulge; but to be read by a few, a few years, may be aspired to.... The Dialogues, I mean the three worst, have had a more favourable reception than I expected. Lord Lyttelton’s have been admired to the greatest degree.”
[Page heading: EARL FERRERS’ EXECUTION]
Mrs. Montagu had vainly tried to conceal her part as joint author of the “Dialogues.” Mrs. Donnellan immediately challenged her as to whether she or Mrs. Carter had written them, and Mrs. Montagu was fain to confess Mrs. Carter was not responsible for them. The fine ladies were much offended at Dialogue 27, between Mercury and “Mrs. Modish,” a modern fine lady, in which they were taken off. The authoress was disgusted at the fine ladies’ conduct in going to the trial and sentence of Lord Ferrers[267] for murdering his steward. She says to Mrs. Carter--
“I own the late instance of their going to hear Lord Ferrers’ sentence particularly provoked me. The Ladies crowded to the House of Lords to see a wretch brought, loaded with crime and shame, to the Bar, to hear sentence of a cruel and ignominious death, which, considering only this world, casts shame back on his ancestors and all his succeeding family.”
[267] Laurence, Earl Ferrers, was hanged at Tyburn, on May 5, 1760.
[Page heading: WILLIAM ROBINSON’S WEDDING]
The Rev. William Robinson had become engaged to a Miss Mary Richardson, daughter of Mr. Adam Richardson; she had a portion of £10,000. The poet Gray called her “a very good-humoured, cheerful woman.” From other letters it appears she was not good-looking, but amiable. This letter, written by Mrs. Montagu to her sister Sarah, describes the wedding, which appears to have taken place at the end of June.
“Saturday night, after ten.
“MY DEAREST SISTER,
“‘I’ll tell thee, Sall, where I have been, Where I the rarest sights have seen, Oh! sights beyond compare!’
“The Bride triste, the Bridegroom tristissimo; but to the order of the nuptials, Pappa Robinson and Mr. Richardson[268] in Pappa’s postchaize, bride and bridegroom, Mrs. M(orris) Robinson and Sister Montagu in her coach and six. Brother Morris Robinson and Mr. Montagu in Brother Morris’ postchaise, so went we to Kensington Church, the neighbours gazing, the children running, the mob gathering; from Church we went to Greenwich, where the Bridegroom gave us a very elegant and splendid dinner: then we walk’d in Greenwich Park, return’d to the Inn to drink tea, after tea the Bride and Bridegroom and Mr. Richardson got into my coach, I carry’d them to Kensington, and there I left the lovely loving pair.... William smiled and looked in high beauty as we went, as we return’d he was grave, angry perhaps, that Phœbus did not gallop apace his fiery-footed steeds and hasten on the happy hour. Never was wedding so decent, so orderly, so unlike a wedding, none of your fulsome fondness, I assure you, a few fond glances, but not a syllable addressed to each other. I believe William will behave well, and she is sensible and good-natured.... I am glad the wedding is over that I may depart on Monday to Tunbridge. I have been disappointed of my lodgings, the lady who was to have left them being ill, but I have got a house for a week till I can have that I had hired.”
[268] The bride’s brother; her father was dead.
From Tunbridge Wells on Tuesday, June 30, Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband, then in Hill Street--
“MY DEAREST,
“I had a very agreeable journey hither, but found my present lodging too small to receive the maids who are to come in the postchaise, so cannot send for them till Lady Fitzwilliam is well enough to leave Dr. Morley’s. I can give but little account of Tunbridge as yet. I drank the waters at the well this morning, and have now taken leave of the walks till to-morrow, as this fine weather will be better spent in an airing than on the Pantiles.... Lord Bath was on the Walks, and General Pulteney,[269] and Mr. and Mrs. Torriano and Mr. Marriott. Many of the ladies are too lazy to come down in a morning, and those that do come to the well are an hour later than when I was here last.”
[269] Lord Bath’s brother.
[Page heading: “MOUNT EPHRAIM”]
Miss Botham now joined Mrs. Montagu, who was looking out for a house for Lord Lyttelton.
“I believe your Lordship must accept of a house on Mount Ephraim, which Lady Pembroke laid in last year, for I do not believe I can get you a better. Order your postillion to stop at Mr. Dowding’s on Mount Ephraim when you come, and there your Lordship shall be inform’d of the certain place of your abode.”
On July 14, Dr. Stillingfleet writes from Stratton to Mrs. Montagu to thank her for a letter, and says he was out of health and spirits;
“this has hindered me from receiving so much pleasure from the unexpected kindness of Lord Barrington[270] as might naturally have been expected.” He then comments on her disappointment “at the smallness of the favour conferred upon me, for it seems to me much superior to anything i would have expected. However favourable you, dear Madam, may judge me, i cannot rate my talents so highly as to think they are undervalued at £100 per ann., when no business is to be done for it.” This was his appointment as Master of Kensington Barracks, which took place on June 12. “I had a letter from Dr. Monsey dated Wotton, that gives me much concern, for by his account he seems to be in a bad state of health, and i should think by no means qualified to travel in the pais (sic) du tendre, but he is a thorough-paced hero, and can be romantic in the midst of pain. Should you lose your knight errant i do not think the world can furnish you with a successor, for amongst all your other admirers you will not perhaps meet with one who at seventy is capable of all the tenderness which they have at twenty....” After this he alludes to the inflammation of the eyes Mrs. Montagu was suffering from. “If you cannot see to write he and all your friends will lose one of their greatest pleasures. Has he prescribed the Vitriol Water?”
[270] 2nd Viscount Barrington, Secretary for War in 1755, etc.
[Page heading: THE STANLEY FAMILY]
Miss Anne Stanley, daughter of Mr. Stanley, of Paultons, Hants, and grand-daughter of Sir Hans Sloane, now joined Mrs. Montagu from “Clewar,” near Windsor.[271] Anne and Sarah Stanley lived with their mother, Sarah Stanley, and were the intimate friends of Lord Lyttelton, whom Anne mentions in a letter of July 29. “Lord Lyttelton returned to us yesterday, and has had a bad night with the pain in his back, which has made him resolve to give up Sunning Hill Waters.” Anne eventually married Welbore Ellis, afterwards Lord Mendip. Sarah married Christopher D’Oyley, M.P. Their one brother was the Right Hon. Hans Stanley,[272] Lord of the Admiralty from 1757 to 1763.
[271] Now known as Clewer.
[272] He died in 1780.
On August 2 Lord Lyttelton writes from Hill Street--
“Monsieur des Champs brought me his translation of your three Dialogues. They are as well done as the poverty of the French tongue will admit. But such eloquence as yours must lose by being transposed into any other language.... There is great mourning in the gay world for poor Lady Lincoln.[273] I have seen her so lively, so cheerfull, so happy, that it shocks me to think of her sudden dissolution, and it frights me when I think that I have very dear friends who may as suddenly die, and especially some whose spirits, like hers, exceed their strength. Monsey says he cannot tell what was the cause of her death.”
[273] Catherine Pelham, daughter of Henry Pelham, brother to the 1st Duke of Newcastle; she died July 27, 1760.
[Page heading: BALL AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS]
In the next letter to her husband, who was going to Sandleford, Mrs. Montagu says--
“I went to the ball last Friday, it was the first time I had been to the publick rooms, and it had like to have been fatal to me, for the coachman not being acquainted with the place, the night dark, and having no flambeaux, had like to have overturned just coming out from Joy’s Rooms, down a place where the coach would have been entirely topsy-turvy; the footmen were thrown off from behind, but several people being by, the coach was held up, and I got safe out, and no hurt done to the persons or machine. My fright was such I did not get my rest till six o’clock in the morning. I had many civil messages in the morning, and Lord and Lady Feversham came up the hill to inquire after me; my nerves are still a little the worse. If the coach had fallen it would have gone down some feet, but the standers-by behaved with great humanity, bearing a very heavy load on their shoulders. I believe our new coachman is too lazy to serve us. The danger I was in when John and the postillion were drunk and had like to have overturned us on a gallop against a post when we came from Windsor, and my second peril on Friday, makes me tremble whenever I get into the machine.”
[Page heading: A GENTLEMAN COACHMAN]
To this Mr. Montagu replies--
“MY DEAREST,
“I am more concerned than j can express at the peril you were in. I tremble and shudder when j consider how fatal the consequences might have been if you had been actually overturned.... I have inquired after the cause of this unhappy affair, and though Ned says he cannot say the coachman was drunk, still he had been at the Ale House, and when he came home said there was no danger, and that the boys made almost as much noise as his Mistress. I find he is a lazy, proud, and what they call a gentleman coachman, and such as j would very soon get rid of.”
Ned was the head groom, and Mrs. Montagu proposed substituting him for the coachman, as he was honest and sober. To this her husband replies, “I wish he had more experience, but j should with all that think j run no great hazard in trusting him, besides he might practise to go out with the six horses of times when you did not want him.” To turn a lumbering coach and six must have been a most intricate affair. Ned was promoted to be coachman, but only to practise with the coach and six; “a coachman to a Mr. Lambard, and afterwards to Captain Pannel’s heir,” was employed when the coach went out, being then under a job-master, one Mr. Jarret, and a chaise and pair conveyed Mrs. Montagu to the Wells.
“The gentleman here ordered the place of my danger to be mended and acquainted me he had done so, and hoped I should not be frighted away from the balls.
“Sir Roger Twisden inquired much after you and my Father. He stays but a few days here. Lord Bath was ill again yesterday, he told me he was mortified that he had never been able to wait on me, but he was so weak he could not venture to trouble any one with a visit. I think he is in a bad way, but has a great deal of witt whenever he is tolerably well. His Lordship, I know, has been prejudiced in my favour by some of his friends, who are also friends of mine and Mr. Domville in particular, which I believe has given him a desire to be acquainted with me, but I believe he will hardly be able to make a visit this season, and in London he never visits any one who does not inhabit a ground floor. He has still a fine countenance, and those piercing eyes that denote a mind extraordinarily lively and penetrating.”
[Page heading: CHARACTER OF LORD BATH]
William Pulteney, Earl of Bath, was born in April, 1684, hence he was at this period turned seventy-six. He had lost his wife, née Anna Maria Gumley, in 1758. Mrs. Montagu must have known him in a superficial society way, as a description of a great rout given by Lady Bath some years previously is in this book. But now was to commence that tender intimacy and affectionate friendship between them that lasted to his death, and which prompted him, even in the act of dying, to stagger from his bed and write a few lines of adieu to her as his last effort--sacred lines which I possess and treasure! For his political character I must refer the reader to history, and the “Dictionary of National Biography.” As regards his private character I cannot do better than quote Elizabeth Carter’s account of him in “Memoirs of her Life.” It was probable that through Mrs. Carter, who was a great friend of his, he began to appreciate the manifold charms of Elizabeth Montagu. This is what Mrs. Carter says--
“None of his friends, I believe, will remember him longer and very few with equal affection. Indeed, there was something in his conversation and manners more engaging than can be described. With all those talents which had so long rendered him the object of popular admiration, he had not the least tincture of that vanity and importance which is too often the consequence of popular applause. He never took the lead in conversation, or even assumed that superiority to which he had a claim, as he was blessed with an exemption from many of the pains and infirmities of old age; he had none of its defects. In so many months as I was continually in his company last year (1763), I do not recollect a single instance of peevishness the whole time. His temper always appeared equal. There was a perpetual flow of vivacity and good humour in his conversation, and the most attentive politeness in his behaviour, nor was this the constrained effort of external and partial good breeding, but the natural turn of his mind, and operated so uniformly on all occasions that I never heard him use a harsh or even an uncivil expression to any of his servants.”
[Page heading: LORD MANSFIELD]
At the end of Mrs. Montagu’s letter she states that Lord Mansfield[274] had shown her
“great civilities the few hours he was here ... an old quaker of four-score, who was reckoned one of the greatest Chymists in Europe, and is a man of witt and learning and who was connected with all the witts of the last age, has taken a great fancy to me because he will believe, in spite of all I can say, that I wrote certain ‘Dialogues,’ and he sits by me so cordially and attends on me so much, that if he was forty and I was twenty years younger it would be scandalous.... Torriano will be kill’d by the Archbishop’s[275] sumptuous fare, who feeds more like a pig of Epicurus than the head of a Christian Church.”
[274] William Murray, Earl of Mansfield, born 1704, died 1793; eminent statesman, Lord Chief Justice, etc.
[275] John Gilbert, Archbishop of York, 1757 to 1761. Torriano seems to have been then his secretary.
[Page heading: WINNING A COAL MINE]
Mr. Montagu had been at Sandleford, where Morris, his wife, and little boy were spending some time. The little Morris was a great favourite, and delight to poor Mr. Montagu, who loved children. He was now preparing to set off northwards to Northumberland, having two collieries which he was going to work, or, as the expression was, to “win,” viz. Leamington and “Denton.” The first would cost a £1000, the latter, now called “Montagu’s main,” £5000. He consults his wife about all this, and adds, “I think j shall not while j live get rid of the trouble my succession has brought upon me, and have only one object, who, j hope, will reap the benefit of all my labour.” This meant his wife. At Tunbridge his wife, with “all our fine ladies and gentlemen,” was attending Mr. Ferguson’s lectures on Philosophy. In a letter of Lord Lyttelton’s he mentions his brother Richard. “Sir Richard, or rather ‘Duke Lyttelton’s’[276] Royall villa at Richmond, a finer room I never saw, and he seems made to sitt in it, with all the dignity of a gouty Prince. But though I greatly admired it, I would not have his gout to have his room.”
[276] He had married the Dowager Duchess of Bridgewater in 1745. She was second wife to Scroop, 1st Duke of Bridgewater.
To this letter a long answer is returned by Mrs. Montagu, and she informs Lord Lyttelton that, despite her eyes being very weak, she had been reading
“the new translation of Sophocles.... The Œdipus Coloneus affected me extreamly, and would have done so more if it had not been for the constant presence of the Chorus, but the passions are awed and checked by a crowd. I am more than ever averse to the Chorus because, though the translator tells us the Choruses of Sophocles are less alien to the subject of the Drama, than those of any other tragedian, yet here they hurt the interest of it very much.”
[Page heading: LADY HERVEY]
[Page heading: HAGLEY PARK]
She adds that she has “sent 4 sets of dressing boxes from hence as your Lordship desired. At the same time I took the liberty to send on a cheap set of tea-cups and coffee cups for a Tunbridge faring.” Lord Lyttelton returns answer, saying, “I dined at Dicky Bateman’s half gothick, half attick, half chinese and completely fribble house.” There he met “my old Love, Lady Hervey,[277] and my new love, Mrs. Hancock[278] not to mention Lady Primrose,[279] for whom I have a great friendship.” Lord Lyttelton was highly delighted with a favourable criticism of his first volumes of his “History of Henry II.” by the great Earl of Hardwicke,[280] too long to be inserted here. Lord Lyttelton had been rebuilding[281] Hagley House, his seat in Worcestershire, which was about to be publicly reopened. On August 18 he writes from there to say he has had to put this off till September 1.
“I have the pleasure to tell you that I find everything done incomparably well, as far as is done, and that the Beauty and Elegance of my House, upon the whole, exceeds my expectations. The bed which is adorned with your handywork is so pretty that if you were to see it I think you would own your pains were not lost. And then the prospect out of that chamber is so delightful, and in case of a rainy day the prints it is hung with are so amusing that if you were at Hagley I believe you would wish to lodge there yourself, and leave the best apartment to vulgar women of quality, who love finery better than the delicate beauties of Nature and Art. My lower print room in the Atticks is also much obliged to you for the boxes of its Toilette, which suit admirably well with the furniture of it.”
He then points out to her that “the glass lustres and the feathers for my bedroom are wanting,” and to order their despatch.
[277] A celebrated beauty, née Mary Lepell, widow of John, Lord Hervey, Pope’s “Sporus.”
[278] Mrs. Hancock, sister-in-law to Mrs. Vesey by Mrs. Vesey’s first marriage.
[279] Lady Primrose, widow of 3rd Viscount Primrose.
[280] Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, born 1690, died 1764; Lord Chancellor, etc.
[281] Mr. Millar was the architect.
In reply to this Mrs. Montagu writes to Tom, to spare his father’s writing, to say she delivered the girandoles herself to Mr. Griffith.
“I shall be mortified if they do not make part of the glories of the first.... My imagination will attend all the ceremonies of the day, and should my spirit appear it will not come like Banquo’s ghost to frown on the banquet, and least of all to frighten and menace the noble Master of the feast to whom I wrote a long and happy enjoyment of his new palace.”
Anne Stanley now left Mrs. Montagu, and her sister Sarah, afterwards Mrs. D’Oyley, took her place.
Mr. Montagu, who was contemplating going to Northumberland, paid his wife a short visit at Tunbridge, and started back to London on September 2. On September 4 his wife, in her letter to him, says--
“You may remember to have heard Lord Bath talk of a robbery here which a gentleman was suspected to have committed, of Bank bills to the amount of £300; this person, finding he was suspected, it is supposed, threw them this morning into the musick gallery on the Walks, where one of the Fidlers found them, and is entitled to £30 reward. The person who was guilty of this theft is a gentleman, and his brother is an officer of credit in the army, so one is glad he escapes, but the circumstances almost amount to a conviction. The person robbed was so overjoy’d at finding his bills he seem’d in a fever this morning.”
[Page heading: DR. MONSEY’S WAYS]
Dr. Monsey, seriously unwell, but anxious to see his beloved friend, paid Mrs. Montagu a short visit at Tunbridge to take farewell of her before her setting out to join her husband in Northumberland. In a letter to Lord Lyttelton of September 7 she says--
“The great Monsey came hither on Friday and stays till Thursday, he is an excellent piece of Tunbridge Ware. He is great in the Coffee house, great in the rooms, and great on the Pantiles. Bucks, Divines, Misses, and Virtuosi are all equally agreeable to him. Miss Sally Stanley leaves me on Friday. There is no abatement of Lord Bath’s[282] passion and I have had two sides of folio paper from the Bishop of London,[283] so affectionate, so polite, so badine it would surprise you. I answered his Lordship’s first letter, concerning the ‘Highland Poems,’[284] and with great deference urged the reasons which induced me to esteem them genuine. His Lordship pays great compliment to what I had said on the subject, answering other parts of my letter with spirit and gaiety, and at last concludes that, in spite of 83, without a voice, and with shaking hands, he had endeavoured to follow my train of thought, which he should always look upon as a very good direction.”
[282] Lord Bath had become an ardent admirer of her.
[283] Thomas Sherlock, born 1678, died 1761.
[284] Macpherson’s “Fragments of Ancient Poetry,” from the Gaelic.
She then informs Lord Lyttelton--
“I shall take leave of Tunbridge to-morrow sennight, the 15th of September. I shall take two days’ rest in London, and propose to set out on Thursday, 18th....”
[Page heading: MR. ALLAN RAMSAY]
Mrs. Montagu had invited Mr. and Mrs. Allan Ramsay to visit her at Tunbridge. Allan Ramsay was a portrait painter of note, son of Allan Ramsay[285] the Scotch poet, who wrote “The Gentle Shepherd” and other poems. He writes on September 11 thus--
[285] Allan Ramsay, the poet, born 1686, died 1758.
“MADAM,
“By a letter from my wife last post, I learn that you have been so good as to renew your invitation to us to be your guests at Tunbridge--an offer so advantageous that my not availing myself of it sooner must put my understanding in a suspicious light, from whence I should be glad to have it extricated and not to write so long an Apology as Colley Cibber’s for my life, thus it is. Two small daughters were inoculated; it was necessary for me and mine to perform quarantine at a distance from many of our most respectable friends, particularly from you; I had some business to settle in Scotland, and my friend Wedderburne[286] was going thither alone. Having finished my business within my fortnight of Quarantine, I have been detained from day to day in hopes of seeing his Grace of Argyll, of whose setting out we got the first certain account yesterday by a letter from Grantham. Whether this relation will give you a more favourable opinion of my sense than you would have had without it, I don’t know, but by much drinking with David Hume and his associates, I have learnt to be very historical; and am nightly confirmed in the belief that it is much easier to tell the How than the Why of any thing, and that it is, moreover, better suited to the state of man; who, we are satisfied from self-examination, is anything rather than a rational animal. I am sorry to hear that you propose to leave Tunbridge so soon as the 15th. If you happen to have such heavenly weather there as we have in this place, you will be probably tempted to stay some days longer; in which case my wife and I may still enjoy the pleasure, with which we flattered ourselves, of passing a day or two with you. I see by the newspapers that Admiral Boscawen is come safe home, and when you write to the Lady, be so good as to transmit my hearty congratulations, who am, with the greatest respect,
“Madam, “Your most obliged and most faithfull Servant, “ALLAN RAMSAY.
“Edinburgh, Sept. 11, 1760.”
[286] Sir John Wedderburne, born 1729, died 1803.
[Page heading: LETTER TO THE DUCHESS OF PORTLAND]
[Page heading: HIGHLAND POEMS]
On September 15 Mrs. Montagu returned to Hill Street. On Thursday, the 18th, she enclosed Bishop Sherlock’s[287] letter to her for the Duchess of Portland to read.
[287] Thomas Sherlock, born 1678, died 1761.
“Hill Street, Thursday.
“MADAM,
“I have enclosed the Bishop of London’s letter, which I beg of your Grace to keep till you have a leisure hour in which I may receive it from your hands, either here or at Whitehall; in the mean time I am perfectly satisfied as to the letter being safe, and shall not wish to have it return’d till it is most convenient to your Grace to pay me for any pleasure it may have given you, by that I shall have in its procuring me an hour of your company. I think indeed the letter will afford you a good deal of pleasure, it must be a great comfort to every good mind to see how religion can impart not only patience but even cheerfulness under the greatest bodily infirmities. I find it will be necessary to trouble your Grace with some explanation of the Bishop’s letter. Before I went to Tunbridge, I sent his Lordship the ‘Highland Poems,’[288] by the Dean of York, and the day before I went to Tunbridge my Lord sent them back with a very obliging note to thank me for them, but express’d his opinion that they were not genuine. I was a little distress’d by this favour, as I had not an opportunity to wait on the Bishop before my journey. I thought to write to him and assume the air of being his correspondent would have too much appearance of presumption, and not to thank him for his note might look like neglect, so I waited till the season allow’d me to send him some wheatears and to assure him I wrote only as his poulterer. As it was natural to take notice of what his Lordship had said concerning the poems, I ventured with the utmost deference to give the reasons why I should have believed them to be genuine and original, and then return’d back to my character of Poulterer and desir’d his Lordship to forgive my presumption and order my letter to be put on the wheatears when roasting to preserve them from being burnt. I ask pardon for this long story, but it was necessary as a key to the Bishop’s letter. Your Grace will find some mistakes made by his Secretary.
“I was misinform’d the other night when I told your Grace Mr. Wortley Montague was gone abroad, he is in England, but where is a secret even to his lawyer, and those who are imploy’d on his affairs. I thought it right to let your Grace know this, as it appears to me very singular, as he is now under the protection of privilege. I know you will be so good as not to mention I told your Grace this unless it be to Lady Bute, who I should think had better know this circumstance. I beg my best respects to my Lord Duke, and Lady Harriet Bentinck.
“With the greatest regard,
“I am, Madam, “Your Grace’s most obliged most obedᵗ and faithful humble Servᵗ, “E. MONTAGU.”
[288] “Fragments of Ancient Poetry,” translated from the Erse or Gaelic language, by James Macpherson.
[Page heading: BISHOP SHERLOCK’S LETTER]
[Page heading: “MORE LAST WORDS”]
This is the Bishop’s letter--
“Fulham, ye 1st Septembʳ, 1760.
“MADAM,
“When I was a boy at Eton school, I remember it was a Principle of the Law Marshall (practised there): that he who gave the second blow was the beginner of the Fray; and there is something in it, if you consider it; however at this time, it will help to excuse me from the Presumption and folly of inviting you to a Combat, in which I can have no hopes of success. When I read on, and observe with what accuracy and finesse you trace the motions of the Heart, and call Nature from the inmost recess’s to discover plainly what arts is usually employ’d to conceal; I am confounded.
“It is true indeed that you have named the Passions and Qualifications of the person to be Described, but what Work will a man make, who should think that he had got all the Secrets; tho’ he was unacquainted or incapable to understand it, to such a man. Alexander the Great and Diogines (sic) are Characters alike, for they were both Actuated by the Spirit of Ambition, one who wanted a new World to display himself in, the other valued nothing beyond the Tub he lived in. In the midst of this Philosophical enquirey about the Passions, you very artfully turn to your Family Affairs and give (I doubt not) excellent directions to the Cook wᶜʰ shows you to be as great in the Kitchin as in the Closet, which indeed is the only way of being great in either.
“Nothing, I think, is more disagreeable than Learning in a Female, when the Mistress studys Newton, which perhaps she neither does nor ever will understand, to the absolute neglect of her Children and Servants. You conclude by putting in your claim for the Lady’s Privilege, which is a very extensive one; give me leave to tell you a short story.
“There was a poor Printer who had got a little sum of Money, by publishing the last words of a dying Criminal, and he grew so fond of last words, that after the Man had been long dead, he published another paper called MORE last words. Thus you see, Madam, that I have in spite of eighty-three, without a Voice, and with shaking Hands, endeavoured to follow your Strain of thought, which I shall always look upon to be a very good direction. My time of Life calls upon me to think of other Subjects, and the greatest of all to Justifie the ways of God to men. This theme can never wear out, it takes in the whole of God’s Dispensation, with respect to the Religion of the World, and shows by the connection in the several parts that the whole is the work of perfect Wisdom.
“But I am going to preach instead of Answering a short letter, you will pardon me for looking back upon my old profession, and believe me to be, with the greatest Sincerity,
“Madam, “Your most obedient Humble Servᵗ, “THO: LONDON.
“P.S.--Mrs. Sherlock and Mrs. Chester desire their respectfull compliments.”
The Bishop’s amanuensis’ spelling and capital letters are singular. The letter is signed in trembling characters, “Tho: London.”
[Page heading: DR. YOUNG]
On September 19 Mrs. Montagu set out from Hill Street on her journey to Northumberland, starting in a postchaise and picking up Ned and her own horses at Baldock, and so reached Buckden on the same day. She writes to Mr. Montagu--
“I call’d on Dr. Young at Welling and staid about two hours with him, he received me with great cordiality, and I think appears in better health than ever I saw him. His house is happily opposite to a church yard, which is to him a fine prospect; he has taught his imagination to sport with skulls like the grave-digger in Hamlet. He invited me to stay all night, and if my impatience to see you had not impell’d me on, I had been tempted to it. His conversation has always something in it very delightful; in the first place it is animated by the warmest benevolence, then his imagination soars above the material world, some people would say his conversation is not natural. I say it is natural of him to be unnatural, that is out of the ordinary course of things. It would be easier for him to give you a catalogue of the Stars than an inventory of the Household furniture he uses every day. The busy world may say what it pleases, but some men were made for speculation, metaphysical men, like jars and flower pots, make good furniture for a cabinet tho’ useless in the kitchen, the pantry and the Dairy.”
In a fragment of a letter to Lord Lyttelton, Mrs. Montagu describes her visit to Dr. Young. She had heard “the Dialogues of the Dead praised to the highest degree, and with taste and judgment in a most delicate sense of their moral merits.”
Through Mrs. Montagu, Dr. Monsey sends to Dr. Young a powder for his rheumatism. From “Hog Magog” on September 26, Dr. Monsey writes a long letter to Lord Lyttelton, describing his visit to Tunbridge to see “dear Amadissa,” meaning Mrs. Montagu. In it he says--
“It may be new to your Lordship tho’ not strange, that the Earl of Bath is fall’n desperately in love with one who seems not insensible of his passion, and I think ’tis time for you and I to look about us, for an Earl is better than a Baron or a quack Doctor ... it is impossible for me to tell your Lordship with what warmth he talk’d to me about her, and so now there are 3 fools of us. ‘She is the most extraordinary woman in the world’ with a nod of the head and a grave face, ‘she beats a french Duchess with an hard name all to pieces, upon my word, Doctor, she is----’ ‘Ay, so she is, my Lord, but neither I nor you know what.’ ‘Suppose we say angel.’ ‘No,’ says I, ‘Devil, for she leads us all into temptation.’”
On receipt of this, Lord Lyttelton wrote to Mrs. Montagu, and says--
“I wish Lady Hervey[289] mayn’t poison you for stealing Lord Bath from her, as for myself, I will not plead against him as my Rival that I am a younger man (for that plea you will not regard) but that I am an older friend. Adieu, inconstant woman, I feel horribly jealous, but if you won’t love me better, pray love me next to Lord Bath.”
He also chaffs her for spoiling Miss Stanley’s chance of marrying Lord Bath.
[289] Lady Hervey was a great friend of Lord Bath’s.
[Page heading: MR. BOWES’ FUNERAL]
[Page heading: SIR JAMES COLEBROOKE]
From Newcastle, on September 26, Mrs. Montagu writes to her father--
“SIR,
“I arrived here last night and had the pleasure of finding Mr. Montagu very well. He went this morning to Gibside to attend Mr. Bowes’[290] funeral obsequies, which according to the custom of this county are to be very pompous. Lord Ravensworth, Sir Walter Blacket and all the gentlemen of Northumberland and the county of Durham are to be at it, and I fear it will be late at night before it is over, tho’ they are to set out about 4 from Gibside to go to the church. My cousin Rogers’ funeral we had order’d to be as private as decency would permit, as he had been so long dead to Society, but even that was attended by 38 gentlemen’s coaches, so I suppose a publick funeral must be three or four hundred. In the South people live with more pomp and dye with less. I hope not to outlive all my vanity, for I have seldom seen a good and never an agreeable character without it, but I think it should not survive one, and I should desire not to go to the grave with all this bustle, not that I should be afraid any one should say of my funeral, as Pope does of Sir John Cutler’s--
“‘When dead a thousand lights attend The wretch who, living, sav’d a candle’s end.’
I love a blaze of wax lights and my friends about my living person very well, but the torches and the crowd about my dead body would give me neither light nor amusement. Sir Walter Blacket call’d here this morning, and said he hoped to ride in Hyde Park with you about the 15th of November. I had a very pleasant journey, for fine weather, like a good-humoured companion, makes ordinary scenes appear chearfull and pleasant, but from the time I left Hertfordshire till I got to Doncaster, the counties I pass’d through were dreary and barren, but if these prospects in the other counties were brown, these in Northumberland are bleak, the people in them a parcel of dirty Savages, so that I cannot say with the Psalmist that my lot is fallen in a fair ground, it is some comfort it is in a rich one, as I shall see its produce at Sir James Colebrooke’s in Threadneedle Street with great pleasure.... I met Sir Thomas Clavering just before I got to Darlington; he desired me to present his best respects to you and beg your vote and interest, he sets up for the county of Durham in the room of Mr. Bowes. Mr. Montagu gives him all his interest. If the Bishop of Durham should declare for Mr. Shaftoe (a very young man whose Father formerly served for Durham), Sir Thomas will be hard press’d. Lord Darlington will support Mr. Shaftoe, and most people imagine the Bishop of Durham will do so too. When applied to for Sir Thomas Clavering, he answered he should act as he found most agreeable to the majority of the county gentlemen. Now I imagine Bishops as well as women (both wear petticoats and a character of gentleness) command while seeming to submit, ‘and win their way by yielding to the tyde,’ and that my Lord Bishop in a mild way of suggestion will bring the gentlemen to that side he likes best, while he persuades them he follows their inclination. I must say his Lordship is much beloved from his liberality and affability, which are fine moral qualities, as to Xian graces, no doubt but he has them in a higher degree, so that as Prince Palatine or Bishop he must influence many. The Dean of Durham is strongly engaged to Sir Thomas, and there will be a sort of schism in the church.”
The Montagus were residing in Pilgrim Street, at the town house of the late Mr. Rogers; “an exceeding good house” it is called. In conclusion Mrs. Montagu says, “I shall send you some fatted moor game by the first opportunity.”
[290] George Bowes, of Gibside and Streatlam Castle.
[Page heading: MISS BOWES]
On October 11 Lord Lyttelton writes a long letter to “Madonna” from Hagley, commenting on Mr. Bowes’ death.
“As his vanity descends with his estate to his daughter, I don’t wish to see her my daughter-in-law, though she would make my son one of the richest and consequently, in our present ideas of greatness, one of the great peers of the Realm. But she will probably be the prize of some needy Duke, who will want her estate to repair the disasters of Newmarket and Arthur’s, or if she marries for love, of some ensign of the Guards, or smart Militia captain.”
[Page heading: LINDRIDGE]
Lord Lyttelton had just lost his clerical friend, Mr. Meadowcourt, of Lindridge, to whom he pays a high tribute.
“His house was the abode of Philosophical quiet and disinterested friendship. The scene about it was elegant, mild and beautifull Nature. The Hills on each side and the vale underneath it were covered with orchards, with Hop yards, with corn or fine grazing grounds thro’ which wound a river.... Now the Master is dead it is fall’n to the dullest of all dull Divines, one Stillingfleet, cousin to him you know, who has not taste enough to live there himself, but leaves it to a curate. He desires his compliments to Dr. Gregory, who was staying with the Montagus, and adds, ‘I am glad the Scotch like my Dialogues.’ He also desires if the Bishop of Ossory (Richard Pococke) is with them to send him on to Hagley, and assures Mrs. Montagu he is very well and grown quite plump. His thinness was a constant joke with his friends, who called him nothing but bones, and he contends if weighed in the balance with Lord Bath, he would be found ‘very wanting.’ The Devil take him for having so much witt with so much flesh. He commends his new house and his daughter, now living with him.”
Dr. Monsey writes to Mrs. Montagu from St. James’s on October 12, beginning the letter at 10 a.m., continued at 9 p.m., and finished the next day at Claremont. At the end of this letter he says that he has been very unwell and reported dead; he had made his will.
“While I am writing I have your letter come in, which gives an account of my death, which is true, but save yourself the trouble of an epitaph for me or your funeral sermon, for I have really given my body away by will to a Surgeon at Cambridge, who is to make a skeleton of my bones for the use of students in Physic, so if you have begun your epitaph with ‘Here he’s interr’d, etc.,’ change it to ‘Here hang the bones, etc.,’ and convert your sermon into an Osteological Lecture.”
[Page heading: THE GREEK PLAYS AND SHAKESPEARE]
Mrs. Montagu, in a long letter to Lord Lyttelton upon Euripides’ and Sophocles’ plays contrasted with Shakespeare’s, says--
“I am actually an inhabitant of Newcastle, and am taking out my freedom, not out of a gold box, but by entering into all the diversions of the place. I was at a musical entertainment yesterday morning, at a concert last night, at a musical entertainment this morning. I have bespoken a play for to-morrow night, and shall go to a ball on choosing a Mayor on Monday night.”
[Page heading: MR. RUST]
To this Lord Lyttelton replies from Hagley on October 18--
“You tell me, good Madonna, that you are grown as robust as a milkmaid. If you are so, I have no objection to your going to Balls, Plays or Poppet Shows if you please every night; but you have sometimes the spirits of a milkmaid without the strength. However, I believe Diversions are better for you than too much reading, and therefore I am not sorry you have no time to committ excess with your books. If I were to live with you, I would not trust you in a Library or alone in your Room but at stated hours with proper Intervals of exercise and conversation.... I am glad to hear we shall have another volume of Highland Poems. To stay your stomach (for, as I know, your appetite is eager towards them), I send you a copy of four of a later date than the others now printed, and not much inferior to them in the Natural Beauty and Force of Description, tho’ not, I think, so bold and sublime. Being purely descriptive, they could have nothing dramatic or passionate in them as most of the others have. But at the end of these you will find some objections I have as a Chronologist and Historian to the authenticity of the printed ones which it will be hard to get over. Yet I am not persuaded myself they are not genuine, for who can write so now? Mr. Rust[291] was so struck with them, he read them every morning and evening aloud to the Family as a Chaplain does Prayers. And the more I consider them, the more I admire them. I have seen some specimens in a Latin translation of the Poetry of the two most admired Welsh Bards, but they don’t in any degree approach to the greatness and the Beauty of these. I am charmed with your comparison between the Greek Plays and Shakespear. He is indeed unequalled in the power of painting Nature as she is and giving you sometimes the utmost energy of a Character of a Passion in short Stroke and Dash of his Pen. I also agree with you that the moral Reflexions in Shakespear’s Plays are much more affecting by coming warm from the Heart of the interested persons, than putt into the mouth of a chorus, as in the Greek Plays. I am glad you like my favourite Philoctetes. The faults you find with the Ajax are perfectly just, yet I feel the grief of that hero when he returns to his Reason, and especially in the scene between him and Termessa. Suppose Belisarius had gone mad with the unjust Disgrace he had suffer’d, and in his Distraction had done actions which dishonoured and exposed him to the Ridicule of his enemies, what a fine subject would it be for a play if he had killed himself upon recovering the Use of Reason. Setting aside the poetical Fiction, Ajax is Belisarius, and Sophocles has painted the horrors of a great mind so overwhelmed and confounded with shame in a very masterly manner.... I am glad your three Dialogues are well liked in Scotland, where the Author is not known. Those who know you and believe they are yours are hardly fair judges. Your form and manners would seduce Apollo himself in his throne of criticism on Parnassus itself....”
[291] Mr. Rust was travelling companion to the son of Mr. Hoare, of Stourhead, the great banker.
Alluding to her visit to Tunbridge and the society there, he says--
“There is Envy and Malice enough against Beauty alone, but Beauty, Wit, Wisdom, Learning and Virtue united (to say nothing about Wealth) are sure to excite a Legion of Devils against the Possessor. It is amazing to me that with all these dangerous things about you you have not been driven out of Society a great while ago.”
In a fragment of a letter Lord Lyttelton writes, “I presume Lady Hervey really likes them (the Dialogues), Lord Chesterfield’s warmth in their Praise has secured her vote in their favour, in spite of Horace Walpole and of Lord Bath.”
[Page heading: GREEN TEA AND SNUFF]
From Newcastle, on October 24, Mrs. Montagu writes to Mrs. Carter, telling her she had been suffering from toothache. She mentions a sonnet sent to her by Mrs. Carter, “which would have given me a pleasing melancholy if it had not represented your state and condition as it did; it cost me some tears and obliged me to go from table where I received your letter. Teach me to love you less or imitate you better. I admire the resignation with which you submit to your pain.” Mrs. Carter suffered from excruciating headaches at this period. Lord Bath said that if she would drink less green tea, take less snuff, and not study so much, they would disappear.
Mrs. Montagu says the house at Newcastle was very comfortable, and instead of an equipage, she could pay visits to her neighbours in a Sedan chair.
“That I might not offend here I enter’d into all the diversions of this town, visits, concerts, plays, and balls. The desire of pleasure and love of dissipation rages here as much as in London. Diversions here are less elegant and conversation less polite, but no one imagines retirement has any comforts, so that in a little while if one would enjoy retired leisure one must dwell amidst inaccessible mountains and unnavigable rivers.”
Dr. and Mrs. Delany had just paid a visit to Hagley, which pleased them much. Dean Lyttelton, writing on October 25 from Hagley, regrets that Bishop Pococke (of Ossory) had not visited Hagley on his return from Northumberland, where he had been staying with the Montagus. Evidently old Mrs. Pococke, the Bishop’s wife, was dead, as the Dean says it is fortunate for the Bishop his sister has made up her mind to remain at Newtown.[292]
“Such a low-bred, narrow-spirited woman would disgrace an episcopal house.... Mr. Palgrave spent two days here last week, and brought us some new Erse poems which Lord Lyttelton sent you a few days since. His strange figure and awkward silent behaviour did not recommend him greatly to the inhabitants of Hagley, or do much honour to my nephew’s taste in his friendships.”
[292] Her mother’s house near Newbury.
[Page heading: DEATH OF KING GEORGE II.]
[Page heading: GEORGE III. KING]
On October 25 King George II. died suddenly. Dr. Monsey wrote to inform Mrs. Montagu of this event, from St. James’s, and that--
“The suddenness of his Death made people call it an apoplexy, but I conclude otherwise from it. An apoplexy, except when a vessel breaks in the brain, is not so very rapid. People live four or six days or more, that is, they breathe and have a pulse. The King died in an instant, and from some strange odd faintnesses and oppressions upon his breath, I was almost sure ’twas in his heart or the great vessels near. And upon opening him, the Aorta, the canal which receives the Blood directly, was found burst (a very uncommon case), the Duke of Leeds says. I have known and seen it thickened, cartilaginous (crusty), and ossified, but I never met with a broken one; however, ’tis a species of Death he wished for, sudden, and nothing could be more so than this, for the instant that vessel breaks, the heart stops for ever and for ever....
“The King[293] had a levee to-day at one o’clock at Leicester House, and the Duke of Leeds, who with Mr. Godolphin dined with us to-day, says he so designs every day. No women are to appear at Court yet, so you may finish your affairs without being in a hurry. The Court goes into mourning on Sunday next ’tis said, and about a month hence the King is to be buried.”
[293] George III.
From Hagley, on October 26, Lord Lyttelton writes--
“MADONNA,
“The sudden death of the King will make me leave this place to-morrow, a week sooner than I had intended, and I propose to be in town on Tuesday or Wednesday. This is only to notify you, as I have not a moment to spare. I suppose all things will go on as they did for some time in the Court and the Nation. Certainly it is no season for any great changes. As to my own situation, I doubt not it will be as it is. The Dean received an admirable letter from you last Post. I have read it over and over with infinite pleasure. Come well to London, and let all the world go as it will. Adieu, you shall hear from me again as soon as I have seen my friends in Town, and can tell you any news. I am perfectly well, and am, Madam,
“Your most faithfull and obedient humble Servᵗ, “LYTTELTON.
“My respectfull compliments to Mr. Montagu.”
[Page heading: ON THE DEATH OF GEORGE II.]
[Page heading: MR. MACPHERSON]
To this Mrs. Montagu replies--
“Newcastle, ye 31st October, 1760.
“MY LORD,
“It would be perfect sacrilege and robbing the mighty dead of his due rites, if one began one’s letter with any subject but the loss of our sovereign; on which I condole with your Lordship, in whom the virtue of Patriotism, and the antequated one of Loyalty still remain. I know you had that veneration for our late King which the justice and prudence of his government so well deserved. With him our laws and liberties were safe; he possessed in a great degree the confidence of his people and the respect of foreign governments; and a certain steadiness of character made him of great consequence in these unsettled times. During his long reign we never were subject to the insolence and rapaciousness of favourites, a grievance of all others most intolerable when persons born only one’s equals shall by the basest means perhaps possess themselves of all the strength of sovereign power, and keep their fellow subjects in a dependance on illegal authority, which insults while it subjects, and is more grievous to the spirits than even to the fortunes of free-born men. If we consider only the evils we have avoided during his late Majesty’s reign, we shall find abundant matter of gratitude towards him and respect for his memory. His character would not afford subject for Epic poetry, but will look well in the sober page of history. Conscious, perhaps, of this, he was too little regardful of sciences and the fine arts; he considered common sense as his best panegyrist. The monarch whose qualities are brilliant enough to entitle him to glory, cultivates the love of the Muses, and their handmaid arts, painting, sculpture, etc., sensible that they will blazon and adorn his fame. I hope our young Monarch will copy his predecessor’s solid virtues, and if he endeavours to make them more brilliant by the help of poetry, eloquence, etc., etc., the happiness and glory of Britain will be great. His present Majesty’s religious disposition, and decent moral conduct, give us hope we shall not be plunged into riot, and lost in debauchery and libertinism, which, if it were to take place at Court, would soon affect a rich and luxurious nation, and the profaneness and immorality of Charles the Second’s days would, from the more prosperous state of our nation at present, be outdone....
“I will now thank your Lordship for your letter and the Highland compositions. Your remarks go far in staggering my faith as to their authenticity. I think they convince me the poems cannot be as ancient as pretended. It seems to me possible, that some great bard might from uncertain and broken tradition, and from the scattered songs of former bards, form an epic poem, which might not agree with history. The pillars in the hall of Fingal struck me at first reading; but I imagined they might not refer to polished marble pillars, but to smooth lime or beech trees which one may suppose to have been used as supporters in very rude buildings, and which would look smooth and shapely to one not used to polished marble; and I imagine convenience taught the use of such supporters long before they were introduced as ornaments.... I hear Lord Marchmont says our old Highland bard is a modern gentleman of his acquaintance; if it is so, we have a living Poet who may dispute the pas on Parnassus with Pindar and the greatest of the ancients, and I honour him for carrying the Muses into the country and letting them step majestic over hills, mountains and rivers instead of tamely walking in the Park or Piccadilly.... The Bishop of Ossory tells me Mr. Macpherson receives an £100 per annum subscription while he stays in the Highlands to translate the poems; if he is writing them, he should have a thousand at least....
“Dr. Gregory, in talking of Mr. Hume, said he had a great respect for your Lordship. The Dialogue of Bayle and Locke could not be agreeable to him.... Dr. Gregory says Mr. Hume told him he spent an evening with me at Mr. Ramsay’s, and he had received very favourable impressions of me, and, I find, said much more of me than I deserve. The Doctor told him I was not of his freethinking system, but Mr. Hume thinks that no fault in a woman.... Dr. Monsey is revenging my coquetry with Lord Bath by an assiduous courtship of Miss Talbot, but he can no more be untrue to me than the needle to the pole!”
[Page heading: “GAZETTE EXTRAORDINARY”]
The same day, October 31, Lord Lyttelton writes from his house in Hill Street--
“MADONNA,
“According to my promise, I now write to tell you the news of the town; and it is with great pleasure that I can assure you all parties unite in the strongest expressions of zeal and affection for our young King, and approbation of his behaviour. Since his accession he has shown the most obliging kindness to all the royal family, and done everything that was necessary to give his government quiet and unanimity in this difficult crisis.... There will be no changes in the ministry, and I believe few at Court. The Duke of Newcastle hesitated some time whether he should undertake his arduous office in a new reign, but has yielded at last to the earnest Desires of the King himself, of the Duke of Cumberland, and of the heads of all Parties and Factions, even those who were formerly most hostile to him. His friend and mine, Lord Hardwicke, has been most graciously talked to by the King in two or three audiences, and will, I doubt not, continue in the Cabinet Council with the weight and influence he ought to have there.... Lord George Sackville has been admitted to kiss the king’s hand, and thus ends my gazette extraordinary. As for myself, I got well to town on Wednesday night, was at Court on Thursday morning, was spoken graciously to by the King, and am told by everybody that I grow fat.” He then urges Mrs. Montagu to return from Northumberland at once. “I have often told you that you are a mere hot-house plant, fine and rare, but incapable of enduring the cold of our climate, if you are not housed the first day that the white frosts come in.
“I found Mrs. Pitt in pretty good health and spirits; she is well-housed, though she has left your palace in Hill Street.”
[Page heading: GEORGE II.--WILL]
This was Anne Pitt,[294] late maid of honour, who had been staying in Mrs. Montagu’s house till her own was furnished. Further on in the same letter he says--
“The King has opened his grandfather’s Will in presence of all the royal family, and it is said the Duke of Cumberland is heir to the much greater part of what his Majesty had to dispose of, but that is much less than was supposed. The next best share is the Princess Emilia’s.[295] The sums are not mentioned. Mr. Pitt has just had a new and very extraordinary mark of the affection of the city, in an inscription they have put upon the first stone of the new bridge. I would have sent it you with to-day’s paper in which it is printed, but somebody has stolen it out of my room. You will see it in the next Chronicle. It speaks of a certain contagion by which Generals, Admirals, Armies and Fleets catch valour and prudence from him, to the great benefit of our affairs.”
[294] Sister of Lord Chatham.
[295] Sometimes called Princess Amelia, daughter of George II.
From Hill Street, on November 5, Lord Lyttelton again writes to Mrs. Montagu--
“If I were to write the History of my own Times, I would transcribe into it your character of the late King, and should thereby pay my Debt of gratitude to his memory. I would only add to it that it appears from several Wills he has left, that he never had been such a Hoarder of Treasure as was generally supposed. And of what he had saved this war has consumed so much that he was able to leave no more to his three children than thirty thousand pounds in equal proportions, and I have heard that the Duke has given up his to his sisters. Princess Emily is come to live in my brother’s House like a private woman. It is said the Princess of Wales will not come to St. James’s. The great court offices are not yet settled, but I believe it is certain that Lord Bute[296] will be continued Groom of the Stole, and Lord Huntingdon[297] Master of the Horse.”
In a later part of the letter he assures her that Emin, who had been reported murdered by the Turks, had got back safely to his father in Calcutta.
“I presume he will go to some Indian Nabob or Rajah, and then you may have the pleasure of tracing his marches on the banks of the Ganges, and over many regions where the Gorgeous East showers on her Kings Barbaric Pearls and Gold; and if he is successful, large tribute of those pearls and gold will come to you.”
[296] John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute, born 1713, died 1792; married Mary Wortley Montagu.
[297] Francis, 10th Earl of Huntingdon, son of the famous Lady Huntingdon, the patroness of the “Huntingdon Connexion” branch of the Methodists.
[Page heading: MR. AND MRS. VESEY]
Mention is made of Mr. Vesey visiting Hagley, his wife too indisposed to accompany him. “Alas! in all that prospect I have not one glimpse of you. When will you come and dance on my lawns or sport on my hills with the Muses, or meditate in my woods with the pensive Goddess of Wisdom.”
Mrs. Montagu started on her return to London on November 10. From Weatherby she answers the above letter on November 11, having journeyed “48 miles through the roughest roads in the gloomiest day in the dreariest month of the year.” Mention is made of the King’s funeral. “I approve much of your Lordship’s prudence in not going to the King’s funeral,[298] it is a ceremony for those who wish to catch a cold rather than for one who wants to get rid of one.”
[298] The funeral of King George took place the same day, November 11, 1760.
[Page heading: FLOODS]
From Ferrybridge, on the 15th, Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband that the rain had been so heavy that the waters of Newark were said to be impassable.
Arrived at Grantham on Sunday the 17th, she writes--
“MY DEAREST,
“I got here very safe to-night, but the journey from Ferrybridge has been very unpleasant, from the great depth of the waters. Our coach is fortunately hung very high, all the people who passed Newark to-day got a great deal of water into their carriage, but I had very little. The waters were impassable till this morning, and it is now raining hard, so I had good fortune to get thro’ in the short interval; some of the water near Barnby Moor was as deep as at Newark, and tho’ this is only a long day’s journey, I have got out every day as soon as it was light; the horses perform admirably. I shall get to Stilton to-morrow, and, I hope, get you some cheese.”
Writing the same evening to Lord Lyttelton, she says--
“Do not figure to yourself that I sit like Aurora in her car drawn by the rosy-bosom’d hours, les jeux et les ris, but imagine Dobbin and Whitenose and their 4 companions all mire and dirt, dragging me through deep water, over huge stones, the winds blowing, the clouds low’ring and rain darkening the windows of the coach.”
[Page heading: A GREAT LADY’S AVARICE]
In a letter to Mr. Montagu, from Stilton, is this amusing passage--
“Lord Panmure pass’d me on the road yesterday, and I hear all the Scotch are gone to town from Peers to Pedlars, and I suppose all with the same intention to sell something and to get money. I found that a Scotch countess had bought all the black cloth, crapes and bombazeen, black ribbons, and fans at Darlington before the poor shopkeepers knew of the King’s death. She bought a great many suits of broad cloth and crape, which must be with an intention to sell them at a higher price in town, but surely nothing could be more mean than to enter into such a traffick and take advantage of the Shopkeepers’ ignorance, and it seems to me not honest. This lady is wife to Lord C----t; I believe I mistook when I called her a countess. The town was soon inform’d of the reason she had bought such a quantity of mourning, and I wonder she was not mobbed. The ladies at Darlington and in the neighbourhood are very angry, for she left but two yards of crape in the whole town.”
Lady Frances Williams, writing on November 19 to Mrs. Montagu from Bath, where she was drinking the waters, says--
“I no sooner heard of the loss of our good old King than I thought with regret of our friend Mrs. Pitt. I believe it has prevented her coming to this place, where I proposed much pleasure in meeting her. I hear the G--t minister’s friends, the mob, have posted upon all the Palaces--
‘A Pittical administration,--no Sc--tch influence;’
and on the Royal Exchange--
‘No petticoat administration, no Lord G. S--k--lle[299] at Court.’”
[299] Lord George Sackville.
[Page heading: THE KING’S FIRST SPEECH]
[Page heading: GOING TO COURT]
Writing on November 20 to her husband, Mrs. Montagu says--
“The young King spoke his speech[300] with great grace; his voice, they say, is very fine, and his delivery most remarkably good. The Princess Dowager is not to be at St. James’s, and people think she looks chagrin’d; no doubt she had visions of power and authority which will probably not be answered; all people seem glad that she is not likely to have influence. Dr. Wilson made a very flattering sermon at Court, upon which the King express’d great displeasure, and order’d all the Chaplains should be told he did not come to Church to hear himself praised. Lord Egremont[301] made a fine speech in the House of Lords for the address. Lord Royston is to move for the address in the House of Commons to-day, and Sir Richard Grosvenor,[302] who is to be made a peer, it is said, seconds him. Mr. Pratt[303] is to be made Lord Chief Justice in room of Willes, whose son is to be Solicitor-General, and Mr. York attorney. Some say Pratt is to be made a Peer. There seems a very strong union between Pitt and the Duke of Newcastle, but as yet no one knows how things will combine. The whole Cocoa Tree[304] and every human creature has been at Court, and this being said one day in a large company, I was ask’d when I should go. I said not till you came to town, but when you did you intended I should be presented. Mrs. Boscawen said she suppos’d I should be introduced by Lady Bute, as we were relations, and visited; I answered no, for I should not go as a courtier....
“I should ask Lady Cardigan to carry me, who was the head of the Montagu family, and a person who went as a great independant lady to pay her duty to her sovereign without being a courtier. It seems if I am to go to Court, I must not appear anywhere till I have kiss’d hands, which makes it necessary, if done, to be done soon, but I shall wait your orders, and I beg you to speak freely.”
[300] Parliament met on November 13.
[301] Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont.
[302] Sir Richard Grosvenor, afterwards 1st Earl Grosvenor.
[303] Made 1st Earl Camden, became Lord Chancellor and Lord President of the Council.
[304] A famous Whig coffee-house.
To this letter Mr. Montagu replies--
“The distance j am now at from you, unhappily hinders me from discussing an affair of this moment with you and consulting with myne or your friends. At present j can only say that if you mean nothing more than paying your duty to our new sovereign j see no harm in it, and j think Lady Cardigan of all others the properest person to introduce you; but if you go further, before you give your attendance at a Court, j wish you would take the consequences into your most serious thoughts. The principal reason of my absenting myself ever since j was Member of Parliament was that j did not concur in the measures that were then taking, and the Principal members in the opposition thought they had no business at St. James, and j believe neither the wifes of the Peers nor of the Members of the House of Commons were found there. If j should be still so unhappy as out of dislike for the present measures not to alter my way of acting, and not to appear at Court, would it be proper for you to be attendant? Indeed, it seems to me that it would not, but if you can make out the contrary upon any sound Principles of reason j will readily submit. I have for many years liv’d in a state of Independancy though j may truly call it of Proscription, so far as those could make it to those who thought not, and acted not with them where politics they thought endanger’d the Liberties and good of their country, am j to alter now, or maintain the same conduct j hitherto have done? Whilst j flatter’d myself that we were in the same way of thinking, and that my conduct met with your approbation, j did hardly suffer anything. I then thought and still reflect with the utmost sense of gratitude on the sacrifice you made me in your early bloom, by giving up all the pleasures and gaieties of a Court, and it was the greater because you had all the advantages of beauty and sense to shine and make a figure there. I think that capacity is not so far gone as you in your modesty are pleas’d to say, and j may add in some sense perhaps improv’d, either at a Court or anywhere else j wish you every thing that is good that you may long enjoy that good will and esteem which your merit has acquir’d you, and leave the rest to your own candid and impartial consideration.”
To this his wife replies--
“I had yesterday your most kind and judicious letter, and my own way of thinking coincides so much with yours I have no merit in acquiescence. Your wonted independancy I hope in God you will ever preserve.... If you should be in opposition, I shall drop going at all; as to Peers, all who were not profess’d Jacobites, and also their wives, always went to St. James’, even the most protesting Lords, till the Division between the late King and late Prince of Wales.”
[Page heading: KISSING HANDS]
At the end of the letter Lord Bath is mentioned as urging her to kiss hands, and she declares she will only attend two drawing-rooms a year, and not those, if Mr. Montagu disapproves.
[Page heading: MR. PITT AND THE SECRET]
On November 22, from Hill Street, Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband that her toothache having been very agonizing, she had sent to Mr. Lodomie to examine her teeth. As he is often mentioned, he must have been the fashionable dentist of that period. In the same letter we read that--
“there has been a quarrel between General Townshend[305] and Lord Albemarle,[306] which had ended in a duel if Mr. Stanley[307] had not carried the Captain of the Guards to take them into custody. The story is too long for a letter. Mr. Townshend appears to have been too hasty: Lord Albemarle behaved very well, and all is now made up. Mr. Beckford in the House of Commons the day before yesterday call’d our German campaign this year a languid campaign, for which Mr. Pitt gave him a notable threshing, repeating languid and languor several times, and once how rash must that gentleman be, how inconsiderate, if he calls this languid, after repeating what had been done, and after enlarging on everything, again, again, and again, retorting the languid upon Beckford, who himself made a languid campaign, not returning to the charge. I heard of a good piece of witt of Mr. Pitt on my Lord Mayor of London’s absurdly asking him in the Drawing-room, where the secret expedition was destined. He ask’d his Lordship if he could keep a secret, which the grave Magistrate assured him he could upon his honour, and expected to be inform’d, on which Mr. Pitt only made a low bow and said, so can I, Sir, a very proper reproof for his impertinent question.”
[305] George Townshend, 4th Viscount and Marquis, born 1723, died 1807.
[306] George Keppel, 15th Earl of Albemarle.
[307] Hans Stanley, of Paultons, Hants.
December 2. Mrs. Montagu writes to Lord Bath--
“Mrs. Montagu presents her compliments to my Lord Bath, and has the pleasure to send him the Bishop of London’s letter to the King, which she had never been able to get till yesterday; she begs of his Lordship not to give any copy of the letter. If the Bishop should have any human vanity still subsisting, it must be of such a kind as will be gratified by the approbation of Lord Bath, but would disdain common and ordinary applause. Mrs. Montagu hopes my Lord Bath remembers he was so good as to promise her the honour and pleasure of his company at dinner on Sunday next.
“Hill Street, Tuesday ye 2nd of Decber.”
[Page heading: BISHOP OF LONDON’S LETTER]
The Bishop’s letter is dated Novr. 1, 1760--
“SIRE,
“Amidst the Congratulations that surround the Throne, permit me to lay before your Majesty the Sentiments of a Heart, which tho’ oppressed with Age and Infirmity, is no Stranger to the Joys of my Country. When the melancholy news of the Late King’s Demise reached us, it Naturally Led us to Consider the Loss we had sustained, and upon what our Hopes of futurity Depended: the first Part excited grief and put all the tender Passions into motion, but the Second Brought Life and Spirit with it, and wiped away the tear from every face.
“O how graciously Did the Providence of God provide a Successor able to bear the weight of government in that unexpected Event.
“You, Sir, are the Person whom the people ardently Desire, which Affection of theirs is happily returned by your Majesty’s Declared Concern for their prosperity; and Let Nothing Disturb this Mutual Consent. Let there never be but one Contest between them, whether the King Loves the people best, or the people him, and may it be a Long, very Long, Contest between them, may it never be decided, but Let it remain doubtful, and may the paternal affection on one side, and the filial Obedience on the other, be had in perpetual Remembrance. As this will probably be the Last time I shall ever trouble your Majesty, I beg leave to express my warmest wishes and prayers on your behalf: may the God of heaven and earth have you always under his protection, and Direct you to Seek his honour and Glory in all you Do, and may you reap the Benefit by an increase of Happiness in this world and in the next.”
[Page heading: BILLETS DOUX]
Lord Bath’s answer was--
“MADAM,
“I suppose you intended that I should return you the Bishop’s letter, which I promise you nobody has taken a copy of, nor have I done it myself, and I have shown it but to two persons.
“What a charming thing it is to be able to write with such vivacity and spirit, at past four score; and oppress’d as he says with age and infirmitys. But strange as that may be, I know a more extraordinary thing, and that is of a Person near the same age (but without infirmitys indeed) that is at this Instant over head and ears in Love. How does he wish he could write with as much Spirit and Love to his Mistress, as the Bishop does with Loyalty to his Master, with this difference only, the one wishes this contention of Love may never be decided, the other hopes it may be brought to an issue as soon as possible, by the only proper means of Determination, and let the Posterity arising from thence be a proof to future Generations of the ardency of the Affection of her
“Most passionate Adorer.
“Wednesday, 10 a clock, Decr., 1760.”
To this Mrs. Montagu replies--
“MY LORD,
“I have sent your Lordship back the Bishop of London’s letters, which cannot be more honourably placed than in your Cabinet. From an apprehension that this letter may be degraded by appearing in a magazine or Chronicle I was desirous to communicate it to my friends, under such restraints as would secure me from blame in case of accident. As I do not expect a billet-doux every morning, I was unluckily asleep (observe that I do not say not dreaming of Lord Bath) when your letter arrived. I cannot express how much I admire your Lordship’s parody of a Bishop’s pastoral letter. As I have got but halfway towards the ardours of four score, your Lordship will not expect I should immediately comply with your proposal; but if you will be content with a sentimental love till I arrive at the tender age of eighty, a person and a passion so ripened by time must be very yielding. And according to the latest reckoning of the learned and ingenious Mr. Whiston, the Millenium will then commence, so that we may have a proper period in which to prove our constancy and love; and at a moderate computation, may produce a thousand of those proofs of it which your Lordship seems to think the best testimony.
“I am now very much, but at the commencement of the next century hope to be entirely,
“Yours.
“I hope your Lordship will not forget your engagement on Sunday, for I have been interrupted in my letter by a visit from a very pretty man of five and twenty, whose conversation is so far from the spirit of your Lordship’s letter that I cannot but be tired of the insipidity of these young people.”
[Page heading: LORD CHESTERFIELD’S BON MOT]
Writing to her husband on December 2, Mrs. Montagu says--
“I dined with Lord Bath on Sunday; he was in high spirits. At his table I heard an admirable bon mot of Lord Chesterfield’s; he said the King was in doubt whether he should burn Scotch coal, Pitt coal, or Newcastle coal!... Our young King had a fall from his horse this morning, but no mischief, except a little bruise on his shoulder. His attendants seemed much frightened, at which he smiled and told them they forgot he had four brothers.”
Mr. Montagu writes on December 7 from Newcastle to say that he is going to the Election at Durham to vote for Sir Thomas Clavering. He says, “I shall set off with Sir Thomas’ cavalcade to-morrow, and to dine and lye at Newton, where Mr. Liddell has invited me to take a bed during the whole time of the Poll.” On December 12 he writes to say the Poll was not over and cost each candidate £1000 a day.
[Page heading: THE MILLENNIUM]
Lord Bath writes to Mrs. Montagu in return for her last letter--
“MADAM,
“I have sent you some game, which I hope to partake with you to-morrow. Indeed, Madam, you are too cruel to desire to postpone my happiness till the beginning of the next century. I can die for the lady I love any day she pleases to command me, but to live 40 years for her is more than I can promise; besides, Madam, I would have you consider that in all the conquests Love makes, there is on the male side, constantly a little pride and vanity; do you think that I have not something of that kind, in the pleasure I propose to myself of making Mr. Montagu jealous, and of triumphing and insulting over Dr. Monsey; and can you yourself promise me either of these forty years hence? In conscience therefore reduce the horrid period of forty years to twenty at most, and tell me in your next, come twenty years hence and be happy. But all you promise in your letter is, that the beginning of next century, perhaps, you may begin to listen. This cold proceeding, with an impetuous Lover of fourscore, who is impatient to convince you how much he loves you and how passionately he is yours for the remainder of the millenium, whenever it begins,
“BATH.”
From St. James’s on December 14, Dr. Monsey writes a folio letter to Mrs. Montagu, beginning--
“SERENISSIMA PRINCIPESSA!
“There are no bounds to Pride, because an Earl is fallen in love with you, you must kiss a King, and just as he is on the brink of matrimony. How dare you do so audacious a thing, whilst your Hubby is alive too? Had he broke his neck down a coal pit the matter had been nothing, but to inflame the heart of a young monarch when he can reap no benefit from it without breaking the laws of his Kingdom, or your breaking the Laws of God. Let me tell you, Madam (if I now may presume to tell you anything), it is a very imprudent step. Emin has miscarried in Persia, and so now you will let yourself down to the deluding hopes of being Queen of England. Can you sleep this night while Majesty lies tumbling and tossing, and starts at Montagu peeping thro’ his curtains;--My Kingdom for this Woman, or this Woman for my Kingdom. Have you chosen your ladies of the bedchamber, pitched upon your coronation, and made me your chief Physician....”
[Page heading: DR. MONSEY’S DOGGEREL VERSE]
After a long rhodomontade, he falls into doggerel verse, a frequent habit of his in his letters. As I have not hitherto recorded any verses of his in this work, I will give this specimen--
“What power can withstand Gt. Britain’s King, Where for a Queen he has so fair a thing? Nations fight Nations, and one fool beats t’other, And Frederick[308] pommels his dear Polish brother. He burns a town and then knocks down a Church, Then Daun comes thundering with a rod of birch. He scampers, then he rallies, whip goes Daun, Old boy, I’ll meet you on a Torgau[309] lawn. They meet, they fight, and then more bloody noses, And then great victories, as our news supposes. They both are Victors, yet both beaten well, And who’s best man the Devil himself can’t tell. Things are by both into confusion hurled, Montagu speaks, and she subdues the world.”
[308] Frederick “the Great.”
[309] The battle of Torgau, fought on November 3, 1760.
Lord Bath had been most anxious about his son, Lord Pulteney, who had been appointed to the secret expedition which Mr. Pitt designed to send to France. This scheme was given up, and Mrs. Montagu wrote to congratulate Lord Bath upon this.
[Page heading: BERENGER MADE MASTER OF THE HORSE]
In a letter to Mr. Montagu his wife informs him that “Lord Bute has given Mr. R. Berenger[310] a place of £300 per annum, with a house in the Meuse: it came à propos, for a few weeks ago he was in danger of a perpetual lodging at the Fleet.”
It will be remembered Berenger was nephew to Mr. Gilbert West, his mother being a Temple.
[310] Master of the Horse; author of “The History and Art of Horsemanship.”
Lady Forbes, mother of Mrs. Gregory, wrote on December 20 to Mr. Montagu to ask his influence in procuring for Doctor Gregory the Professorship of Botany at the University of Edinburgh.
[Page heading: GEORGE COLMAN, THE ELDER]
In a letter dated 1760, presumably in February, Lord Bath writes to Mrs. Montagu--
“MADAM,
“There is more easy natural witt in any two of your most careless lines than there is in all Colman’s Play,[311] and as for his dedication you may be sure the Rogue meant to abuse me for pretending to chide him for his neglect of Lord Cooke;[312] however, I have this day, to amend his manners, constituted him a Judge in Shropshire, on condition that he never makes another Rhime, unless it be an Epithalamium twenty years hence, when the Millenium begins.
“I return you many thanks for the kind present you sent me, and will keep them till you do me the honour to dine with me, which I hope will be Wednesday or Thursday, as you chuse, but on Tuesday evening I cannot be sure of being free, since Sir Phil Boteler, Miss Desbouveries, and some other company are to dine with me, and stay the evening at cards.”
George Colman was nephew, by marriage, to Lord Bath, his mother being a Miss Gumley, sister of Lady Bath.
[311] George Colman the elder, born 1732, died 1794; dramatist, etc. His first acknowledged comedy, “The Jealous Wife,” first acted at Drury Lane on the 12th of February, 1761, and dedicated to the Earl of Bath as a “lover of the belles lettres.”
[312] Means Lord Coke, in his work upon Lyttelton. In 1757, Colman had been entered by Lord Bath at Lincoln’s Inn and called to the bar.