ENGAGEMENT AND EARLY MARRIED LIFE.
I have made but few allusions to Elizabeth’s love triumphs, but as
the time approaches when she was to make her final choice, I must now
allude to them. There was a certain “Mr. B.,” from what I can gather
a Mr. Brockman, of Beechborough, a fine place near Mount Morris, who
had been desperately in love with her for some time; he is frequently
alluded to in the family letters. In one to Sarah at this period
Elizabeth says--
“Poor Mr. B. really takes his misfortunes so to heart that he is
literally dying, indeed I hear he is very ill, which I am sorry
for, but I have no balsam of heartsease for him, if he should die
I will have him buried in Westminster Abbey next the woman that
died of a prick of a finger, for it is quite as extraordinary, and
he shall have his figure languishing in wax, with ‘Miss Robinson,
fecit,’ wrote over his head; upon my word I compassionate his
pains, and pity him, but as I am as compassionate, I am as cold too
as Charity. He pours out his soul in lamentations to his friends,
and ‘all but the nymph that should redress his wrong, attend his
passion and approve his song,’ for the Rhyme will have it so. I am
glad he has such a stock of flesh to waste upon. Waller says that--
“‘Sleep from careful Lovers flies
To bathe himself in Sacharissa’s eyes.’”
[Page heading: LOVERS]
A certain captain, name unknown, also inveigled the Rev. William Freind
to a coffee-house to talk two hours by the clock of Miss Elizabeth
Robinson’s perfections. About this Elizabeth writes to Mr. Freind--
“I am very sorry if the poor man is really what you think, unhappy;
if his case is uneasy I am sure it is desperate; complaint I
hope, is more the language, than misery the condition, of lovers.
To speak ingenuously you men use us oddly enough, you adore the
pride, flatter the vanity, gratify the ill-nature, and obey the
tyranny that insults you; then slight the love, despise the
affection, and enslave the obedience that would make you happy:
when frowning mistresses all are awful goddesses, when submissive
wives, despicable mortals. There are two excellent lines which have
made me ever deaf to the voice of the charmer, charm’d he ever so
sweetly--
“‘The humblest Lover when he lowest lies,
Submits to conquer, and but kneels to rise.’
“Flattery has ever been the ladder to power, and I have detested
its inverted effects of worshipping one into slavery, while it
has pretended to adore one to Deification. If ever I commit
my happiness to the hands of any person, it must be one whose
indulgence I can trust, for flattery I cannot believe. I am sure I
have faults, and am convinced a husband will find them, but wish
he may forgive them; but vanity is apt to seek the admirer, rather
than the friend, not considering that the passion of love may, but
the effect of esteem can never, degenerate to dislike. I do not
mean to exclude Love, but I mean to guard against the fondness that
arises from personal advantages.... I have known many men see all
the cardinal virtues in a good complexion, and every ornament of
a character in a pair of fine eyes, and they have married these
perfections, which might perhaps shine and bloom a twelvemonth, and
then alas! it appeared these fine characters were only written in
white and red.
“A long and intimate acquaintance is the best presage of future
agreement. I have strengthened this argument to myself by the
example of you and Mrs. Freind. I hope in my long and tedious
dissertation I have said nothing disrespectful of Love. As for your
particular inducement to it I cannot tell whether it was beauty or
good qualities, they being united in her in a degree of perfection
not to be excelled.”
After wishing the rejected lover “Riches and alliance to help his
laudable ambition,” she concludes with, “I wish the same advantages for
myself, with one of established fortune and character, so established,
that one piece of generosity should not hurt his fortune, nor one act
of indiscretion prejudice his character.”
[Page heading: SIR GEORGE LYTTELTON]
Who this particular individual was is not now known, but that Elizabeth
was the cynosure of all eyes from her wit, beauty, and vivacity is
shown by her brothers’ letters of this period, which constantly allude
to her troop of admirers. Mr. Lyttelton, now Sir George Lyttelton, the
only single man whom she had ever mentioned with uniform admiration,
married this year, on June 15, Lucy, daughter of Hugh Fortescue, Esq.,
of Filleigh, Devonshire, a marriage of the purest affection on both
sides.
In a letter at the end of 1741 she states that her father’s steward
in Yorkshire had been guilty of peccadilloes, and that she was to
accompany her parents to Yorkshire in early spring, where her father
promised her attendance at the York races, in lieu of the Canterbury
ones, which then appeared to her a poor substitute. Whilst in Yorkshire
she either met for the first time, or more probably renewed her
acquaintance with, Mr. Edward Montagu, her future husband, of whom some
account must now be given.
[Page heading: MR. EDWARD MONTAGU]
Edward Montagu was the son of Charles Montagu, fifth son of the great
Earl of Sandwich,[226] Lord High Admiral of the Fleet to Charles II.,
and who had acted as his proxy at his marriage with Catherine of
Braganza. Charles Montagu married twice. By his first wife, Elizabeth
Foster, he had one son, James; he married for second wife Sarah Rogers,
daughter of John Rogers and his wife, _née_ Margaret Cock. The Rogers
owned large estates at Newcastle-on-Tyne[227] and in its neighbourhood.
Charles Montagu, by his second marriage, had three sons, Edward, Crewe,
and John, and a daughter, Jemima, who was married at the time I am
writing of to Mr. Sydney Medows, afterwards Sir Sydney Medows. Mr.
Edward Montagu was born in 1691, hence he was twenty-nine years older
than Elizabeth. At the time he courted Elizabeth, another admirer, a
young nobleman, whose name I know not, is stated to have been in love
with her, but constant to her former protestation of choosing a “formed
character” that she could look up to, she chose the older man. It is
odd not a sentence is met with about him before, except that one of
her brothers chaffs her about “converting a Mr. M---- to dancing,”
which may have referred to him. He was a profound mathematician, the
friend of Emerson and other learned men of that day. His character
was amiable, equable, just, and of the highest integrity, as is shown
by his letters, and his political conduct as a Member of Parliament
in what was a corrupt age. Mrs. Carter[228] mentions him “as a man of
sense, a scholar, and a mathematician” in her letters. He owned a good
estate at Allerthorpe, Yorkshire, and another near Rokeby (the fine
estate belonging to Elizabeth’s cousin, “Long” Sir Thomas Robinson),
also a house in Dover Street, London.
[226] For other particulars as to the Montagu family the reader is
referred to the pedigree.
[227] In 1689 Mr. Rogers bought the estate of East Denton,
Northumberland, with its collieries, for £10,900.
[228] Elizabeth Carter, born 1716, died 1806. The learned Greek
scholar.
[Page heading: MRS. DONNELLAN’S ADVICE]
[Page heading: SWIFT’S YAHOOS]
Evidently the letter here inserted in Mrs. Anne Donnellan’s
handwriting, but unsigned, was an answer to an appeal of Elizabeth’s
for advice as to this courtship. Though long, I consider it so
perfectly suitable in its advice to any persons contemplating
matrimony, I give it _in extenso_--
“I can’t enough express to you, my dear Friend, how much your
confidence in me obliges me, as it shows me the place I hold in
your heart. The latter part of your letter, which is what I write
to now, is a difficulty I know how to pity, as I have experienced
it, and yet I do not find I am at all the more capable of advising
how to avoid it; there is a medium between encouragement and
ill humour that is certainly right to avoid being thought to
desire to raise a passion that one does not design to gratifie,
or to be too apt to think one has raised a passion that must be
discouraged, for as I think nothing is more unjust than to wish to
make another unhappy, merely to gratifie a vanity of being known
to be admired, so nothing is more ridiculous than to be too apt to
fancy one has raised such a passion, and I should always choose
to be the last that perceived it, rather than the first. I have
seen so many appearances of liking that has proved neither uneasy
to one side or t’other, that I am not apt to fear great hurt from
them, and I fancy the longer you live the more you will be of my
mind; indeed when a man gives way to a passion on a prospect of
success, and finds a disappointment to it, has often, I believe,
given a melancholy turn to his whole life: but for what I call
occasional likings they can run from one to another with great
ease and dexterity. Now what I think the most difficult in these
affairs is to satisfie others in our conduct, for there is as you
observe, in the heart of male and female a principle of vanity and
self-love that makes us unwillingly give way to a preference in
any thing, and we are very apt to comfort ourselves with thinking,
and sometimes saying, that the preference given is not from greater
perfections, but from greater encouragement, ‘some people set
themselves out, and pay a court I cannot,’ when we are all doing
our best to gain this descried admiration, and vexed, even to make
us unjust when we fail. In short, and when I view human nature in
some lights, I can almost forgive Swift’s Yahoos. But to the point.
I should think the behaviour on these occasions should be as easy
as we can, and we should be pretty sure there is a passion growing
in the heart before we make an alteration that can be perceived
by the person concerned, and as for the by-slanderers, I should
endeavour to convince them I did not desire such a conquest, but
at the same time, I would not let them think they could easily
persuade me I had made it. I would converse as usual in public, but
I would avoid private conversations, lest others should think I
sought them, but these are things I am sure you can think of better
than I can, and must be practised as circumstances suit. The person
said nothing here but what was extremely proper, we talked of you
all, and you and another were commended with great elegance, and
for the third they said they did not know them enough to give an
opinion.
“Now my dear Friend a word about the desire that is natural in most
females to make lovers, if you meet with a person who you think
would be proper to make you happy in the married state, and they
show a desire to please you, and a solidity in their liking, give
it the proper encouragement that the decency of our sex will allow
of, for it is the settlement in the world we should aim at, and
the only way we females have of making ourselves of use to Society
and raising ourselves in this world; but for lovers merely for
being courted and admired they are of no real use, and often prove
a great detriment both by their own malice of disappointment and
their jealousy of others, and for a friendship of any tenderness
between disengaged persons of different sexes I am afraid there
is no such thing, so do not be caught by that deceitful bait.
Esteem and regard may be without passion, but tenderness and
confidence, and what we call friendship among ourselves, will, with
opportunity, turn to desire in the different sexes. We desire to
possess a friend to know their heart, to be in their thoughts, this
must turn to passion between the sexes, I think ’tis impossible to
be otherwise, and I could express it more philosophically but you
will do it for me. Now pardon me this impertinent letter, there
are not those in the world to whom I would write so freely, for I
do not know those who I think have sense and goodness of heart, to
bear advice: the only merit of mine is its sincerity and affection,
and having seen more years has given me many opportunities of
seeing the world of love, with all its mischiefs. Adieu, burn this,
and love me as I do you most sincerely.
“P.S.--I will say no more of Books till we meet, though I must
wonder at the want of discernment in those who can read an Author
who is all fiction, and take it for certain truth.”
[Page heading: MRS. MONTAGU’S MARRIAGE]
Anyhow, Mr. Montagu and Elizabeth entered into an engagement, and
in the _Gentleman’s Magazine_ for August, 1742, is the following
announcement:--“August 5th. Edward Montagu, Esqr., Member for
Huntingdon, to the eldest daughter of Matthew Robinson, of Horton in
Kent, Esqr.”
The Rev. William Freind tied the nuptial knot.
The day after her marriage Mrs. Montagu writes to the Duchess of
Portland--
“Friday, August 6, 1742.
“DEAR MADAM,
“I return your Grace a thousand thanks for your letter; the good
wishes of a friend are of themselves a happiness, and believe me I
have always thought myself the nearer being happy because I knew
you wished me so. If your affection to me will last as long as
my love and gratitude towards you, I think it will stay with me
till the latest moment I shall have in this world; no alteration
of circumstances or length of time can wear out my grateful
remembrance of your favours to me; you have a station in my heart,
from whence you cannot be driven while any one virtue lives in it:
truth, constancy, gratitude, and every honest affection guard you
there!
“Mr. Montagu desires me to make his compliments to my Lord Duke
and your Grace, with many thanks for the favour his Grace designs
him of a visit which he is not willing to put off so long as our
return from Yorkshire, but will be glad of the honour of seeing the
Duke on Monday, at seven o’clock in Dover Street; and I hope at
that most happy hour to have the pleasure of seeing you. We shall
spend that evening in Town. If you will be at home to-morrow at two
o’clock, I will pass an hour with you; but pray send me word to
Jermyn Street at eleven, whether I can come to you without meeting
any person at Whitehall but the Duke; to every one else pray deny
your dressing room. Mr. Freind will tell your Grace I behaved
magnanimously, and not one cowardly tear, I assure you, did I shed
at the solemn Altar, my mind was in no mirthful mood indeed. I have
a great hope of happiness; the world, as you say, speaks well of
Mr. Montagu, and I have many obligations to him, which must gain my
particular esteem; but such a change of life must furnish me with a
thousand anxious thoughts.
“Adieu, my dear Lady Duchess: whatever I am, I must still be with
gratitude, affection, and fidelity,
“Yours,
“ELIZA MONTAGU.”
[Page heading: LADY ANDOVER]
Amongst the numerous congratulations received on her marriage may
be mentioned letters from Lady Andover, staying at Levens with the
Berkshires, and Mrs. Pendarves, who writes from Calwich. The following
paragraph shows the general esteem of Mr. Montagu’s character--
“I think you cannot be disappointed in the choice you have made;
you know the essentials of happiness, and have made your choice
accordingly, and Mr. Montagu must be much envied now, as he has
always been esteemed: nobody’s character answers more to your
merit. You must give me leave to trouble you with my compliments
to him, and to add that I wish to be acquainted with him. I cannot
help having a very favourable opinion of the person whom you have
preferred to all others.”
[Page heading: “DELIA”]
“Delia” (Miss Dashwood) writes--
“My heart in plain sincerity wishes you joy and lasting happiness,
and sure you have the best security for both, as all allow Mr.
Montagu has an uncommon good understanding, and as large a share of
good nature, both which are conspicuous in yourself, that they must
undoubtedly when joined produce a lasting harmony.”
[Page heading: HONEYMOON TOUR]
Mr. Montagu appears to have been only known by popular report to
the Bullstrode circle, till his marriage, but his immense circle of
relations and friends opened a fresh vista of delightful and extended
social engagements for his wife. This first letter of Elizabeth’s to
her mother after marriage is interesting--
“Dover Street, August 10.
“HOND. MADAM,
“I had the pleasure of meeting your letter here last night at my
arrival. The Duke and Duchess of Portland spent the evening and
supped with us. This morning I have been looking over the house,
and seeing many things much better than I deserve, in which I am
to have a share: but what gives me infinitely more pleasure than
these favours of fortune, is observing the willingness and gladness
with which Mr. Montagu bestows them upon me. I find the house very
good and convenient, and I hope I shall spend many happy days in
it. Happy I am sure they will be to me, if I can make them so to
the person who has thus obliged me. I must write but a very short
letter, for Mrs. Medows[229] who favours us with her company to
dinner is waiting for me in the next room.
“My sister is just returned from some business she has been doing
for me, she would desire her duty if she was here, but there are
two pair of stairs between us. I hope you got well home from
Canterbury. We propose going away on Thursday. This day we shall
spend in Town, to-morrow we return to our Box in Kentish Town, and
then away to Yorkshire, where if you have any commands, pray let me
have the pleasure of executing them. Madam Sally and I will write
our travels as we go. Mr. Montagu desires his best respects to you,
my Father and my brothers. My duty and love attends them as proper.
I will in all good say as far and as much for my sister as myself,
so accept the same compliment from her, and believe me, dear Madam,
with a grateful sense of all your and my Father’s goodness and care,
“Your dutiful, affectionate and
obliged Daughter,
“ELIZA MONTAGU.
“P.S.--I design to write to my Father next post. The Duke of
Argyll[230] is said to be relenting upon the subject of places of
which several are spoken of for him, and that he goes to Flanders.
Some report that his eldest daughter[231] is to be Duchess of
Greenwich at his death.”
[229] Mr. Montagu’s sister.
[230] 2nd Duke of Argyll and Duke of Greenwich. Military commander,
statesman, and orator; born 1680, died 1743.
[231] Caroline, made Baroness Greenwich.
It will be seen by this letter that Sarah Robinson was acting
chaperone, which the odd etiquette of those days exacted, it being then
not thought _bon ton_ for a newly married couple to be alone on their
honeymoon!
[Page heading: MR. ROBINSON]
The following letter from Mr. Robinson to his new son-in-law shows the
happiness of the newly married couple:--
“DEAR SIR,
“Don’t be apprehensive upon seeing this, that added to the
impertinence you have already received from my hands, you are to
have that of a troublesome correspondent; I can assure you it is
the way I am the least troublesome to my friends; the truth of the
matter is that I know I should never forgive myself if I should be
wanting to you in any respect, even though it should amount to no
more than a point of ceremony. As I think that no letters that come
from your wife ought to be a secret to you, I cannot help telling
you I saw one from her last week to her Mother, and another to her
brother Tom, so full of the happiness of her present condition,
and the prospect of her future, that I begin to be suspicious that
they are designed as a reproof to me for the deplorable state under
which she passed twenty-three years. I shall not forgive her till
I know she uses all her endeavours to give to you an equal share,
which I think you have at least a right to. We hope you enjoy the
benefit of this fine weather upon the road, and will arrive safe
and well at Allerthorpe before this to the satisfaction of my good
friend Mr. Carter.[232] Our compliments attend your family and his.
“I am your most obedient Servant,
“MATT. ROBINSON.
“Horton, August ye 15, 1742.”
This was addressed--
“To Edward Montagu, Esqr.,
“at Allerthorpe Hall,[233]
“near Burrough Bridge,
“Yorkshire.
“Member of Parliament.”
[232] Mr. Carter was steward and agent to Mr. Montagu; a most
worthy man.
[233] Allerthorpe, being close to Burneston, the Robinsons were
well acquainted with the neighbourhood.
[Page heading: DR. CONYERS MIDDLETON]
The following letter of Dr. Conyers Middleton to Elizabeth on her
marriage is of interest:--
“Hildersham,[234] near Linton, August 17, 1742.
“MADAM,
“I should have paid my compliments earlier on the joyful occasion
of your marriage if I had known whither to address them; for your
brother’s letter which informed me, happened to lie several days at
Cambridge, before it came to my hands. My congratulation, however,
though late, wants nothing of the warmth with which the earliest
was accompanied; for I must beg leave to assure you that I take a
real part in the present joy of your family, and feel a kind of
paternal[235] pleasure, from the good fortune of one whose amiable
qualities I have been a witness of from her tenderest years, and
to whom I have ever been wishing and ominating everything that
is good. I have always expected from your singular merit and
accomplishments that they would recommend you in proper time to
an advantageous and honourable match; and was assured from your
prudence that it would never suffer you to accept any which was
not worthy of you; so that it gives me not only the greatest
pleasure on your account, but a sort of pride also on my own,
to see my expectations so fully answered, and my predictions of
you so literally fulfilled. As all conjugal happiness is founded
on mutual affection, cherished by good sense, so you have the
fairest prospect of it now open before you, by your marriage with a
gentleman, not only of figure and fortune, but of great knowledge
and understanding, who values you, not so much for the charms of
your person, as the beauties of your mind, which will always give
you the surest hold of him, as they will every day be gathering
strength, whilst the others are daily losing it. But I should make
a sad compliment to a blooming bride if I meant to exclude her
person from contributing any part to her nuptial happiness; that is
far from my meaning; and yours Madam, I am sure, could not fail of
having its full share in acquiring your husband’s affection. What
I would inculcate therefore, is only this: that though beauty has
the greatest force to conciliate affection, yet it cannot preserve
it without the help of the mind; and whatever the perfection of
the one may be, the accomplishments of the other will always be
the more amiable; and in the married state especially, will be
found after all, the most solid and lasting basis of domestic
comfort. But I am using the privilege of my years, and instead
of compliments, giving lessons to one who does not want them. I
shall only add, therefore, my repeated wishes for all the joy that
matrimony can give you and Mr. Montagu, to whose worthy character I
am no stranger, though I have not the honour to be known to him in
person, and am with sincere respect,
“Madam,
“Your faithful friend,
and obedient servant,
“CONYERS MIDDLETON.
“P.S.--My wife charges me with her compliments and best wishes of
all happiness and prosperity in your new state of life.”
[234] Hildersham, near Cambridge, built by Dr. Middleton. The poet
Gray was a constant visitor there.
[235] It will be remembered Dr. Middleton’s first wife was Mrs.
Drake, _née_ Morris, Elizabeth’s maternal grandmother.
[Page heading: ALLERTHORPE]
Here I make some extracts from Mrs. Montagu’s second letter to her
beloved Duchess of Portland, dated August 21, 1742, from Allerthorpe,
Mr. Montagu’s Yorkshire seat--
“On Tuesday I arrived at this place, not tired with my journey,
but satisfied therewith. As far as Nottingham you will travel
very soon, and then as far as Doncaster, therefore it will be
but impertinent to give you an account of the road or anything
concerning it. I will only tell your Grace I saw Nottingham
Castle,[236] where there is beauty and magnificence worthy the
wisdom and the riches of your ancestors. As we came nearer to this
place, the country grew more wild, but not less beautiful; we came
through some rivers that charmed me beyond all things.... We have
at present very fine weather, the sun gilds every object, and I
assure you it is the only fine thing we have here, for the house
is old and not handsome: it is very convenient, and the situation
extremely pleasant. We found the finest peaches, nectarines and
apricots, that I have ever eat: your Grace will think I mean
turnips, carrots and parsnips; but really and truly they are
apricots, peaches and nectarines. To-morrow, I believe will be one
of the happiest days I ever spent, I am to go to fetch my brothers
from school. How delightful will be such a meeting after so many
years’ separation.”
[236] Belonged to the Dukes of Newcastle, the duchess’s ancestors.
Destroyed by mob in Reform riots, 1835.
[Page heading: LITTLE BROTHERS]
These were her three youngest brothers, William, John, and Charles,
who had been five years at school at Scorton, without coming home. Mr.
Montagu, eager to gratify his bride’s love of her family, had allowed
her to have them to stay, and ever afterwards he was their constant
friend and benefactor. Further on in the letter she states that it took
them “six days with very easy stages” to reach Allerthorpe from London!
In the next letter she states that her little brothers being “sensible,
good-natured, and sober, the most affectionate towards each other of
any children of their age I ever saw: they have very good characters at
school, both as to their learning and behaviour; but the quintessence
of perfection is my brother Jack.”
At the end of this letter she mentions her old friend, Miss Cally
Scott, of Scott’s Hall, was going to be married to Mr. Best, a man of
fortune.
[Page heading: THE REV. MATTHEW ROBINSON]
On August 25 she writes to her cousin, Mrs. Freind--
“Dear Cousin, I am ashamed I have not before answered your
kind letter and returned thanks for those good wishes of whose
accomplishments I hope there is the fairest prospect: I think we
increase in esteem without decaying in complaisance, and I hope
we shall always remember Mr. Freind and the fifth of August with
thankfulness. I am infinitely obliged to Mr. Freind for not letting
the knot be tied by the hands of an ordinary bungler; he was very
good in coming to London on purpose, but he did not give his last
benediction, but stole away before my sister or any of us were come
downstairs.
“We arrived at this place after a journey of six days through fine
countries, where the riches of Harvest promised luxury to the
Landlord, plenty to the farmer and food to the labourer. Here we
are situated in a fine country, and Mr. Montagu has the pleasure
of calling many hundred pounds a year about his house his own,
without any person’s property interfering with it: I think it is
the prettiest estate, and in the best order I ever saw; large
and beautiful meadows for riding or walking in, with a pretty
river[237] winding about them, upon which we shall sometimes go out
in boats.
“In this parish Dr. Robinson,[238] our general Uncle, has founded a
school and an Alms House where the young are taught industry, the
old, content: I propose to visit the Alms House very soon. I saw
the old women with the Bucks upon their sleeves at Church, and it
gave me pleasure. Heraldry[239] does not always descend with such
honour, as when Charity leads her by the hand. Our uncle did this
good while he was _alive_; it was not that Soul thrift that would
save itself with another’s money.
“I hope you will forgive my not having written to you before, but a
new family, and a new place must take up one’s time. Our house here
is tolerably convenient, and that is all that can be said for it.
We have a better which I hope you will often see in Berkshire.[240]
Pray when you and Mr. Freind have a leisure hour, dispose of it in
writing to me. Mr. Montagu has an estate near Rokeby, from whence
I intend to visit Sir Thomas Robinson’s[241] fine park of which I
hear great praising.
“I am, dear Madam,
“Your most affectionate cousin,
and obedient, humble servant,
“ELIZABETH MONTAGU.”
[237] The Swale.
[238] The Rev. Matthew Robinson founded these charities at
Burneston, York, where he was Vicar for forty years.
[239] The Hospitallers wear a purple gown with a gold buck on the
shoulder, the Robinson crest.
[240] Sandleford Priory, Berks.
[241] Mrs. Freind’s brother. See note on Rokeby at the end of this
book.
[Page heading: FIRST LETTER TO MR. MONTAGU]
Mr. Montagu having left Elizabeth for a few days for business at
Newcastle, she writes to him--
“How very fortunate are those few who in the Person they love, meet
with the principles of Honour and Virtue to guide them through
the World, but this, my fortune, so happy and so rare, shall not
breed in me that insolence of opinion that I deserve it, but I
will still look up to Heaven and you with gratitude and continual
acknowledgments.”
This sufficiently indicates the happiness and mutual confidence
reigning between the newly wedded pair.
On October 2 Dr. Conyers Middleton wrote Mrs. Montagu a long letter,
mainly a dissertation on marriage and its duties. He alludes to his
pleasure at her having her three youngest brothers with her, calling
them “_enfans trouvés_ by a sister unknown to them,” and he adds--
“I shall always think myself particularly interested in their
success, for they were all born under my roof, which may, one day
perhaps, derive an accession of fame from that circumstance. If I
should live to see any of them in the University, it would be a
pleasure to me to do everything in my power that might be of use to
their improvement.”
This shows that Mrs. Robinson had been accustomed to stay with her
mother, the first Mrs. Middleton, for her latter frequent confinements,
though Elizabeth and some of the elder sons were born at York. Dr.
Middleton begs Mr. and Mrs. Montagu to pay him a visit at Cambridge on
their return to London, and states, “This university had the honour of
Mr. Montagu’s education, and claims some share in yours.”
[Page heading: PÈRE LE COURAYER]
[Page heading: WORKSOP]
Being detained by business in the north, Mrs. Montagu wrote to Mrs.
Donnellan to send her a winter mantle and muff, and as prices of those
times may interest my readers, I will mention the blue velvet mantle
cost £5, the ermine muff one guinea. In Mrs. Donnellan’s letter the
Père Courayer sends his compliments and good wishes to Mrs. Montagu.
As he figures much in later letters, I give a short sketch of his
biography. Peter Francis le Courayer was born in 1681, and was a
Normandy ecclesiastic; although a Roman Catholic, he had the courage
to defend the ordinances of the English Church, for which the Pope
censured him severely. He left France for England, and went to Oxford,
where he lodged with Mrs. Chenevix, the famous toy-woman. He was made
LL.D., and translated Father Paul’s “History of the Council of Trent,”
also Sleidan’s “History of the Reformation.” He was well known to
Horace Walpole. He died in 1776. His pet-name was “the little Père.”
In a letter of the duchess’s of October 9 from Welbeck, where she was
visiting her mother, Lady Oxford, she says--
“Mamma was so obliging last week as to carry us to Worksop
Manor,[242] the Duke of Norfolk’s.[243] The Designs are noble
and grand, they have made great plantations. The gardener told
me he had planted last year 300,000 Forest trees, besides sowing
three score bushels of seeds. The approach to the house is fine.
I don’t like the house though it was built by Bess of Harwicke,
whose wisdom I have in great reverence: the best apartment is
up two pair of stairs, the additional offices lately built are
exceedingly good, the Dairy much prettier than that we saw at
Richmond. The servant told us the Duchess gave the chief direction
for the building, had planted those woods, had drawn the plan
for that piece of water of 120 acres. The Duke’s time is chiefly
occupied with drawing plans for Bee hives! With difficulty I kept
my countenance....
[242] Worksop was burnt down in 1761. The duke here mentioned built
500 rooms to it.
[243] Edward Howard, 16th Duke of Norfolk.
[Page heading: FRENCH ECONOMY]
“We were on Monday at Kiveton, which is by much the finest house I
ever saw, and the best furnished. The Park and views from it are very
beautiful.”
From Allerthorpe the Montagus visited Mr. Buckley[244] at Bishop’s
Dale, near which place Mr. Robinson in former days had lived in the
shooting season. Elizabeth had not been there for fifteen years. She
describes to the Duchess of Portland the country--
[244] Mr. Buckley had been a second father to the three little
Robinson boys, who spent their holidays with him.
“I had been three days upon an expedition to a wild part of the
country called the Dales, where Nature’s works are not delicate,
pretty and mignonne, but grand, sublime and magnificent. Vast
mountains, rocks and cascades, and rapid rivers make the country
beautiful and surprising. We went to a farm abounding in wonders, a
high hill with some hanging wood before it, behind it a large and
rapid river with the prospect of a huge cascade, an old Castle and
a Church. Some houses in view take from it the honour of absolute
solitude: a range of rocks appears like the ruins of an old town on
the other side of the river. In a cottage built in this charming
place, lives an old woman, who has attained to an hundred and
four years, and for this long lease of life, has not exchanged
the best comfort. She enjoys good health, tolerable strength, has
her hearing perfect, and her sight very well: is cheerful and has
not lost her reason, but answers with sense and spirit, her hair
is of a fine black: she was knitting when we went to her, and has
promised to knit me a pair of stockings in a month.
“My Father had a house in this part of the world for the summer
sports of shooting and fishing, so that the old woman and I had
been well acquainted 15 years ago, and she told me laughing she
imagined I did not expect to see her alive at this time....
“Tell Père Courayer[245] my head is as much troubled with chimeras
and giddiness as ever. I fear he is too fond of variety in life to
be a friend to Matrimony. The merriest man I have seen in Yorkshire
is a Frenchman, who came here for religion, and has had the needful
of life added unto him; he has a little estate, and lives with
the mountain nymphs, Liberty and Health, in the Dales; he amuses
himself with singing to his grandchildren, mending his clothes,
and making soup: his grandson eats soup with him, and his next
darling, _le petit chat_, helps him off with the Bouillie. He can
not only make a fine dish of the cabbage, but of the snails and
caterpillars, and what we call the unprofitable vermin that live
upon it! There was not a creature in Noah’s Ark that would not be
received into his larder, for a Frenchman is seldom so proud of
stomach as to term anything unclean....
“Mr. Montagu desires his compliments to your grace, and my Lord
Duke; we talk of you and drink your health as often as you can
expect from sober people. Had I married a Tory fox-hunter he might
have toasted you in a longer draught; but for temperate Whigs we do
you reason.
“I am, my dear Lady Duchess’s
most grateful, and most affectionate,
“E. MONTAGU.”
[245] He had expressed a fear that matrimony would spoil her
philosophy.
[Page heading: WHIG PRINCIPLES]
Mr. Montagu was a Whig, but, as his wife states, a moderate one. His
political conduct as Member for Huntingdon was irreproachably upright
in a most venal age. What respect his wife already had for his judgment
is shown in a letter from her to him in London, whither he had gone for
the meeting of Parliament on October 16, enclosing her reply to Dr.
Conyers Middleton’s letter, desiring him, if he did not approve of it,
to burn it, and she would write another. The following passage speaks
volumes for Mrs. Montagu’s humility (though she was so universally
praised):--
“The letter directed to Dr. Middleton, if you approve, I would beg
the favour of you to frank, and send to the post, but I should
be glad if you would first take the trouble to read it, for it
is with some uneasiness I correspond with the very wise. I think
an understanding of a middle size has a great deal of trouble in
conversation between reaching to those above it, and stooping to
those below it.” She signs--
“My Dearest, your very affectionate
and faithful wife.”
His letters to her begin generally “My Dearest Angel,” or “My Dearest
Life.” His writing is most characteristic, a clear, firm hand, easily
read, much information compressed into a few words, and filled with
most affectionate expressions.
Elizabeth was now in an interesting condition, and as Dr. Sandys
forbade her travelling for a time, she and Sarah remained at
Allerthorpe. The joy of Mr. Montagu was extreme at the idea of an heir,
which was shared by his sister, Mrs. Medows, and all his relations.
Elizabeth, though pleased at the prospect, was very _souffrante_, and
bored by an inactive life, yet submitted to it with a good grace.
At this period her brother Robert was made captain of an East India
vessel travelling to China, to his family’s satisfaction.
[Page heading: DR. MEAD]
The Duchess of Portland writes from London and says--
“I was extremely well entertained the other day with seeing
Dr. Mead’s[246] curiosities. They are much finer than Sir Hans
Sloane’s. In particular he has a mummy much finer preserved. It
is the custom to gild their faces, so that all the features are
painted over the gold.... Of all the things, except the pictures,
which are exquisitely fine, none pleases me more than a mask in
bronze, which is exceeding fine workmanship, and has upon it the
symbols of all the gods. The crown of vine for Bacchus, a circle
of iron for Pluto, the ears of Pan, and the beard of waves for
Neptune.”
[246] Dr. Richard Mead, born 1673, died 1754. Celebrated physician
and antiquarian.
We gain a peep at French fashions of the day in this paragraph, in a
letter of Mrs. Donnellan’s--
“Mrs. Rook, an acquaintance of mine, is just come from Paris, and
is come without a hoop, and tells me, except in their high dress,
nobody wears one. Their sacks are made proportionably narrow and
short, opened before with a petticoat and trimmed, and with a stiff
quilted petticoat under: the only reasonable thing I have heard
from France a great while, and the only fashion I should wish to
follow.”
[Page heading: THE MUFF]
[Page heading: THE HANOVER TROOPS]
It would be impossible to include in this work all the letters between
Mr. Montagu and his wife, but the following shall be given in its
entirety to show his style:--
“November, 1742.
“MY DEAREST LIFE,
“Yesterday as soon as it came to hand, j[247] sent yours to my
sister. I have not seen her but am sure she thinks herself much
obliged, as all must do who have the happiness of a correspondence
with you, whose letters not only please by their wit and vivacity,
but are full of sincerity and friendship, of virtue and goodness,
which you set in so true and amiable a light, that if those that
read them grow not wiser and better, it is none of your fault.
“I rejoice at the good account you give of your health, that
you suffer less and less every day. I wish j could prevent your
suffering at all. The prudent care you take obliges me in the
highest degree, and j hope with the assistance of your happy and
chearful disposition of mind, preserve you from any misfortune.
Though j most eagerly long to see you, j would have you run no
hazard, and will content myself till we break up, when j hope
neither bad roads nor bad weather shall hinder me coming to you:
till then j desire you to spend your time as agreeably as you can,
and am glad Mrs. Yorke and Mrs. Clayton are to make you a visit.
“I waited on Mrs. Donnellan this morning, yesterday was not
convenient for her, and could not do it before. I paid her the bill
which j send enclos’d and a guinea more for your muffe, so that out
of ye six guineas j shall owe you five shillings. She expressed
herself much obliged, and desired her compliments to you, and both
to you and Miss Salley.
“Your Father went out of Town last Friday. The evening before j
spent with him, Dr. Audley and your three brothers,[248] who were
all well. I suppose you will soon have your instructions about
your children[249] at Scorton. You do well in letting them take
leave of those they are so much obliged to, and when they come from
Burton, if they spend the rest of their time with you, there will
be no harm in it, nor will it hinder them in their learning, as
they are designed for another school.
“My good friend at Theakstone[250] sent me his brother’s letter,
and j received another this afternoon from the Admiralty Office,
which j will send you in a post or two, that you may communicate it
to his relations. I shall do all j can to serve him, and after j
have made inquiry about the manner of doing it, will write to his
Father.
“On Thursday last a motion was made for a secret Committee, and the
next day for the place Bill, both which succeeded as was expected,
the first was flung out by a majority of 66, the latter by a
majority of 25! The Debates were very warm, and the Chancellor of
the Exchequer[251] was terribly roasted, but all to no purpose,
for after what has happened, he and such as he, who have acted so
perfidious a part, will be sure to go all lengths. On Monday we
expect to have the consideration of the 16,000 Hanover troops[252]
come before us, and to be carried through, a worse thing than any
that was ever attempted in the time of Sir R(obert) W(alpole).
“I hope this will find dear Miss Salley recovered, pray present her
with my best compliments, and believe me to be,
“With the most tender regard,
“My Dearest’s most obliged and
affectionate Husband,
“EDW. MONTAGU.”
[247] Mr. Montagu, like the Duke of Portland, for years used “j”
for “I,” presumably an old custom.
[248] Matthew, Thomas, and Morris.
[249] Her three youngest brothers, John, William, and Charles.
[250] Young Mr. Edward Carter, son of Mr. Montagu’s head agent.
He was petitioning for his brother, Mr. William Carter, to have a
company of Marines, he being in that service through Mr. Montagu’s
influence.
[251] Mr. Sandys.
[252] These men to receive British pay.
[Page heading: ORATORIOS]
Mrs. Montagu writes to the Duchess of Portland--
“I am now in the highest content: my little brothers are to go to
Westminster, as soon as the holidays are over, and what adds still
to my pleasure in this, is that Jacky’s going is owing to Mr.
Montagu’s intercession for him with my Father, who did not design
his going to Westminster till next year: our youngest,[253] I
believe, is to go out with our new Captain....
“I am pretty well, but I do not like to sit still like Puss in the
corner all the winter to watch what may prove a mouse, though I am
no mountain. I cannot boast of the numbers that adorn our fireside,
my sister and I are the principal figures; besides there is a
round table, a square screen, some books and a work basket, with a
smelling bottle, when morality grows musty, or a maxim smells too
strong, as sometimes they will in ancient books.
“I had a letter to-day from Mr. Montagu, in which he flatters me
with the hopes of seeing him at Christmas.”
[253] Charles to accompany his brother Robert.
In a letter of Mrs. Pendarves of December 9 from Clarges Street,
where she was living, she tells Mrs. Montagu, “Handel is to have six
oratorios in Lent. The operas are dull, the plays for one part well
acted, ten are wretched, but Garrick is excellent.”
[Page heading: HER HUSBAND’S CHARACTER]
About this time Elizabeth writes a long letter to the Rev. William
Freind, her cousin, portions of which I give. She says--
“The last and best good office you did me, I believe, will claim
my thanks to the longest day of my life.... I know it will please
you to hear that I have, every day since you made me a wife, had
more reason to thank you for the alteration. I have the honour
and happiness to be made the guest of a heart furnished with the
best and greatest virtues, honesty, integrity and universal
benevolence, with the most engaging affection to every one who
particularly belongs to him. No desire of power, but to do good,
no use of it but to make happy. I cannot be so unjustly diffident
as to doubt of the duration of my happiness, when I see the author
of it dispensing content to all his dependants, and should he ever
cease to use me with more care and generosity and affection than I
deserve, I should be the first person he has ever treated in this
manner. Since I married I have never heard him say an ill-natured
word to any one, or have I received one matrimonial frown. His
generous affection in loving all my friends, and desiring every
opportunity for my conversing with them, is very obliging to me.
We have often pleased ourselves with the hopes of seeing you
frequently in Dover Street this winter; but alas, I am a prisoner
at Allerthorpe, and the worst of prisoners confined by infirmities
and ill health.
“Mr. Montagu went to Parliament ten days ago to my mortification,
but with my approbation. I desired him to go, and half wished
him to stay! I knew his righteous star would rule his destiny,
so I helped him on with honour’s boots, and let him go without
murmuring. He left me my sister, and where she is there will
happiness be also.... We have not been troubled with any visitor
since Mr. M. went away, and could you see how ignorant, how
awkward, how absurd, and how uncouth the generality of people
are in this country, you would look upon this as a piece of good
fortune....
“I am very happy in one thing, that drinking is not within our
walls; we have not had one person disordered by liquor since we
came down, though most of the poor ladies have had more Hogs in
their dining rooms than ever they had in their hog stye....
“I imagine you will have seen Dr. Middleton’s translations of the
Epistle by this time; pray tell me what you think of them.”
[Page heading: “NIGHT THOUGHTS”]
The Duchess of Portland, on December 4, writes in great annoyance at
some of her letters being lost. She was much worried about the health
of her mother, who suffered severely from cramp in the stomach. She
desires Elizabeth to write a _visible_[254] letter to cheer Lady
Oxford, and adds, “I rejoice you are better. I hope you have left off
footing it and tumbling downstairs. Have you read ‘Night Thoughts’? If
you have, I beg you will give me your opinion of it.”
[254] Often the familiar letters were enclosed to Mrs. Elstob, a
learned lady and authoress, who was now governess to the Portland
children. Lady Oxford was then at Bullstrode.
Dr. Young had lost his beloved wife, his step-son and step-daughter
the year before. The step-daughter died of consumption, brought on by
grief at her mother’s loss. Her step-father had taken her abroad for
her health. She died at Montpellier, and was refused Christian burial
by the bigoted French of those days. The poor doctor, assisted by his
servant, dug her grave in a field, unaided by any one. Can any one
wonder at the gloom pervading the poem?
Whilst the duchess is writing to Mrs. Montagu, the latter writes on
December 5--
“Madam, after being sunk into stupidity by the company of a strange
kind of animal called a country Beau and wit, how unfit am I for
conversation of the Duchess of Portland!”
[Page heading: A ROUÉ OF THE PERIOD]
She then proceeds to draw this curious picture of a country beau,--
“who cannot attain the perfection of a monkey, even the art of
mimicry.... Had you seen the pains this animal has been taking to
imitate the cringe of a beau, the smartness of a wit, till he was
hideous to behold, and horrible to hear, you would have pitied
him! He walks like a tortoise, and chatters like a magpye: by
the indulgence of a kind mother, and the advantage of a country
education, he was first a clown, then he was sent to the Inns
of Court, where he first fell into a red waistcoat and velvet
breeches; then into vanity. This light companion led him to the
play house, where he ostentiously coquetted with the orange
wenches, who cured him of the bel-air of taking snuff by abridging
him of his nostrils, grown even in his own eyes no very lovely
figure; he thought Bacchus, no critic in faces, would prove in
the end a better friend than Cupid: accordingly he fell into the
company of the jovial, till want of money and want of taste led
this prodigal son, if not to eat, to drink with swine. He visited
the prisons, not as a comforter, but as a companion to criminals;
shook hands with the gold finder, and walked in the ways of the
scavenger; so singular his humility, none were his contempt. At
last, having lost his money, ruined his constitution, and lost all
the sense nature gave him, he returned to the country where all the
youths of inferior rank, admiring his experience, and emulating his
qualities, and copying his manners, grew, some fit for jail, others
for transportation.... Notwithstanding all these vices and the most
nauseous effect of them, all people treat him civilly!”
Mr. Montagu writes to his wife on December 9,[255] and in it he says--
“Tomorrow the affair of the Hanover troops[256] comes on, and will
be carried, which is the worst that ever came before the House,
of which j shall give you an account in my next letter, and send
you several pamphlets well worth your reading about that, and the
present state of affairs.”
Writing again from his house in Dover Street, London, on December 20,
he says--
“On Tuesday we met at Westminster, where his Majesty opened the
session with a most gracious speech from the throne, which j hope
you have got, as you shall have the addresses of both Houses sent
by this post. You will easily perceive what was aimed at by the
speech, and that by the addresses both the Lords and Commons have
most dutifully consented to take 16,000 Hanover troops into our
pay. This was openly avowed by Lord Carteret[257] in the Upper
House, and by those who made the motion in the Lower. After a
debate which lasted till between 10 and 11 at night our address
was carried by a majority of 109, the numbers being 150 and 259.
By that stroke England is become a province to Hanover, the charge
of the military part of its government already being flung upon
us (for who shall tell when we shall get rid of this burthen?)
or how soon we shall feel the additional part of the same? The
late ministry never attempted anything like it, and it shows that
the new one will stick at nothing to recommend themselves to the
King, the Devil in Milton, ‘_with one bound, high overleapt all
bound_.’... The number of those that love their country truly,
always was and ever will be but small, and the Saints never yet
governed the Earth, and I believe never will, but true patriotism
is not the less a virtue for that, nor must its votaries leave off
their endeavours or be discouraged at whatever happens.”
[255] Remember this is “Old Style” date.
[256] This was the proposal to pay Hanoverian troops with English
money to assist in the war.
[257] Afterwards Lord Granville, born 1690, died 1763. Secretary of
State.
It will hardly be credited that the country apothecary bled Mrs.
Montagu for a headache in her delicate condition; but so he did, and as
a fever was then raging, she submitted, though saying she heard “he had
let the life out of the veins of eleven people,” as this disease would
not stand “blooding!”
[Page heading: A BOLUS!]
A Mr. Twycross, who was in love with Sarah Robinson, suffered from sore
throat, and she accordingly herself made up a bolus for him from a
recipe of an old maid friend, the size of which alarmed Mrs. Montagu.
Fortunately, his throat getting better, he did not use it, to Mrs.
Montagu’s relief, who says--
“Had he swallowed it I should have thought there was love powder
in it, for he said a thousand pretty things to her, with an air of
great tenderness, and indeed had he taken the bolus I believe no
man could have been nearer dying for a lady. The recipe had been
given her by an ancient maiden, who having said in her sorrow all
men were liars, thought the best way to cure them of the vice of
telling lyes was to choak them.”
[Page heading: A WHITSTABLE HOY]
Some details as to the conveyance of goods are given in a letter of Mr.
Robinson, Senior, to Mr. Montagu on December 12, saying, “Dear Sir, I
sent on Saturday by the Whitstable Hoy[258] ‘_Talbot_’ two brace of
woodcocks and a pheasant, which I hope you have received.”
[258] A coasting vessel.
In a letter to Mr. Montagu, December 17, his wife desires him,
“pray order Griffith to send me down ‘The Complaint, or Thoughts
on Time, Death and Friendship.’[259]... I have been desired by a
friend to read it....
“Our boys[260] are to be put on board the York stage this day
sennight, this will be their first launching into the world, I wish
the bounteous Lady Fortune would take ’em in hand. Jacky is vastly
pleased that you entreated his Father to send him to Westminster.
They desire their best respects.”
[259] By the Rev. James Hervey, born 1714, died 1758.
[260] Her three little brothers.
[Page heading: THE LORD CHANCELLOR]
Mr. Montagu was still detained in London, not only by his parliamentary
duties, but for a Chancery suit. He writes on December 21, lamenting
the long separation “from the ardent object of his desires,” but
pleased to think that the doctor will soon give her permission to join
him in London. This passage throws light on law suits of that day--
“Our petition, as we were made to expect, was to have been heard
this day, but the Lord Chancellor who has, j think, much more
business than any one man can go through as he ought to do, had
so many petitions that it is thought impossible it should come
on sooner than tomorrow, and may not be till near the beginning
of next term. Part of his Lordship’s time is this day taken up
by his attendance on the King, who comes to the House of Lords
to pass some money bills, in all his royal pageantry and show.
Things of this nature add a great deal to the plague, expense
and delay of Law, especially in the Court of Chancery. If we are
not heard tomorrow in the forenoon j shall be deprived of your
brother’s[261] assistance, who was so good as to come post from
Canterbury on Sunday last on purpose, and must set out again for
the same place at noon tomorrow.... This day the House of Commons
are to be adjourned till after the hollydays, and it is talked
that the Session will be at an end by the beginning of March. The
opposition has been carried on with a great deal of Spirit and
will be continued to be so after Xmas, as it is given out. They
intend to make a new ministry wade through more mire, though they
have gone through so much already. They have got themselves more
enemies in the short time they have been in, than Lord Orford in
his long reign, for they are ruining their country faster than
ever he did, and this infamous job of the Hanoverian Troops, it’s
thought was what he never would give way to. Several of our young
Members have greatly distinguished themselves by their opposition,
and made it appear that there is no want of the parts and capacity
of those who have so perfidiously deserted them and the cause of
liberty. But none has done it so eminently as Mr. Pit(t),[262] who
in the opinion of several, as well as me, is a greater man than
ever j have sat with, and if he preserves his integrity, will be
transmitted to posterity in the most illustrious of characters. He
is at least equal, if not superior to Mr. Murray,[263] who has been
brought into the House on purpose to contend with him, and who did
the first day of his entrance by saying everything the cause would
bear in so good a manner, that he gave nobody offence, which makes
me believe he will not serve the ministry in the slavish, dirty
manner other attorneys and solicitor generals are wont to do, but
with more dignity to himself, if not with more advantage to their
cause....
“I hope you will, along with this, receive Mr. Hervey’s
lucubration. If Lord Shaftesbury’s ‘Characteristics’ are among my
books, Wear shall bring them down....
“It is with much pleasure j acquaint you Lady Sandwich[264] was on
Saturday morning at 4 o’clock safely brought to bed of a Son.”[265]
[261] Thomas Robinson.
[262] William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham, born 1708, died 1778; “the
great commoner.”
[263] William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield, born 1705, died 1793.
[264] Wife of the 4th Earl of Sandwich, cousin of Mr. Montagu’s.
[265] John, afterwards 5th Earl of Sandwich.
In writing to the Duchess of Portland on December 28 to wish her a
happy new year, Mrs. Montagu informs her she has permission from Dr.
Sandys to move towards London in a fortnight’s time. She says--
“I shall move as slowly as a fat corpse in a herse. Your grace asks
me if I have left off footing and tumbling down stairs; as to the
first, my fidgetations are much spoiled, sometimes I have cut a
thoughtless caper which has gone to the heart of an old Steward of
Mr. Montagu’s, who is as honest as ‘Trusty’ in the play of _Grief à
la Mode_. I am told he has never heard a hop that he has not echoed
with a groan. I have taken such heed to my goings I have not gone
down stairs more than by gradual degrees.”
The following passage from a letter of Mrs. Donnellan’s to Mrs. Montagu
shows the price paid for embroidery of flowers which was much used at
this time on dresses. She says--
“I have spoken to Jenny Clegg about your sack. She always works
according to the price, the slightest trimming down to the bottom,
of natural flowers she says will be £8, and the handsomest £12, and
between in proportion. I gave her 4 guineas for my apron, and she
has always three and a half or four for the robings and facings of
a night dress.”
A “night dress” was what we should call an _evening dress_ now.
[Page heading: A COOK]
In a letter to Mrs. Donnellan a light is thrown on that ever-important
functionary, a cook. That individual being required, Mrs. Donnellan had
mentioned a cook who had been with Lady Selina Bathurst. Mrs. Montagu
writes--
“As to the Cook being an Irish woman, I think it can be no
objection to me who prefer a lady[266] of that country to almost
any one of our own; she being a good catholick is not much, but I
think it will not be right to take her unless Lady Selina Bathurst
says she is a good cook, for had she all the cardinal virtues,
and could not fricasy (_sic_) and make good soop (_sic_) I should
not know what to do with her. I would give £15 a year to a very
good cook, but if she is not above being improved, and I could
get her to go into the King’s kitchen, or to any famous Tavern to
learn cookery, I would give a guinea or two for her teaching, and
I heard that in the places I mention they will take in a person
upon such terms. I suppose she will dress meat on fast days? I like
the character of the woman provided she has had the smallpox, as I
would not have any person in the house who might run me into the
hazard.”
[266] Mrs. Donnellan was _Irish_.
The three Robinson boys were taken by young Mr. Edward Carter to York,
placed in the coach to London, and were met by Griffith, a valet of
Mr. Montagu’s in London, Mr. Montagu taking them in in Dover Street,
and despatching them with a servant to Canterbury, _en route_ for Mount
Morris.
[Page heading: CHANCERY SUIT]
On December 28 Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband she trusts to set
out for London on January 9, and hopes to accomplish the journey in
ten or eleven days! The Chancery suit had been deferred till January
13. A letter of Thomas Robinson’s regretting his inability to leave
the Kentish Sessions held at Maidstone contains this passage, “I have
already two or three retainers for that day, and have generally the
good fortune to be employed in every cause, which makes the gains of
the day considerable.”... He winds up with saying he has delivered his
brief of the Montagu case to Mr. Fawcet, who, he is sure, will make
better use of it than he should.
And so ends the year 1742.