1749–1751--SOCIETY IN LONDON AND AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS--BEGINNING OF
CORRESPONDENCE WITH GILBERT WEST, AND RESIDENCE AT HAYES.
[Year: 1749]
An account of a subscription masquerade given at Ranelagh in May opens
the letters of 1749. My grandfather[467] by mistake put this in 1751.
It succeeded a magnificent fête and masquerade given on May 1 in
celebration of the Peace.
[467] _Vide_ Horace Walpole’s letter to Sir H. Mann, vol. ii. p.
292.
Mrs. Montagu writes to her sister at Bath on May 8--
“I am ashamed that I have been so remiss in writing to my dear
sister, but business and amusements have poured in torrents upon
me. I was some days preparing for the subscription masquerade,
where I was to appear in the character of the Queen Mother,[468]
my dress white satin, fine new point for tuckers, kerchief and
ruffles, pearl necklace and earrings, and pearls and diamonds
on the head, and my hair curled after the Vandyke picture. Mrs.
Trevor[469] and the Lady Stanhopes’[470] adjusted my dress, so that
I was one day in my life well dressed.
“Miss Charlotte Fane was Rubens’ wife, and looked extremely well;
we went together. Miss Chudleigh’s[471] dress or rather undress was
remarkable. She was Iphigenia for the sacrifice, but so naked, the
High Priest might easily inspect the entrails of the victim. The
Maids of Honour, not of maids the strictest, were so offended they
would not speak to her.
[468] Henrietta Maria.
[469] Mrs. John Morley Trevor, _née_ Montagu.
[470] Daughters of 1st Viscount Stanhope; their mother was a Pitt.
[471] Maid-of-Honour, and secretly married to Viscount Bristol,
afterwards Duchess of Kingston.
“Pretty Mrs. Pitt[472] looked as if she came from heaven, but was
only on her road thither in the habit of a chanoiness. Many ladies
looked handsome, and others rich, there was as great a quantity
of Diamonds as the town could produce. Mrs. Chandler was a starry
night, the Duchess of Portland had no jewels, and was miserably
dressed. Lord Sandwich made a fine Hussar. Mr. Montagu has made me
lay by my dress to be painted in when I see Mr. Hoare again. His
picture is thought like, but the face too full for my thin jaws. I
staid till 5 o’clock in the morning at the masquerade, and was not
tired, but a glass of your champagne and water gave me a fit of the
cholick the next day, and I have never been well since, but I had
better luck than Miss Conway[473] who was killed by a draught of
Lemonade she drank there....
“I suppose you have read Lord Bolingbroke’s new work,[474] as it is
short we idle ones in London can find time to peruse it.”
[472] _Née_ Penelope Atkyns, wife of George Pitt, afterwards Lord
Rivers.
[473] Miss Jenny Conway, sister of Lord Conway.
[474] “The Idea of a Patriot King.”
Mrs. Montagu paid a visit to the Bothams at Albury soon after this.
From the letters it appears Mr. Matthew Robinson was pressing a suit
on Miss Godschall, a rich heiress living near Albury, but it came to
nothing.
In June, Mrs. Montagu, being recommended to drink the Tunbridge waters,
was accompanied by Lady Sandwich, who was also ordered there; Mr.
Montagu remaining on business for a while in London, Sarah Robinson
still living with Lady Bab Montagu at Bath.
A letter from Lady Talbot welcoming them to stay with her till
they found a house now appears. She was the wife of William, 2nd
Baron Talbot, afterwards Earl Talbot and Baron Dinevor, _née_ Mary
de Cardonnel, a great heiress, who had been married at the age of
fifteen! An amiable, affectionate person, and a great friend of Mrs.
Montagu’s. Mrs. Montagu writes for her chariot to be sent to her; she
and Lady Sandwich having performed the journey in Lady Sandwich’s
post-chaise,[475] then a new vehicle.
[475] The four-wheeled post-chaise invented by Mr. Jethro Tull.
[Page heading: JOHN, DUKE OF MONTAGU]
They stayed three weeks drinking the waters, during which Lady Talbot
had a bad fall from her horse. A report reaching Tunbridge Wells that
Lord Sandwich had a fever, his wife, accompanied by Mrs. Montagu,
drove in four hours to London, where they found him recovered by the
taking of bark. As Lady Sandwich wished to be present at the Huntingdon
races, she did not return to Tunbridge, but Mrs. Montagu persuaded her
sister-in-law, Mrs. Medows, to accompany her there for a week. Mr.
Montagu now joined her from Sandleford, whither he had been accompanied
by Captain Robert Robinson, the sailor brother. The captain proceeded
on to Bath to see Sarah. Before leaving town, Mr. Montagu had been much
distressed at the illness of his relative, the Duke of Montagu, and
sent daily to inquire after him. He had only been at Tunbridge a few
days before the duke died, and he was summoned to town as an executor,
together with the Dukes of Bedford and Devonshire. Mrs. Montagu writes--
“I am grieved at the heart for the poor Duke of Montagu, as he was
your friend and the friend of mankind; his memory will be dear to
all that knew him, he is embalmed in the tears of the poor and the
distressed: it is happier to dye lamented than to live unloved.”
This is the Duke of Montagu[476] mentioned by Horace Walpole, page 141
of his letters to George Montagu, “as the head of all the ‘cues.’”[477]
In the codicils legacies were left to his servants, dogs, and cats.
Horace says, “As he was making the codicil one of his cats jumped on
his knee. ‘What,’ says he, ‘have you a mind to be a witness too? You
can’t, for you are a party concerned.’”
[476] John Montagu, 2nd Duke, born 1705, died February 16, 1749.
[477] The “cues” was the nickname of the large Montagu circle.
He left no male heir, only two daughters, the Duchess of Manchester,
who had remarried Mr. Hussey, and Lady Cardigan. Their mother was the
fourth daughter of the celebrated Duke of Marlborough.
[Page heading: MRS. VESEY]
Mr. Montagu got £100 as executor. Whilst he was detained in London,
Mrs. Montagu made an expedition to Coombe Bank in company of Mr. and
Mrs. Vesey. This is the first mention of people who were destined to
become most intimate friends. Mrs. Vesey was the daughter of Sir Thomas
Vesey, Bishop of Ossory. She married, first, Mr. William Handcock;
secondly, her cousin, Agmondesham Vesey, of Lucan, Ireland. He was M.P.
for Harris Town.
[Page heading: THE FEATHER SCREEN]
Mrs. Montagu writes--
“I went yesterday along with Mrs. Vesey to see General Campbell’s
place; we set out to avoid heat a little after 6. Lady Allen lent
us her coach and six. We got to Coombe Banke by nine. It is about
16 miles[478] from here. We walked about the gardens, which are
very pretty, and saw the house, dined under the shade, and about
4 o’clock Mr. and Mrs. Vesey got into their post-chaise to go to
London. I mounted my horse and went to Senoak, where Lady Allen’s
coach waited for me. Lord Sandwich and Lord Anson were just come to
the inn, and going to dine on turtle, to which they invited me, but
I had made a more agreeable meal in General Campbell’s garden....
I am going to dinner to Lady Talbot’s, where I breakfasted. Lord
Sandwich and Lord and Lady Anson and a great deal of company are
to dine there. We have now such a crowd we expect a splendid ball
to-night. I received great civility from Mr. and Mrs. Vesey, and
they desired to know how I got home last night, so I must beg you
to send the enclosed note to them in Bolton Row. They desired leave
to see the house and celebrated feather screen, so I have wrote
to Betty to have the house in order, and to set the screen for
them.... Coombank is but a small place, but a fine terrace commands
a beautiful view of the country. The house is most elegantly
furnished. We were offered everything as politely as if the General
had been there. We had a fine dessert of fruit served in the finest
china. Our dinner we carried, but wine, tea and coffee were offered
us.”
[478] Three hours doing sixteen miles shows the badness of the
roads.
This feather screen was in six panels, one of which was worked by Miss
Anstey, in imitation of one of the Duchess of Portland’s. The feather
work, immortalized afterwards by the poet Cowper, had been begun,
but it was the Duchess of Portland’s original idea. Numerous letters
mention feathers being sent or asked for. Lydia Botham collected the
plumage of peacocks, pheasants, and jays. Every known sort of parrot
and macaw was placed under contribution. From Albury the boxes of
feathers were sent by the Guildford coach to the “White Horse cellar in
Piccadilly.” With these came fifty pens made by Lydia from her geese.
Dr. Jurin[479] kept Mrs. Montagu longer than she intended drinking the
waters of Tunbridge. During her stay there amongst the company were the
Duchess of Somerset[480] and her daughter the Duchess of Bedford, Lord
and Lady Fitzwalter, Lady Ancram, Lady Anson, Lord and Lady Elibank,
Dowager Lady Barrington, Lady Betty Germain, Lord and Lady Vere
Beauclerk, Lady Talbot, Lord March, Lord Eglinton, Lord Granby and Lord
Powis, Lady Winchelsea, the Bishop of London and Mrs. Sherlock.
[479] Dr. James Jurin, born 1684, died 1750; physician,
mathematician and author.
[480] Second wife of Charles, “the proud Duke” of Somerset. Her
daughters became, one Marchioness of Granby, the other Countess of
Aylesford.
In a letter to Dr. Freind this is said--
“In many respects this place is inferior to Bath, in some it
is better. We are not confined here in Streets; the houses are
scattered irregularly, and Tunbridge Wells looks from the window I
now sit by a little like the village[481] you see from our terrace
at Sandleford, only that the inhabitants instead of Jack and Joan
are my Lord and my Lady.”
[481] Newtown.
[Page heading: HINCHINBROOK]
A letter of September 28, of Mr. Montagu’s, after his return to London,
is addressed to Hinchinbrook, where his wife had gone to stay with Lady
Sandwich for a grand ball at Huntingdon, and the election of a new
mayor. He says--
“I am not surprised that Hinchinbrook pleases you so well, or that
you are of opinion it is capable of being made a fine place, it
stands upon an eminence and commands a fine prospect, which those
that made the Terrass well knew. The venerable old elms in the road
are very ornamental, and the wood at the bottom of the garden is
pretty as is also the plantation in the Park. The brook from whence
the place takes its name is at a due distance from the house, and
might be improved into a river or fine piece of water. I doubt not
my Lord will do it, if not at present, at an age more suitable.
The room where Oliver Cromwell was born I daresay Mr. Audley will
be proud to show you, and is seen by all strangers, tho’ I don’t
believe it consists of one of the same particles of the material of
which the room was built when that great man was brought into the
world.”
[Page heading: THE MISS GUNNINGS]
Mrs. Montagu writes--
“The Huntingdon ball was more splendid than I expected. I danced
with Lord Sandwich. For beauties we had the two Miss Gunnings,[482]
who are indeed very handsome; _nonpareille_, for the sisters are
just alike take them together, and there is nothing like them; they
are really very fine girls.”
[482] The daughters of John Gunning, of Castle Coote, Roscommon.
Elizabeth married, first, the Duke of Hamilton; secondly, the Duke
of Argyll. Maria married the Earl of Coventry. There was a third
sister, Kitty, married Mr. Robert Travers, but lived in Ireland.
On her road back to London she stayed with the Ansteys at Trumpington,
and Miss Anstey accompanied her to London.
Sarah Robinson, between whom and Mrs. Montagu there was a slight
estrangement on account of her engagement to Mr. George Lewis Scott,
which Mrs. Montagu disapproved of, now paid her sister a visit.
Matthew wrote to recommend that the sisters should meet as if nothing
had occurred to weaken their bond of affection. Sarah’s health had
improved much by her long residence at Bath with Lady Barbara Montagu,
who accompanied her on her visit to Sandleford. Sarah had painted
a toilette-cover with flowers for Mrs. Montagu’s new house in Hill
Street, which was beginning to be decorated.
In November, Parliament called the Montagus to London.
[Year: 1750]
[Page heading: MRS. MONTAGU’S CHINESE ROOM]
[Page heading: A CLERGYMAN’S CHILDREN]
The first letter of 1750 is dated January 3, from Sandleford, addressed
to Sarah. I give portions of it--
“Lady Sandwich was so good as to spend a week with us, and as
the weather was fine for this time of year, we went out in the
post-chaise all the morning, then dinner, tea and supper pretty
well filled the rest of the time. On Monday I went with her
Ladyship to Reading, where we lay that night. The next morning she
went to town, and I returned hither, where I found my brothers,
who give me a very agreeable account of your health ... I saw our
friend Cotes the day before I left town, she is very well and in
good spirits, and seems determined to keep her freedom and enter
no more into wedlock’s bonds. She has only a small lodging, and
I think with her economy she might afford herself a house of her
own, and she might furnish it in the present fashion, of some
cheap paper and ornaments of Chelsea China or the manufacture of
Bow, which makes a room look neat and finished. They are not so
sumptuous as mighty Pagodas of China or nodding Mandarins. My
dressing room in London is like the Temple of some Indian god: if
I was remarkably short and had a great head, I should be afraid
people would think I meant myself Divine Honours, but I can so
little pretend to the embonpoint of a Josse, it is impossible to
suspect me of such presumption. The very curtains are Chinese
pictures on gauze, and the chairs the Indian fan sticks with
cushions of Japan satin painted: as to the beauty of colouring,
it is carried as high as possible, but the toilette you were so
good as to paint is the only thing where nature triumphs. Lady
Sandwich brought her sons here, they are charming boys; Lord
Hinchinbrooke[483] is much improved since you saw him, and Master
Montagu[484] is a complete beauty....
“Mr. Morgan is at last deprived of the curacy of Newtown, which
is a great grief to him. Nanny performs extremely well at the
embroidery, and I hope the habit of application will make her
useful to herself and other people. I was afraid she would never
have been either of those things! Her Father and Mother are much
afraid she should be buried in Westminster Abbey near the lady that
dyed by the pinch of her finger in working, but I will lay some
wager on her head she will not be killed by diligence; as to Jacky
Morgan, he has an admirable education for a jockey, he lives on
horseback but can neither read nor write.”
[483] John Montagu, 5th Earl of Sandwich, born 1744.
[484] Edward Montagu, born 1745; Mrs. Montagu’s godson.
This passage shows the position of the lower class of clergy of the
period. Mr. Morgan was of Welsh birth, and preached long, dull sermons,
as appears from former letters; his wife was a good motherly body, but
no more. Mrs. Montagu apprenticed Nanny Morgan, as is shown by her next
letter.
“She is too high and too giddy for a servant, time and experience
may mend her, she likes the business she is going to.... I have
obliged Mrs. Albert to promise she shall never go without her
or Dettmere[485] or Mrs. Donnellan’s maid.... Charles went to
Cambridge on Tuesday.”
[485] Mrs. Montagu’s lady’s-maid.
Charles’s health had improved, but as he did not like the sea as a
profession, he entered Cambridge as an undergraduate.
“Tell Mr. Hoare when you see him, that if he pleases to send my
face[486] to Hill Street, it will meet with a kind reception;
it is a young face to be sure, but the retrospect to 18 is so
pleasant I shall not find fault with it. I am, as you observe,
Mistress of a post-chaize, which next to having wings, is the most
convenient thing in the world, and must serve till it is brought to
perfection. We liked so well our journey to Cambridge in the summer
in a post-chaize which we hired for the time, that we bespoke one
immediately.”
[486] Her portrait by Hoare.
The old post-chaises had only two wheels. Four-wheeled post-chaises
were new, and were thought the more dangerous, as being liable to
overturn.
[Page heading: LORD PEMBROKE’S DEATH]
A letter occurs now from the Duchess Dowager of Chandos, third wife,
and widow since 1744, of the 1st Duke of Chandos, surnamed the
“Princely Duke,” the builder of the palatial residence of Canons, in
Middlesex, on which he spent £200,000. Having spent his fortune in
building and speculating, Canons was sold for the _material_ at his
death. The duchess’s maiden name was Van Hatten, but she had been
married to a Sir Thomas Davall. After the duke’s death she came to
reside at Shaw House,[487] near Newbury, from whence she writes to Mrs.
Montagu, and after some inquiries as to health, etc., says--
“What different tempers the world consists of: I am told passion
sent the late Lord Pembroke[488] out of the world, but that Mr.
Middleton who opened him says that both heart and all the vitals
were displaced by the continual swathing he used to keep himself
from growing bulky. This was itself a discontented temper, and if
at any time I should be extremely strait laced and contradicted,
it is certain my crossness would have been very great, and I or
my lace must burst. The giving Ward’s pill to a cock and then
turning it into broth for old Lady Northampton[489] has something
curious in it too, but as it ended in death, I suppose will not
be practised further. How many tricks do we try to lengthen life,
and yet like poor Lord Pembroke waste it in tormenting our blood
because others will not be of our mind, or we are too fat, or
too lean to please ourselves: if there is not another life where
we may be more perfect, more happy, we are certainly the most
inconsistent, foolish creatures this world produces; how much
better the other planets have for inhabitants I know not.
[487] From a letter of Mrs. Medows, 1744, Shaw belonged to the
duchess, and had been rented by a Mr. Forster, who then went to
live at Englefield.
[488] Henry, 28th Earl of Pembroke, died January 9, 1750.
[489] Elizabeth, second wife and widow of 11th Earl of Northampton.
[Page heading: THE EARTHQUAKE]
The earthquake mentioned by Horace Walpole in his letters to Sir Horace
Mann, page 349 in volume 2, on February 5, created much terror. The
Montagus were in Hill Street at the time. On February 20, in a letter
to her sister, Mrs. Montagu says--
“I was not under any apprehensions about the earthquake, but went
that night to the Oratorio, then quietly to bed, but the madness of
the multitude was prodigious, near 50 of the people I had sent to,
to play at cards here the Saturday following, went out of town to
avoid being swallowed, and I believe they made a third part of the
number I asked, so that you may imagine how universal the fright
must be. The Wednesday night the Oratorio was very empty, though it
was the most favourite performance of Handel’s.”
A slighter shock took place a month later; some people prognosticated a
worse shock on April 3, which was to swallow up London. The following
letter of the Duchess of Chandos alludes to this:--
“Shaw, April 3.
“DEAR MADAM,
“I do assure you although I had many accounts of the earthquake, I
do easily perceive the difference betwixt a fright, and a sensible
account of the same matter of fact: the day this, I hope, will
kiss your hands and find perfect peace and safety at Hill Street,
is the day when in many people have great fears, but in my opinion
without reason, for I never heard of periodical earthquakes, and
the coolness of the weather I hope will assuage these sulphurous
heats. It would now bear hard upon Human understanding as well as
gratitude, if when they see how very easily the destruction of
popular places may be effected, we should not all live in such a
way as to make Death not so extremely shocking to us, as it has
appeared to some of the gay world at this time. The same Providence
that certainly made this complicated and beautiful Machine, is not
the children that blow bubbles in air only to divert themselves,
but has will, and good further designs suitable to His infinite
goodness and wisdom, and therefore a hope in Him is a real security
in all evils, and as to the manner of Death I have it, may be a
peculiar thought, that there is a degree of pain that human nature
cannot exceed consistent with life; which is a great mercy, or else
our cruelty to one another would be without bounds: therefore I
will never be too anxious what is the manner of my death, but trust
it to that power that sent me into life....
“Dear Madam, yʳ much obliged
and faithful humble servant,
“L. C. CHANDOS.”
[Page heading: DEATH OF DR. CONYERS MIDDLETON]
There are few letters for 1750 in my collection. In July Mrs. Montagu
went to Tunbridge Wells, whilst Mr. Montagu prepared to accept the
invitation of his Huntingdon constituents to the races, etc., held
there. Miss Anstey, who had accompanied Lady Romney[490] to Tunbridge,
remained with Mrs. Montagu for a while. Dr. Conyers Middleton and his
wife not being in good health, went to London to consult physicians.
In June, from Horace Walpole’s letters to George Montagu we learn the
doctor was suffering from jaundice and dropsy, and was much broken in
health. He died on July 28, 1750. In a letter of Mr. Montagu’s, dated
August 4, from London, he says--
“This morning at Vaillante’s the bookseller, I met Dr. Green,[491]
the Regius Professor, who told me the Friday before his death
Dr. Middleton sent for Dr. Plumtree, told him he thought he had
but a very short time to live, desired him freely to tell him his
opinion, which from the knowledge he had of him, he hoped he would
make no scruple to do, upon which the Professor told him he thought
he could live but a few hours; then he asked the Professor if from
his pulse he thought his death would be easy, who answered that he
did. He further told the Professor he had taken Dr. Heberden’s[492]
medicines till he found they did him no good, his case being out
of the Power of Physick. Dr. Green said he had left his niece an
annuity, but did not say what, nor any further about his will. He
was buried at St. Michael’s, Cambridge.”
[490] _Née_ Priscilla Pym, wife of 2nd Baron Romney.
[491] Dr. John Green, born 1706, died 1779; afterwards Bishop of
Lincoln.
[492] Dr. William Heberden, born 1710, died 1801; physician and
author.
Mrs. Montagu mourned sincerely for one who had acted as a grandfather,
a godfather, and an instructor to her.
[Page heading: ANNIVERSARY OF WEDDING-DAY]
Of a splendid letter she wrote to Mr. Montagu on the return of the
anniversary of her wedding-day, August 5, only a few sentences can be
inserted from its length.
“MY DEAREST,
“There is not any day in which you have not a right to my most
grateful acknowledgments, but there is not any day that so
particularly demands them as the fifth of August, when you made me
your friend and companion, and gave me so near an alliance to your
virtues and fortune, all so superior to what I could expect. I can
truly assure you my affection and esteem for you, and happiness in
you have increased every day. I am not sensible there can be any
further progress or addition made, but as I owe every happiness
to you, each day’s felicity adds to my obligation, and I hope
you think what does so increase my gratitude for eight years’
happiness in a state so often wretched, inexpressible thanks are
due. May we enjoy many years together of this happy society, but
if I should be taken from you, let the consciousness of having
been the occasion of my enjoying more happiness in a short life
than is the lot of thousands in a long one, take out the sting of
grief, and teach you to think of me with a tender but not painful
remembrance....” She signs--
“With heart and hand your grateful,
affectionate, faithful and obedient Wife,
“E. MONTAGU.”
[Page heading: MRS. BOSCAWEN]
At Tunbridge this year Mrs. Montagu first became acquainted with Mrs.
Boscawen, wife of Admiral Boscawen; she describes her as “a very
sensible, lively, ingenious woman, and she seems to have good moral
qualities. We often pass the evening together, partly in conversation,
partly in reading.” Mrs. Boscawen’s maiden name was Frances Glanville;
she had married Edward Boscawen, second son of 1st Viscount Falmouth,
in 1742. As Dorothy Boscawen, aunt to the Admiral, married Sir Philip
Medows, the families were already connected.
Mrs. Medows writes to Mrs. Montagu, “I think of Mrs. Boscawen as you
do, I expect you should be fond of the Admiral,[493] his cool courage,
his firmness, good nature, diligence and regularity, with his strong
sense and good head, make a great character.”
[493] Admiral the Hon. Edward Boscawen, born 1711, died 1761.
[Page heading: MR. GILBERT WEST]
Sir Dudley and Lady Ryder, Lady Townsend, and Lady Robinson, wife of
“Short” Sir Thomas Robinson,[494] were amongst the company. A Mr.
Samuel Torriano also appears as a friend of Mrs. Montagu’s. He tries
to find her a cottage near London, as she fancies her health would be
better in the country, and yet not so far from London as Sandleford,
during the winter session when Mr. Montagu would have to be in London.
The reception rooms in Hill Street were to be decorated in the early
spring. Hearing of a cottage at West Wickham, near Croydon, Mrs.
Montagu went to see it, and made her first acquaintance with Mr.
Gilbert West.[495] He was the son of the Rev. Dr. Richard West by
Maria, daughter of Sir Richard Temple, of Stowe. He married in 1729
Catherine Bartlett, by whom he had an only son, Richard. With them
lived Miss Maria West,[496] his sister; his mother had remarried Lord
John Langham. West was a cousin of Mr. Botham’s, also of Mr. Lyttelton,
afterwards Sir George Lyttelton. Writing to Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Montagu
says--
“I saw at Wickham the miracle of the Moral World, a Christian Poet,
an humble philosopher, a great genius, without contempt of those
who have none.... I am charmed with Mrs. West, and approve all you
say of her. She is neither a tenth muse, nor a fourth grace, but
she is better than all put together. I believe it might truly be
said of her--
“‘That she always speaks her thought,
And always thinks the very thing she ought.’
Her vivacity, easiness of behaviour and good sense delight me.
“Mr. West has been so good as to find out a cottage for me.
The pleasure of being near Mr. West gets the better of all
considerations in regard to the situation of my cottage. I hope it
will be an inducement to you to visit my hermitage, where you shall
be entertained with the wholesome fare of brown bread, sincerity
and red cow’s milk, which afford good nourishment to the mind and
body.”
[494] Afterwards Lord Grantham.
[495] Born 1706, died April, 1756. Author and poet; translator of
Odes of Pindar, etc.
[496] Maria West, afterwards wife of 1st Viscount Bridport.
[Page heading: BARRY AND GARRICK]
On October 16 she writes, “The cruel owner of the house near Mr. West
makes unreasonable demands, we are going to treat for one about two
miles from him, which Mrs. West and he went with me to see yesterday.”
She laments it is so far from the Wests. This house was at Hayes in
Kent, or, as it is frequently spelt in the letters, “Heyes.” Mrs.
Montagu continues--
“I hear there is a great strife and contention between Mr.
Barry[497] and Garrick, each acting the part of Romeo[498] every
night, and that the ladies think the first makes the best lover,
by which one may learn they think beauty a better qualification
than sense in that character, for Barry always seems to betray the
fool in all the parts he appears in.... The Duke of Ancaster[499]
is going to take unto wife the daughter of Mr. Panton;[500] the
match is at last agreed upon, and coaches and jewels and horses and
servants and houses and clothes and all the fine things with which
Hymen now embroiders his saffron robe, are bespoken....
“Mr. Ramsay[501] was so good as to call on us, and Mr. Montagu
and I went to his house, where we had the pleasure to see some
admirable pictures.”
[497] Spranger Barry, born 1719, died 1777; celebrated Irish actor.
[498] Barry at Covent Garden, and Garrick at Drury Lane.
[499] Peregrine, 3rd Duke of Ancaster.
[500] Mr. Panton was Master of the King’s Racers.
[501] Allan Ramsay, born 1709, died 1784. Eminent portrait painter;
son of the poet.
These letters are addressed to Hatchlands, Admiral Boscawen’s place
near Guildford.
[Page heading: EMBROIDERED FLOUNCES]
In a letter to Sarah at this period, Mrs. Montagu mentioned the
appointment of her brother Robert to a Madras and China voyage: “I
rejoice in the Captain’s appointed voyage to Madras and China, it is
reckoned a profitable and healthful voyage, and all we ask for our King
is ‘in health and wealth long to live.’” She then proceeds to comment
on some white satin flounces Sarah wished embroidered in China.
“As you design them to be in white, they need only have the outline
drawn on one flounce and on the sleeves and robing. Mrs. Marsh
is the best contriver of flounces: she did me a white lutestring
very prettily, this summer’s gown is to be cut in the same manner,
but not pinked.... All people are buying cloaths for the Birthday
... the prices are most unreasonable, 17 and 18 shillings a yard
for Damask, and six and twenty for flowered silks of an ordinary
appearance.”
In November Sarah Robinson writes to her sister as to her lover’s
appointment at Court--
“Mr. Scott[502] is appointed to have the education of Prince
George.[503] I can’t give this employment any name, for none but
the King has a right to appoint any one over the young Princes
under the title of governor or Preceptor; the salary I cannot tell
you, it being not yet determined. His Royal Highness[504] has left
it to Mr. Scott’s friends to name whatever they think proper, and
has behaved in the handsomest manner imaginable. He was recommended
to the Prince for this place by a great number of people, many of
whom had very little personal----” (the end of the letter is lost).
[502] He was made sub-preceptor.
[503] George III., then twelve years old.
[504] Frederick, Prince of Wales, father of Prince George.
[Page heading: THE DOWAGER DUCHESS OF CHANDOS]
Probably the Duchess of Portland may have been one, as she sided with
Sarah in the affair, telling Mrs. Montagu that she might wish to obey
her in all other respects, but could not control her affections. Lord
Bolingbroke is said to have recommended him through Lord Bathurst. The
ill-starred marriage took place probably at the commencement of 1751,
but no letters are left recording it. On November 18 the Dowager
Duchess of Chandos died at Shaw House, near Newbury, and in a letter to
Miss Anstey is thus noticed--
“A little before I went to London I lost my very good neighbour,
the Duchess of Chandos, a stroke of the palsy carried her off in
a few days: her bodily pains were great, but her mind felt the
serenity that gilds the evening of a virtuous life. She quitted
the world with that decent fare-well which people take of it, who
rather consider it as a place in which they are to impart good
than to enjoy it. Her character has made a great impression on me,
as I think her a rare instance that age could not make conceited
and stiff, nor retirement discontented, nor virtue inflexible and
severe.”
To Mrs. Donnellan, on December 30, Mrs. Montagu says, “The Duchess of
Chandos is greatly missed by the poor this rigorous season.”
In these two letters the following books and pamphlets are recommended,
“An Occasional Letter,” said to be Lord Bolingbroke’s;[505] the King
of Prussia’s “Memoires pour servir à L’Histoire de la Maison de
Brandenbourg,” and “Sully’s Memoires.”
[505] Viscount Bolingbroke, born 1678, died 1751; philosopher and
statesman.
[Year: 1751]
January, 1751, finds Mrs. Montagu in London, and Mr. Montagu at
Sandleford Priory, engaged in business affairs. Mrs. Montagu, on
January 7, writes to him--
“MY DEAREST,
“I am glad you are so far tired of your monastic life as to think
of returning to the secular state of a husband and a member of
Parliament. I believe our predecessors in the cowl had their
particular kinds of _volupté_ which silence, secresy and peace
might much enhance and recommend; but to those who have been used
to the bustle and business of life such pleasures want vivacity.
Boileau makes a man who goes to visit the Chantre just before
dinner observe the luxury of a prebendal table. Says he--
“‘Il voit la nappe mise,
Admire le bel ordre, et reconnait l’_Eglise_.’
I have sat so constantly in Lady Sandwich’s chimney corner, I can
give you little account of the world.”
To which Mr. Montagu rejoins, “I am much obliged to you for the kind
impatience you show at my stay here; in a few days I now hope to
convince you that however unworthy of either state, I have deserted
neither.” He was accompanied to London by Captain Robinson.
From a letter of Mr. Gilbert West’s of May 16, 1751, we learn that Mrs.
Montagu, though wishing to be near London and yet not in it, did not
take up her temporary residence at Hayes till then. In it he says, “I
have agreed with a farmer at Wickham to fetch your goods at the price
of 15 shillings: the waggon will be in Hill Street to-morrow morning
early.” He desires her to breakfast and dine at West Wickham with him,
and signs himself, “Dear Madam, your loving cousin to command till
death, G. W.”
[Page heading: “THE COUSINHOOD”]
In the collection of letters published by her nephew, Matthew Robinson,
4th Baron Rokeby, he says he cannot remember the reason why West and
Mrs. Montagu called each other cousins, but he had forgotten his
cousinship to the Bothams, the beloved cousins of his aunt, Mrs.
Montagu. “The cousinhood” was also the favourite term of the whole set
of Wests, Pitts, and Lytteltons, all much connected in marriage and
extreme intimacy.
Gilbert West was at this period forty-five years of age only, but even
then a perfect martyr to gout. Amongst his poems and translations was
Lucian’s “Triumph of the Gout,” every line of which he could painfully
indorse. In his “Lives of the Poets” Dr. Johnson[506] brackets him
with Crashaw under “the two venerable names of _Poet and Saint_.” He
was often visited by Lyttelton and Pitt, “who, when they were weary of
faction and debates, used at Wickham to find books and quiet, a decent
table and literary conversation.”
[506] _Vide_ Johnson’s “Lives of the Poets.”
There may still be seen at Wickham a walk made by Pitt, and at Wickham,
Lyttelton received that conviction which produced his “Dissertation on
Saint Paul.” The same spirit of _cheerful_ and _benign religion_ was
now to exercise a large influence on Elizabeth Montagu, to strengthen
her already religious turn of mind, and to enable her in the future,
though living in the great world of fashion and rank, and the idol of
society, to keep that sacred, secret lamp of spirituality _not of this
world_ alight.
[Page heading: THE WEST FAMILY]
The family circle at the Wests was a happy one; his wife and sister
adored him, and he was the magnet that attracted all to him. He had a
great sense of humour and a pretty taste for decorating, as the many
letters upon the subject of the adornment of the Hill Street rooms
show; Mrs. Montagu took his advice in every point from this time till
his death in 1756. At the period I am now writing of he was far from
well off, though expecting promotion, with just reason, having been a
faithful servant to the King, and secretary to Lord Townshend during
his period of office as Secretary of State.
[Page heading: MR. R. BERANGER]
Amongst the friends of the Wests, Mrs. Montagu now made acquaintance
with Mr. R. Berenger,[507] called by Mrs. West “the little Marquis.”
He was the son of Moses Beranger and Penelope Temple, and was therefore
related on the maternal side to West. He afterwards became “Gentleman
of the Horse” to George III. He wrote a book called the “History and
Art of Horsemanship.” He was famous for his charm in social life.
Hannah More called him “everybody’s favourite, all chivalry, blank
verse and anecdote,” and Dr. Johnson dubbed him “the Standard of
true Elegance.” He was a great friend of the Garricks. Another fresh
acquaintance was William Henry Lyttelton, brother of Sir George
(afterwards Lord) Westcote.
[507] R. Berenger, born 1720, died 1782.
At some early period of this year Sarah Robinson became the wife of
George Lewis Scott, but no date is recorded, and no letters concerning
the marriage remain. Only on June 9, when Mrs. Montagu was making her
yearly visit to Tunbridge Wells in company with Lady Romney, she writes
to her husband at Sandleford to say she had arrived safely, “Mrs. Scott
and the Captain,” whose departure to China had been delayed, seeing
her off. From other letters it appears the Scotts, accompanied by Lady
Barbara Montagu, took up their abode in Leicester Fields, now Leicester
Square, doubtless to be close to Leicester House, where, with their
mother, the widowed Princess of Wales,[508] Scott’s royal pupils dwelt.
[508] Frederick, Prince of Wales, died March 31, 1751.
At Tunbridge Mrs. Montagu joined Mr. and Mrs. West and their son, and
lodged in the same house. At Tunbridge were Sir George Lyttelton, his
brother the Dean, the famous Mr. Garrick, the Bishop of London, etc.
Then she wrote--
“Monsieur[509] and Madame Mirepoix are come to pass a few days
here, but I imagine they will soon be tired of us. The Justices of
Peace have done great service to the imprudent part of our company
by prohibiting gaming, and though you may suppose I do not number
myself among them, I feel my obligations to them on account of the
servants, who have one temptation less to be idle and bad.”
[509] The French ambassador and his wife. She was a daughter of the
Princesse de Craon.
She then adds grateful words to her husband, who had written to say
he had made a fresh will, and in her favour. Mr. Montagu was then in
London, but on the eve of going north to attend to his own estates
in Yorkshire, and the complicated business of regulating Mr. Rogers’
affairs in Northumberland. In this letter he says--
“I this day, though I could ill spare the time, dined in Leicester
Fields” (with the Scotts). “Being in the city I was informed by Dr.
Middleton’s bookseller that Mrs. Middleton has had the good luck
to sell Hildersham for 2000 guineas, it cost the Doctor, he said,
£1600, besides what he lay’d out in building, so that if there
should be some loss it cannot be much.”
[Page heading: HILDERSHAM]
Hildersham was some miles from Cambridge. Here Gray, the poet, loved
to visit Conyers Middleton, and improved his friendship with William
Robinson, who was preparing for Holy Orders, and whom Gray always
called the “Reverend Billy.”
On July 23 Mr. Montagu writes from Huntingdon--
“I lay last night at Cambridge. I dined with Mrs. Middleton in
company with your brother, and the evening I spent with the Master
of Clare Hall. Mrs. Middleton indulged me with the sight of some
letters that passed between the Doctor and a great man[510] who
formerly had a seat not far from Cambridge, and who is no more....
She very obligingly of herself promised your brother all the
Doctor’s Sermons which she had in her custody, and promised also to
keep it secret, which I think you and I should also do, even from
the brotherhood.... The races are to continue 4 days....
“I desire when wheatears are plenty and you send any to your
friends in London, you would send some to Monsieur de Moivre at
Pons Coffee House in Cecil Court in St. Martin’s Lane, for I think
he longs to taste them.”
[510] Probably the 1st Earl of Godolphin, who lived at Gog Magog,
near Cambridge.
[Page heading: MISS MARIA NAYLOR]
Mrs. Montagu wishing to hear about the Huntingdon races, he says--
“I can tell you little about the races, having no concern in the
bets, but I heard Lord Trentham had lost £1000, Captain William
Montagu £200. Lord Sandwich’s horse won a heat, but he did not tell
me how much he won.
“At the ball all the family of the Naylors were there, with Captain
William Montagu’s lady, who danced country dances. Miss Maria
Naylor danced both kind of dances, and was, I think, the lady that
outshone all the rest. Her head dress was new and particular, and
became her very well, and gave her the air of a shepherdess....
There was Mrs. Apreece and Mrs. Alstone, who married my relation
with a fortune of £4000, and Miss Ascham, etc. The distinguished
amongst the men besides the Prince of Baden, and the Marquis de
Bellegarde, were the Duke of Kingston,[511] Lord Montfort,[512]
Lord Onslow,[513] Lord Goring,[514] Lord March,[515] Lord
Eggletone,[516] Mr. Alstone and Mr. Apreece. The members both of
the county and town. Mr. Wortley from the Huntingdon races set out
for those of Reading.”
[511] The 2nd Duke.
[512] 1st Baron Montfort, of Horseheath.
[513] 3rd Baron Onslow.
[514] Viscount Goring, a Jacobite Viscount.
[515] 3rd Earl of March, afterwards Duke of Queensberry. “Old Q.”
[516] 10th Earl of Eglintown.
This was young Edward Wortley Montagu.
Mrs. Montagu writes to say her father had arrived at Tunbridge in great
spirits with a party of five, and she was, she adds, much better.
“I have a great appetite. I think I shall be able to eat for a
wager, with my brother-in-law.[517] I am glad Miss Maria Naylor
had an opportunity of shining in her proper sphere, the county of
Huntingdon. Why should the Gunnings[518] of universal empire drive
her from her little native land? Do they want to add the epithet
of great to their names? Indeed I do not know why Gunning the
great should not sound as well as Alexander the Great. I am afraid
the eldest Miss Naylor is much dejected at the infidelity of our
cousin Wortley, who is greatly enamoured of little Miss Ashe. All
collectors of natural curiosities love something of every species.
Mr. Wortley has had a passion for all sorts and sizes of women.
Miss Ashe is a sort of middle species between a woman and a fairy,
and by her rarity worthy to be added even to so large a collection
of amours.”
[517] George Lewis Scott.
[518] The celebrated Irish beauties, afterwards one Countess of
Coventry, the other Duchess of Hamilton and Argyll.
[Page heading: MISS ASHE]
Miss Ashe, or the “Pollard Ashe,” as Walpole called her, eloped with
Edward Wortley Montagu in the autumn of 1751. He was soon after this
put in prison with a Mr. Taafe in France for robbing or cheating a Jew.
As he was married before, though separated from his wife, he could not
marry Miss Ashe. She afterwards married a Mr. Falconer, R.N.
It was in this year Horace Walpole had written to Sir Horace Mann--
“Our greatest miracle is Lady Mary Wortley’s son whose adventures
have made so much noise, his parts are not proportionate, but his
expense is incredible. His father scarce allows him anything, yet
he plays, dresses, diamonds himself, even to distinct shoe buckles
for a frock, and has more snuff-boxes than would suffice a Chinese
idol with an hundred noses. But the most curious part of his dress,
which he has brought from Paris, is an iron wig; you literally
would not know it from hair. I believe it is on this account that
the Royal Society have just chosen him of their body.”
Mrs. Montagu wrote the description of “our cousin’s adventures,” and
after several comments on Wortley’s conduct, she says, “Poor Miss Ashe
weeps like the forsaken Ariadne on a foreign shore.”
The company at Tunbridge Wells had been increased by the Duke and
Duchess of Newcastle, the Duchess of Norfolk, and, Mrs. Montagu
writes, “we expect those goddesses called the Gunnings and Sir Thomas
Robinson.... My Father is very gay, but complains he never saw the
place so dull. I never said so to those about me, lest they should say
to me as Swift to the fat man who complained of a crowd, ‘Friend, you
make the very crowd you blame!’ Mr. West reads to us in the evening,
and the wit of the last age supplies us when we do not meet with any in
this.”
[Page heading: DEATH OF MRS. PERCIVAL]
[Page heading: DR. SHAW]
At this period Mrs. Percival (Anne Donnellan’s mother) died; she had
long been in bad health. Dr. Shaw, the celebrated traveller, died also,
and Mrs. Montagu comments thus on August 29 on the two events to her
husband, who was then at Newcastle--
“As to poor Mrs. Percival I hailed her voyage to the realms of
rest: the last page of life is commonly a blank. But for poor
Shaw,[519] he might have lived and laughed and talked of the Deluge
and collected cockle shells many years longer. The death of those
we esteem afflicts us; we are shocked at the death of those we have
laughed[520] at and laughed with, as we never looked upon them in
so serious a light as to suppose so sad an event could happen to
them. I would deck his tomb with emblems of all the wonders of the
land and deep; crocodiles should weep and tigers howl; every shell
should become vocal; sea-weed should bloom immortal on his tomb,
and moss, though petrified, lie lightly on his breast. What signify
voyages? What signifies learning! Hebrew Professor! Traveller to
Memphis! Sole witness living of the present state of the Ptolemies!
Must all these glories sink into oblivion? How gloriously had he
been interred had he died in the perilous pass of the Pyramids,
and succeeded Mark Anthony in the bed of Cleopatra! I hope the
poor man will have the satisfaction of being embalmed in the true
Egyptian manner, for the more like a mummy his body be made, the
more it will joy his gentle ghost. Nature has lost the inventory of
all works in losing Shaw, for he knew every plant from the Hyssop
to the Cedar of Lebanon, and every animal from the pismire to the
whale. I am afraid his sister Sarah must again dust down those
cobwebs she has been taught to venerate, and kill the moths in a
stuff turban, though it should have a horn more or a horn less.”
[519] Dr. Thomas Shaw; traveller, antiquary, and naturalist.
[520] In former letters his merry and loud laughter in the
Bullstrode circle is commented on.
Another Dr. Shaw is frequently mentioned as a chief physician at
Tunbridge Wells, but whether he was a relation of the archæologian and
naturalist, I have not been able to ascertain.
In a letter from Newcastle of September 1, Mr. Montagu, who with
his steward, Mr. Carter, was regulating the business of his cousin,
Mr. Rogers, mentions Denton Hall[521] for the first time, which was
eventually to become one of his residences.
[521] Note at the end of this work on Denton Hall.
“Yesterday Mr. Carter and I rid to Denton, which is about 3 miles
from Newcastle. We first viewed the house which is a good deal
worse than I thought, and indeed so bad that it would not be
justifiable to lay out any money upon it. The rooms on the second
floor are pretty good, and served the family when they went there,
but if ever I should be so happy as to have your company in these
parts, if these should be thought fit I would hope it would be no
difficult matter to find you some better accommodation. This next
week I propose to go to a Farm of Mr. R.’s at Jarrow, about ten
miles from Newcastle, and to Monk Seaton, where he has another. I
never have yet been at either of them.”
[Page heading: JARROW]
Amongst his other property Mr. Rogers owned much in coal mines, some of
them entirely his own, others in which, with the Claverings, Mr. Bowes,
the Bishop of Durham, etc., he owned a share. Mr. Montagu was employing
a Mr. Newton to value these--a complicated, unfair business. Owing to
Mr. Rogers’ lunacy, much advantage had been taken by dishonest stewards
and coal merchants, too long and complicated for description in these
pages. On September 8 Mr. Montagu writes--
“On Friday last I was at a farm one half whereof belongs to Mr.
Rogers, the other to Sir Thomas Clavering, called Jarrow, not
far from Tynemouth, it is in the parish where the Venerable
Bede formerly practised. Upon a Key this estate is obliged to
contribute to for the repair of all the Ships that come to this
port, they unload their ballast, which in length of time is become
an incredible heap. This estate is let at £107 10_s._ per ann.
To-morrow we go to Ravensworth, after which, when we shall have
visited Seaton and Rudchester, we shall have seen all Mr. R.’s
territories.”
[Page heading: CARLISLE TURNPIKE ROAD]
In the next letter he says--
“North Seaton lies upon the sea, consists of very good land with
coal under, and has a key and a granary for corn and some quarrys
of stone. The other estate of Rudchester is that through which
the Carlisle Road is to pass, and which with all the clamour of
the tenants will, as we think, be rather a benefit than hurt to
the estate. It is thought to have a good deal of good coal in it,
and but a very little way from the river Tyne, and will be very
valuable if ever the river should be made navigable so high up as
Mr. Carter thinks it may be in twenty years’ time.”
Mr. Montagu also adds that he and Mr. Carter have discovered that Mr.
Rogers owned two-thirds of a colliery at West Denton, of which they had
not known.
On September 13 a son was born to the Dauphin[522] of France, and Mrs.
Montagu writes on the 15th--
[522] Louis, Duke of Burgundy, son of the Dauphin.
“I hear Monsieur Mirepoix intends the town fine illuminations and
masquerades on the birth of the Dauphin. I believe every miserable
peasant in France has great joy in the birth of one who is to be
his future tyrant. Strange infatuation!... I wish the English loved
their Island as well as the French do their ‘Monarque.’”[523]
[523] Louis XV.
On the 22nd Mrs. Montagu writes to say she is packing up for London,
and she begs her husband, who is thinking of moving southward, not
to travel with a single servant, as “every newspaper is filled with
accounts of robbery.” She congratulates him “on having so well
considered and settled Mr. Rogers’ affairs. It appears a noble estate,
and I hope to see it in your possession who would nobly enjoy it.”
Matthew Robinson had been in Yorkshire, and thence travelled to
Scotland, then little visited. Mrs. Montagu says--
“I suppose my brother Robinson is by this time returning to the
known world. I expect to hear he has travelled to the extremity
of Scotland, for he is a man of infinite curiosity, and would have
knowledge at no entrance quite shut out.”
To this her husband rejoins, “Whenever I come near London I will hire a
guard, and if I can give you sufficient notice shall not be sorry to be
met by Brunton....” He says he has not heard of Brother Robinson since
he dined with him. “If he has gone to Scotland, I have lately read in
a book concerning the Rebellion, that barbarous part of our island may
in good weather be seen with pleasure!” In return, his wife writes from
London that she is going to Hayes “to enjoy quiet and my books till
you arrive. I take Mrs. Isted with me.” Mrs. Isted was a poor lady who
acted as housekeeper to Mrs. Montagu, and had seen better days.
The Scotts had been dining with her. They were then living at Chelsea,
as London did not suit Sarah’s delicate health. A scheme of education
for the young princes had been drawn up and submitted to the King, who
was much pleased with it. It was also rumoured he was to take them to
Hanover next year, “a step which will not be popular.”
[Page heading: DR. MIDDLETON’S WORKS]
“Dr. Middleton’s works are to be printed by the booksellers by
subscription. Mrs. Middleton sold the copies for £300: it seems to
me an insolence in the booksellers that should not be encouraged.
I should never grudge the guinea I could spare to a man of genius,
but to a set of wretches that live by other people’s wits, I am not
so willing to part with that gold which the wise man allows to be
better than anything except wisdom. It is strange malice in Apollo
to make poor authors and rich booksellers, he should give his upper
servants the best wages.”
From Hayes, on September 30, she writes--
“I am so well in health that I scarce know myself, and I think I
am a little like the humorous Lieutenant that would run no hazards
when he was well, though he was prodigal of life when he had a pain
in his side. I am very desirous to preserve this comfortable state
of health, and also my comely, plump and jolly condition; my face
is no longer a _memento mori_. I am like one of the goddess Hebe’s
elder sisters, ‘Not ever fair and young, but not so wan and decayed
as of late.’” She adds, “Lady Bab and my sister design to visit my
solitude in a few days. She is much better for country air, but
they do not enjoy many rural pleasures at Chelsea, it is too near
London.”
[Page heading: MRS. DONNELLAN]
[Page heading: JOURNEY TO IRELAND]
Mrs. Donnellan, having let her house to Lord Holderness, was preparing
to go to Ireland to visit Dr. and Mrs. Delany at Delville, and her
relations. She was staying with her friends the Southwells, at King’s
Weston, and as her letters throw light on the then mode of travelling,
I insert portions--
“Delville, near Dublin, October 7.
“MY DEAR MRS. MONTAGU,
“I am sure will be pleased to hear I am got safe to the end of my
journeys and voyage, and am with my good friend Mrs. Delany resting
myself after a good deal of fatigue. I left London as I told you
I should, as I informed you by a letter from King’s Weston, which
I hope you got. Mr. Leslie, the gentleman who took the charge of
conducting me to Ireland, came at the time appointed, but we heard
so bad an account of the cross roads between Bristol and Chester
that we were very near setting out again for London, and going
from thence to Chester. However, I plucked up courage, and as my
good friends would do everything to accommodate me, we set out on
Thursday sen’night with Mr. Southwell’s coach, two post-chaises and
Mr. Southwell’s groom and double horse,[524] so that we had variety
enough. The road for the greatest part to Gloucester was so bad I
rid most of it, but hearing it would rather mend I sent back the
coach, and between the chaise and the horse got to Chester and on
to Park Gate in five days, and Mr. Leslie my companion, being a
very sensible, polite travelled man, made the journey as agreeable
as such a journey could be. We found Lord and Lady Fitzwilliams and
many more waiting at Park Gate for the King’s Yacht, but as I hate
a crowded ship and am not a coward, I resolved not to wait, and
the wind being fair, we hired a small ship for ten guineas and set
sail. The next morning at six o’clock and with the finest weather
imaginable made our passage and landed in Dublin in 30 hours. The
Bishop of Clogher, who had been enquiring for me the morning tide,
came to the house when I was landed, with his usual politeness, and
carried me to their house, and as it was too late to come here,
they kept me that night, and the next day Mrs. Delany came and
brought me here, where I am extremely happy, the most polite and
hearty welcome, a large and convenient house, sweet gardens and a
manner of living quite to my sober taste. Our only disturbance are
visitors: we had yesterday seven coaches and six, mostly my own
relations, my brother, sister, nephews and nieces.”
[524] Means a horse trained to carry a pillion.
[Page heading: THE DAUPHIN]
On October 31 there is a letter dated from London to Mr. Gilbert
West. In this Mrs. Montagu is forwarding him patterns of all kinds
of dove-coloured paper from Mr. Bromedge’s shop, and Mr. Linnell was
sending a marble chimney-piece for West’s big room at Wickham. She
says--
“Poor Dr. Courayer notified to me that he was ill of a sore throat,
and could not come to visit me, though he wanted to see me. I went
to him, I was obliged to pass through all the gay vanities of Mrs.
Chenevix,[525] and then ascend a most steep and difficult staircase
to get at the little Philosopher: this way to wisdom through
the vanities and splendid toys of the world might be prettily
allegorized by the pen of the great Bunyan; the good man himself
to an emblematizeing genius would have afforded an ample subject;
his head was _enfoncé_ in a cap of the warmest beaver, made still
more respectable by a gold orrace, ‘a wondrous hieroglyphick robe
he wore,’ in which was portrayed all the attributes of the god
Fo, with the arms and delineaments of the Cham of Tartary.... I
began to consider him as the best piece of Chinese furniture I had
ever seen, and could hardly forbear offering him a place on my
chimney-piece. He asked much after your health.... There has been
a terrible fracas in the court of the grand Monarque, the people,
generally credulous, have strangely taken it into their heads that
the Duke of Burgundy is not legitimate, and instead of acclamations
and huzzas, murmurs and sighs have echo’d through the streets, on
the days the feasts were made for the birth of this child; besides
this there was conveyed into the cradle some gunpowder and a match
with an epigram expressing that they would serve to blow up the
pretended Duke of Burgundy. Upon his Majesty hearing this, the
gouvernante, sub-gouvernante, women of the bedchamber, even to the
toothless pap tasters, were all sent to the Bastille, one of the
women who said she saw a hand reach over a screen to throw a paper
into the cradle is since dead. A little knowledge is allowed to be
a dangerous thing; had the lady been able to inform his Majesty at
once who threw the paper, she had been safe, but it is supposed the
hand that threw it, lest she should discover more, gave her a dose
that has silenced her for ever....
“The Duke and Duchess of Portland and Lord Titchfield dined with us
to-day, and staid till eight o’clock; her grace inquired after you.”
[525] Famous shop for _bric-à-brac_ and toys.
[Page heading: MR. NATHANIEL HOOKE]
The last letter of the year is on December 17, to Mr. West, from
Sandleford. From this it appears Mrs. Montagu was extremely unwell,
but anxious for the health of Mr. West, who had had one of his
periodical gout attacks, which had rendered his hands temporarily
incapable of use. In this mention of Mr. Hooke is made. Mr. Nathaniel
Hooke[526] wrote a “History of Rome,” and other works. He assisted
the old Duchess of Marlborough to write her “Memoirs of her Life,”
for which she gave him £5000. He was a Roman Catholic, a disciple of
Fenelon’s, and brought a Catholic priest to Pope on his death-bed.
“Pray have you made a good Protestant of Mr. Hooke? If you cure heresy
and schism, should you not have your doctor’s degree in divinity rather
than law?”
[526] Died in 1763.
END OF VOL. I.
PRINTED BY WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED, LONDON AND BECCLES.
[Illustration: GILBERT WEST.]
Volume II
[Illustration:
_Frances Reynolds pinx.ᵗ_ _C. Townley sculp_
_Mrs. Montagu_
_Emery Walker Ph.Sc._ ]
ELIZABETH MONTAGU
THE QUEEN OF THE BLUE-STOCKINGS
HER CORRESPONDENCE FROM 1720 to 1761
BY HER GREAT-GREAT-NIECE
EMILY J. CLIMENSON
AUTHORESS OF “HISTORY OF SHIPLAKE,”
“HISTORICAL GUIDE TO HENLEY-ON-THAMES,”
“PASSAGES FROM THE DIARIES OF MRS. P. LYBBE POWYS,” ETC., ETC.
WITH ILLUSTRATIONS
IN TWO VOLUMES--VOL. II
[Illustration: Publisher’s colophon, a coat of arms]
LONDON
JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET
1906
PRINTED BY
WILLIAM CLOWES AND SONS, LIMITED
LONDON AND BECCLES
CONTENTS TO VOL. II
PAGE
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS ix
CHAPTER I.
Rev. William Robinson--Botham and Bishop Sherlock--Death
of Dr. Chesilden--The Scott separation--South Lodge,
Enfield--“Chinese pomp”--A letter to Edward Montagu--Mount
Morris--Archibald Bower--“Madonna”--Inoculation--Books
to read--History of the Popes--G. L. Scott--The Delany
lawsuit--Turkey Pye--The joyous Berenger--Death of Bishop
Berkeley--A woman in vapours--Mrs. Laurence Sterne--Lady
Bute’s Assembly--A perfect woman--Pitt’s insomnia--Rent
of lodgings--The Penshurst pictures--Trinity College,
Cambridge, Library--Gibside--Stonelands--“Minouets”--Beau
Nash--Pitt at Hayes--The new post-chaise--Bullstrode
menagerie--Richardson’s _Sir Charles Grandison_--Lucian’s
_Triumph of the Gout_--Schoolgirls’ bills--Death of
Pelham--“Tom” Lyttelton--West appointed to Chelsea
Hospital--Elizabeth Canning--Molière’s _Precieuses
Ridicules_--Hateley the artist--Lillingston
Dayrell--History of Bath--Pitt’s engagement and
marriage--Bishop Warburton and Bolingbroke--Pitt’s
honeymoon--“Gossip” Joan--Nathaniel Hooke 1–66
CHAPTER II.
Lord Montfort’s suicide--Mrs. Pococke--Lord
Baltimore’s house--Mr. Bower’s
cottage--Torriano’s marriage--Hatchlands--Sheep
Leas--Painshill--Reading--Sarah Scott’s daily
life--The calm, meek Miss Pococke--The Garrett
Wellesleys--Fears of French invasion--Garrick at Drury
Lane--Earthquake at Lisbon--Death of West--Wortley
Montagu’s pious pamphlet--Captain Robert Robinson’s
death--Byng--David Hume--Morris Robinson’s marriage--The
eccentric Matthew Robinson--Pitt buys Hayes
house--Viscount Pitt’s birth--Lyttelton a peer--The
famous _bas bleu_ assemblies--Emin--Windsor election
riot--Stillingfleet--Culham Court--George Stevens--Battle
of Hastenbeck--The Severn and Wye--Elizabeth
Wilmot--Battle of Kollin--A description of Emin--“Is got
pure well”--The Mordaunt Expedition--Dr. Monsey--Admiral
and Mrs. Boscawen--Battle of Rosbach 67–122
CHAPTER III.
The Delany trial--Death of Dr. Clayton--Emin applies
to Pitt--The attack on St. Malo--Death and will of
John Rogers--The Garricks--Letters to Mrs. Elizabeth
Carter (_passim_)--Lyttelton and Monsey--The Louisburg
blockade--Correspondence with Lyttelton (_passim_)--Molly
West’s marriage--Newcastle--Denton Hall--Lumley
Castle--Hampton Court, Herefordshire--Battle of
Zorndorff--Emin on Frederick the Great--The _eau
de luce_ disaster--Mrs. Garrick--Current price of
food--Athenian Stuart--Viper broth--“Brusher” Mills the
snake-catcher--Illness of George II.--Young Mr. Pitt--The
Session opened--Monsey’s doggerel--Admiral Boscawen
thanked by Parliament--Lady Emily Butler--Helvetius’
_De l’Esprit_--Attempted assassination of King of
Portugal--Lyttelton’s _History of Henry II._--Burke’s
_Sublime and Beautiful_--Dr. Johnson--Emin off to
Armenia--Calves Pluck water--Harleyford--Inverary
Castle--Alnwick--York--Glamis Castle--Scotch
characteristics--Burke’s appeal for Madrid
Consulship--Quebec taken--Bonus, the picture-cleaner--The
Laurence Sternes 123–177
CHAPTER IV.
Correspondence with Lyttelton (_passim_)--Lord Bath--The
Lisbon Embassy--_Dialogues of the Dead_--Lord
Chesterfield--Earl Ferrers executed--William Robinson’s
marriage--Tunbridge Wells--The Stanley family--Ned, the
groom--Lord Bath’s character--Lord Mansfield--“Montagu’s
main”--Sophocles--Hagley House rebuilt--Dr. Monsey’s
ways--Allan Ramsay, portrait painter--Letter to Duchess
of Portland--Macpherson’s _Highland Poems_--Bishop
Sherlock’s letter--Dr. Young--George Bowes’ funeral--Miss
Bowes--Greek Plays and Shakespeare--Green tea and
snuff--Death of George II.--George III. king--George
II.’s will--Floods at Newark--A great lady’s avarice--The
King’s first speech--Attendance at Court--A fashionable
dentist--A languid campaign--Bishop Sherlock’s letter
to the King--_Billets doux_--Chesterfield’s _bon
mot_--An impetuous lover of fourscore--Monsey’s fresh
doggerel--George Colman the elder 178–227
CHAPTER V.
Admiral Boscawen’s illness and death--Wortley
Montagu’s death--“Montagu Minerva”--Voltaire’s
_Tancred_--Macpherson’s _Fingal_--Lord Bath’s gift to
Mrs. Carter--Dr. Young’s letters--Another _Dialogue of
the Dead_--An anonymous letter--the British Museum--A
country gentlewoman--Gesner’s _Mort d’Abel_--Lord Bath’s
character--The future queen--Mrs. Montagu’s advice to
Tom Lyttelton--Monsey’s bloom-coloured coat--Dr. Young’s
_Resignation_--Lord Bath’s portrait--The Coronation--Lady
Pomfret--Lord Bath at Sandleford--Position of
Ministers--An act of humility--Widows’ weeds--The
_Bas-Bleus_ and shells--Laurence Sterne 228–273
APPENDICES.
“Long” Sir Thomas Robinson 275
Sandleford Priory, Berks 278
Denton Hall, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland 281
INDEX 283
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
VOL. II.
MRS. MONTAGU _Frontispiece_
_From the engraved portrait by C. TOWNLEY, after FRANCES
REYNOLDS, in the possession of Mr. A. M. Broadley._
(_Photogravure._)
TO FACE PAGE
TEA AND COFFEE IN THE BATH-ROOM 38
_From the drawing by JOHN NIXON, in the possession of
Mr. A. M. Broadley._
THE CIRCUS, AT BATH 40
_From a drawing by THOMAS MALTON, in the possession of
Mr. A. M. Broadley._
THE KING’S BATH, AT BATH 60
_From a drawing by THOMAS ROWLANDSON, in the possession of
Mr. A. M. Broadley._
PHILIP, FOURTH EARL OF CHESTERFIELD 64
_From the picture by WILLIAM HOARE, R.A., in the National
Portrait Gallery._ (_Photogravure._)
DAVID AND MRS. GARRICK 82
_From the picture by WILLIAM HOGARTH, in the possession of
His Majesty The King._ (_Photogravure._)
GEORGE, LORD LYTTELTON 96
_From a picture by (unknown), in the National Portrait
Gallery._
MRS. MARY DELANY 106
_From the picture by JOHN OPIE, R.A., in the National
Portrait Gallery._
ALLERTHORPE HALL, YORKSHIRE 120
CONYERS MIDDLETON 120
_From the mezzotint by FABER, after the picture by
ECCARDT, 1746._ (_Photogravure._)
BENJAMIN STILLINGFLEET 128
_From an engraving by V. GREEN, after ZOFFANY._
MRS. ELIZABETH CARTER 160
_From the picture by SIR THOMAS LAWRENCE, P.R.A._
DR. SAMUEL JOHNSON 164
_From the picture painted for Topham
Beauclerk by SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A., in the
possession of Mr. A. H. Hallam Murray._
EDMUND BURKE 170
_From the picture by SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A., in the
National Portrait Gallery._
DR. EDWARD YOUNG 256
_From the picture by (unknown), in the National Portrait
Gallery._
WILLIAM PULTENEY, FIRST EARL OF BATH 258
_From a picture by SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A., 1761, in
the National Portrait Gallery._ (_Photogravure._)
LAURENCE STERNE 272
_After the picture by SIR JOSHUA REYNOLDS, P.R.A., in the
possession of The Marquess of Lansdowne._ (_Photogravure._)
ELIZABETH MONTAGU
THE QUEEN OF THE BLUE-STOCKINGS
CHAPTER I.
1752–1754--CHIEFLY AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS, SANDLEFORD, AND
HAYES--BEGINNING OF FRIENDSHIP WITH PITT--CORRESPONDENCE WITH
GILBERT WEST.
[Year: 1752]
[Page heading: “PEREGRINE PICKLE”]
[1]_January 1, 1752_, an interchange of letters and compliments from
the Wests and Mrs. Montagu take place. Mrs. West sends a huge turkey
and ham pie, half for Mrs. Montagu, half for Temple West, Gilbert’s
brother. Mr. Pitt, Lady Cobham, and Berenger were expected. In a letter
to her sister, Sarah Scott, Mrs. Montagu mentions--
“My Father is going to purchase a fine living for Willy, indeed he
will not enjoy it till after the death of the present incumbent,
but it brings in £470 a year, a fine reversion for a younger
brother, and what, joined to another moderate living, will be a
comfortable subsistence.”
This was the living of Burghfield in Berkshire, purchased from the
Shrewsbury family, for two lives, of which in after years William
Robinson became rector, his son Matthew succeeding him. Further in this
letter it says--
“I recommend to your perusal ‘The Adventures of Peregrine
Pickle.’[2] Lady Vane’s[3] story is well told. Mr. W. Robinson and
the Doctor called on me this morning. The Doctor talks of Bath for
his health, but he is the best-looking invalid I ever saw. An Irish
Bishopric will cure him entirely. Mrs. Delany is not in England.
Poor Mrs. Donnellan has lost her brother, Dr. Donnellan,[4] and is
in great affliction.”
[1] In 1752 the New Style began. I adhere to the dates as placed on
the letters, as I have all through this book.
[2] Published in 1751, by T. Smollett.
[3] _Née_ Anne Hawes, of Purley Hall, Berks. Married, first, Lord
William Hamilton; secondly, Lord Vane.
[4] The Rev. Christopher Donnellan, a friend of Swift’s.
Mr. W. Robinson, afterwards Sir William Robinson, and Dr. Robinson,
were her cousins, brothers of “Long” Sir Thomas Robinson and Sir
Septimus, and sons of William Robinson of Rokeby. Dr. Richard
Robinson[5] was chaplain to the Duke of Dorset, then Lord Lieutenant of
Ireland, and had just been made Bishop of Killala. They were immense
men, with fine features and rosy cheeks. Mr. Richard Cumberland[6]
calls Dr. Richard Robinson “a colossal man.” So attached was Sir
William to his brother Richard that Cumberland says he imitated the
Archbishop in everything, even to the size of his shoes, diet, and
physic!
[5] The Rev. Dr. Richard Robinson, born 1709, died 1794; afterwards
Archbishop of Armagh, and 1st Baron Rokeby.
[6] Richard Cumberland, dramatist, born 1732, died 1811.
On February 10, Mr. West applied to the Bishop of London[7] for further
preferment for Mr. Botham, and writes to Mrs. Montagu--
“Wickham, February 10, 1752.
“DEAR COUSIN,
“Inclosed is my letter to the Bishop of London, which I send open
for your perusal; if you approve of it, be pleased to seal it and
convey it to his Lordship in what manner you think proper. I most
sincerely wish it may have any good effect for my cousin Botham’s
sake, but we must not flatter ourselves too much. Great men often
think their smiles sufficient Favors, and you know there is a
Beauty in that of my Lord of London that must enhance its value....
“Dear cousin,
“Your most affectionate and
obliged humble servᵗ,
“G. W.”
[7] Rev. Thomas Sherlock, born 1678, died 1761.
[Page heading: BISHOP OF LONDON’S LETTER]
The letter was sent to the Bishop. Here is his reply to Mr. West--
“London, ye 18th February, 1752.
“SIR,
“I had the honour of yours of the 10 inst., and tho’ I am disabled
from writing myself with the Gout in my Hands, yet I will not omit
to assure you that there are very few whom I should be better
pleased to oblige than yourself, and the Lady at whose instance you
write.
“I feel very sensibly the distress of Mr. Botham and his wife, and
judge as you do that it is a case that calls for, and deserves
assistance. But in considering where my Patronages lye, I cannot
find that I have any living within distance of Albury, unless it be
in the City of London, where probably Mr. Botham would not choose
to live. When I have the Happiness to see you, you shall be more
fully acquainted how far I am able to assist you.
“I am, Sir,
“Your very obedient, humble Servᵗ,
(Signed by himself) “THO. LONDON.
“Mrs. Sherlock desires to join me in respects to you and Mrs. West.”
In March, Mr. Pitt obtained for Mr. Gilbert West the clerkship of the
Privy Council, a lucrative office.
On March 25, from Hayes to Wickham, Mrs. Montagu writes--
“DEAR COUSIN,
“I thank you most heartily for immediately giving me the sincerest
joy I have felt for this long time. May you long enjoy what you
have so late attained.... You cannot imagine the pleasure I
propose in hearing your friends congratulate you on Fortune’s
first courtesy. Base Jade! to be so tedious and so sparing in her
favours.”
With many congratulations to Mrs. West, etc., to which Lydia Botham,
then at Hayes, added a few lines, Mrs. Montagu announces she will
convey him and Mrs. West to London the next morning in her post-chaise,
and they shall stay in Hill Street, where Mr. Montagu was attending to
his parliamentary business; and, she adds, to fix an hour “so as to be
with the President of the Council at 12 o’clock.”
[Page heading: DR. WILLIAM CHESILDEN]
From London, on April 17, Mr. Montagu writes an account of the
celebrated surgeon, Dr. William Chesilden’s death--
“The papers, I suppose, have informed you of the death of poor
Chesilden. I had an account of the manner of his death from one Mr.
Vourse, an eminent man in his own profession. He told me the poor
man was with Jerry Pierce and others, telling them how soon after
his being seized with the Palsy he had been making a bargain with
an undertaker to bury him, with this he was entertaining them with
his usual humour, and in the midst of his story was seiz’d with an
apoplectic fit which finish’d him in half an hour.... I forgot to
add that Mr. Chesilden had eat a great deal of Bread and drank a
good quantity of ale; being asthmatic, this was reckoned to be the
cause of his death.”
[Page heading: THE SCOTT SEPARATION]
It will be remembered that Mrs. Montagu was always opposed to her
sister Sarah’s marriage to George Lewis Scott. Unfortunately, her
fears as to their felicity were prophetic, for in April, 1752, after
only a year’s matrimony, they separated; incompatibility of temper was
alleged, but from the letters there was evidently much more below the
surface. Mrs. Delany, writing in April to her sister, Mrs. D’Ewes,
says--
“What a foolish match Mrs. Scott has made for herself. Mrs. Montagu
wrote Mrs. Donnellan word that she and the rest of her friends had
rescued her out of the hands of a very bad man: but for reasons of
interest, they should conceal his misbehaviour as much as possible,
but entreated Mrs. Donnellan would vindicate her sister’s character
whenever she heard it attacked, for she was very innocent.”
Sarah was only twenty-nine. Her father and brothers separated her from
Mr. Scott, as is shown in his own letters to Mr. Montagu, who had been
his original friend. He acknowledged “that Mrs. Montagu knew nothing
of the separation till it was communicated to her;” in truth she was
at Hayes at the time. Her letters indicate the enmity and rancour of
a great lady whose name was kept behind the scenes. Mr. Scott wrote
two letters to Mr. Montagu, dated April 29 and May 1, but both are so
involved and mysterious as to shed no real light on his misdemeanours.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Montagu received Mrs. Scott at Hayes, and in a letter
to her husband, whom she was preparing to join in London, says Morris
was urging Mrs. Scott to go to Albury. She says--
“I could leave her at Hayes when I go to town, but her spirits
are so bad and she is so ill she cannot be alone.... Indeed, poor
creature, her situation is miserable, allied to the faults and
the infamy of a bad man, subject to his aspersions, and liable to
the censures of his friends (for the worst have some), as in all
disagreements in wedlock, blame falls ever on the innocent where
there is no harmony. ‘How happy to behold in wedded pair!’ each has
the credit of the other’s virtues; they have double honour, united
interests and all that can make people strong in society. This,
my Dearest, is my happier lot, inriched by your fortune, ennobled
by your virtues, graced by your character, and supported by your
interest.”
Mrs. Montagu accompanied Mrs. Scott to Albury. She writes--
“We had a very pleasant journey here, and our horses performed
well. We found Lydia and Johnny in health and happiness, surrounded
by five of the finest children I ever saw; the youngest boy is a
little cherubim and has the finest white hair imaginable.”
[Page heading: A SEDAN CHAIR]
[Page heading: THE SCOTTS]
Mrs. Donnellan, in May, writes from Delville, where she still was, to
Mrs. Montagu, to say that Lord Holderness was to give up her house in
Hanover Square about August, and as it was too large for her fortune,
and the lease was near its end,[8] she wishes Mrs. Montagu to look out
for a house for her “not farther than Windsor from London. Soon after
our return, the Dean and Mrs. Delany go to Down, and I fear his affairs
will not permit him to go to England this year.” She adds--
“I have writ to Mrs. Shuttleworth to bespeak me a chair of
Vaughan.[9] I would have it plain and light, lined with white
cloath and green curtains, as white and green is my livery. If you
should go to town, I should be obliged to you if you would send to
Vaughan about it....
“I now come to the interesting part of your letter, the unhappy
affair of poor Mrs. Scott. I had heard before I received yours that
she and Mr. Scott were parted, but could hardly believe it, a match
so much of mutual inclination seemed to promise mutual happiness,
and the shortness of the time of their union hardly allowed them
to find out they were not happy, so that you are unwilling to hurt
the gentleman in his character. I must conclude he is very bad,
since in so short a time he could force Mrs. Scott and all her
family to come to such an _éclat_. I am extremely concerned for all
the uneasiness you have had on the occasion, but you have had the
consolation of showing yourself a most generous and kind sister
in supporting her in her misfortunes, and especially as it was a
match made against your better judgment. I beg my compliments to
Mrs. Scott, and I heartily wish her health and spirits to support
her situation; ’tis said here she is returning to Bath to live with
Lady Montagu. On these occasions people love to seem to know more
than perhaps they do; all I say is that you entirely justify Mrs.
Scott, and I am sure you must know the truth. I hear, too, he has
given her back half her fortune, and has settled a 150 pounds a
year on her; this, I think, is a justification to her.”
[8] Mr. Macartney took it on.
[9] Means a sedan chair.
Mrs. Montagu had indeed a great deal of trouble at this time, for
besides sheltering and endeavouring to cheer Mrs. Scott’s failing
spirits, she had, to say nothing of her own constant ill-health,
the additional trouble of her favourite brother Jack’s illness, now
continuing some months, of a nervous disorder, which he never recovered
from.
[Page heading: SOUTH LODGE]
[Page heading: THE REV. WILLIAM ROBINSON]
On May 26, from Sandleford, Mrs. Montagu writes to Mr. West, who is at
her house in Hill Street, attending as clerk to the Privy Council--
“DEAR COUSIN,
“I was informed by Mrs. Isted[10] that you intended to return to
town in the middle of this week, so I imagine that by this time you
are in the Empire of China.[11] The leafless trees and barren soil
of my landscape will very ill bear comparison with the shady oaks
and beautiful verdure of South Lodge, and the grinning Mandarins
still worse supply the place of a British Statesman: but as you
can improve every society and place into which you enter, I expect
such hints from you as will set off the figures, and enliven
the landscape with rural beauty. I grieved at the rain from an
apprehension that it might interfere with your pleasure at South
Lodge. I hope it did not, but that you saw the place with the
leisure and attention it deserves; if you give me an account of
the parts of it which charmed you most, or of the whole, you will
lead my imagination to a very fine place in very good company, and
I shall walk over it with great pleasure. I imagine you would feel
some poetic enthusiasm in the Temple of Pan, and hope it produced a
hymn or ode in which we shall see him knit with the Graces and the
Hours to dance, lead on to the Eternal Spring, through groves of
your unfading bays.”
South Lodge, Enfield, was then the residence of Mr. Pitt, the grounds
of which he laid out with great taste, and designed the Temple of
Pan. Mrs. Montagu had recently been on a visit to him here, as will
be seen in West’s answer. At the end of a long letter, which contains
directions as to the ornaments of her room, comments on her bad health,
in which she quotes Pope’s saying, “ill-health is an early old age,”
she winds up with regretting that Sir George Lyttelton and Miss West
were going to Tunbridge so soon, for “I fear they will leave the place
the earlier, as they go at the beginning of the season.” She finishes
by commending her brother William, who was to spend a day or two in
Hill Street, to West, saying--
“I wrote my advice to him to take this opportunity to pay his
respects to you, but possibly a little College awkwardness, added
to natural timidity, may prevent his doing it. I assure you he is a
very good young man, more I will not say, for having for some years
had a mother’s care of him, I have also a mother’s partiality:
perhaps you may like him the better for his resemblance to your
son.”
[10] Mrs. Isted, Mrs. Montagu’s lady housekeeper.
[11] She was fitting up her big room in Chinese style, and West was
assisting her with hints.
From Albury she had brought Lydia’s second daughter, Bessie--
“Not so handsome as her sister whom you have seen, but she is fair
and well shaped, very sensible and of a sweet disposition, and
though but ten years of age, reads and writes well, and has made a
great progress in arithmetic.”
To this letter Gilbert West answers on May 30--
“Mr. Pitt, as you will easily imagine from your own experience,
received and entertained us with great politeness, and something
still more pleasing and solid, with every mark of friendship and
esteem. He had provided for me a wheeling chair, by the help of
which I was enabled to visit every sequestered nook, dingle and
bosky bower from side to side in that little paradise opened in
the wild, and by the help of my imagination doubled the pleasure I
received from the various Beauties of Art and Nature, by recalling
and participating the past pleasure of a certain person,[12] some
of whose remarks and sayings Mr. Pitt repeated with a secret pride,
and I heard with equal admiration and delight. The weather indeed
was not so favourable to us as we could have wished.... Molly[13]
indeed, who has an insatiable ardour in viewing a fine place, and
an almost implicit faith in Mr. Pitt’s taste and judgment, stole
out often by herself, and in defiance of wind or rain walked many
times over the enchanting round.... Kitty[14] has seemed to be
inspired with an unusual flow of spirits, which not only emboldened
her to undertake, but enabled her also to complete the tour, which
I was forced to make in my chair, attended by her, Molly, and Mr.
Pitt.”
[12] Mrs. Montagu, who had been on a visit to Mr. Pitt.
[13] Miss West, his sister.
[14] Mrs. West.
In the reply occurs the following passage:--
“I am very glad you and Mrs. West went over every part of South
Lodge, as you see with more judgment you must see with more
pleasure than I did, and I think there can hardly be a finer
entertainment not only to the eyes but to the mind, than so sweet
and peaceful a scene. I was surprised to hear Mr. Pitt say he had
never spent an entire week there, this shows one that a person who
has an active mind and is qualified for the busy scene of life,
need not fear any excess in the love of retirement.”
[Page heading: CAPTAIN ROBERT ROBINSON]
[Page heading: “CHINESE POMP”]
Captain Robinson returned from his Chinese expedition in the _Saint
George_ the middle of June, and Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Scott met him
from Sandleford at her villa at Hayes. “He has brought me two beautiful
gowns and a fine Chinese lanthorn. We are to go on board the _St.
George_ to-morrow,” she writes to her husband. He also brought a gown
apiece for Lady Sandwich and her sister, Miss Fane. The greater part of
the Robinson family went to dine on the _Saint George_, but on a stormy
day, and Mrs. Montagu was very terrified at the tossing of the small
boat they went in. Soon after this, in the beginning of July, Mrs.
Montagu left for her annual visit to Tunbridge Wells, where she had
taken the “White Stone House” on Mount Ephraim. Sarah Scott returned
to Sandleford to Mr. Montagu, _en route_ for Bath, where she was about
to take up residence with her friend, Lady Bab Montagu. At Tunbridge
were Sir George and Lady Lyttelton, Mr. West, Miss Charlotte Fane, Mr.
Garrick, Mr. Bower, the Dean of Exeter, General Pulteney,[15] etc. At a
big ball Mrs. Montagu says--
“I shone forth in full Chinese pomp at the ball, my gown was much
liked, the pattern of the embroidery admired extremely.... Garrick
had an incomparable letter from Beranger which he read with proper
humour one day he dined here.... I go every day to Mr. King’s
lectures.”
[15] Brother of Lord Bath.
On July 22 Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband--
“Sir George and Lady Lyttelton[16] went away this morning, as to
the lady, she is so unsociable and retired, her departure makes
no difference in the Society, in all her manners she signified a
dislike and contempt of the company, and in this, the world is
always just, and pays in kind to the full measure, and even with
more than legal interest at 4 per cent!”
[16] The second Lady Lyttelton, _née_ Rich.
[Page heading: “A COLD LOAF”]
Mr. West from Tunbridge visited his cousins, the Bothams, at Albury,
and found Lydia in a terrible state of health, and worried with the
preparation of her five children to be inoculated. He persuaded her
to go to Tunbridge to consult Dr. Shaw, and writes from Stoke to Mrs.
Montagu to suggest that Mrs. Botham should stay with her at Sandleford
whilst the children are inoculated, and left in their father’s care.
He mentions Mr. Hooke being in a cottage near Stoke, very busy writing.
Lydia Botham, despite of all entreaties, returned to Albury to remain
with her children. Mrs. Montagu contemplated a visit to Horton, _alias_
Mount Morris, with her husband, to stay with her brother Matthew, but
violent rheumatism attacked her in the shoulders. She was reluctantly
obliged to let Mr. Montagu visit “the brethren,” as they termed them,
alone. Meanwhile, West, not being satisfied with the tutor with whom
his son was residing, hastened to Hill Street to remove him to Oxford.
Mrs. Medows[17] writes from Chute on October 3 to say she had taken
her nieces, the Miss Pulses, to see Sandleford, where they ate “a cold
loaf,”[18] and “I was not a little exalted as a planter when I saw
chestnuts I had set nuts, five and forty feet high.” She mentions that
Mrs. Isted gave them a great many good things, “and showed several
pretty pieces of her painting, and one of your curtains finished and
a handkerchief the little girl you are so good as to take care of is
making for you, that will look very like point.”
[17] Mr. Montagu’s sister.
[18] The usual expression for a picnic then.
Mr. Montagu set out on October 2 to Horton, and arrived at Canterbury,
where he ascended the Cathedral tower for the view, his first sight of
that place. His first letter crossed one of his wife’s, in which she
laments her inability to accompany him, and says--
“I suppose you will see the place with great veneration, where your
consort’s virtues, charms and accomplishments were ripened to their
present perfection, besides the pleasure of seeing my brothers,
which would have been great. I should have reviewed the place where
I spent the careless days of infancy and the more gay ones of early
youth with satisfaction. To the Fair, the years from 15 to 20 are
very agreeable.” She continues, “When do my brethren come to town?
I hear my brother Robinson stays to cultivate the maternal acres.
As to the Paternal they will not come yet. I think he will think of
the Père Eternel when he does not say the Lord’s Prayer. I design
to go to Mrs. Donnellan to-morrow, she is at North End, where she
designs to remain till her house is ready for her reception.”
These letters are addressed thus:--
“To
“Edward Montagu Esqr. & Memʳ· of Parlᵗ·
at Matthew Robinson Morris Esqr.,
at Horton,
“Near Hythe,
“Kent.”
Morris Robinson, when not in town on business, lived with his brother,
and it was a home to all the brothers as they required one, their gay
old father, Mr. Robinson, preferring lodgings in London, where he was
the life and soul of the fashionable coffee-houses.
[Page heading: A BACHELOR!]
Mr. Montagu having complained of his horse not liking stony roads, his
wife writes--
“I am sorry your horse does not like hard roads, for the ways about
Horton are very stony; a dull horse is like a dull friend, one is
safe but not much delighted in their company.” She adds, “I hope
the sight of so many merry bachelors does not revive in you the
love of a single state. Theirs is the joy of the wicked, not the
pure comforts of a holy state like matrimony.... Poor Mr. Brockman
is the only man truly sensible of the evils of celibacy, and he
weeps and will not be comforted, as all unmarried men should do,
were they truly sensible of their misfortune.”
This is playfully malicious, as Mr. Brockman had been one of her
earliest admirers.
[Page heading: MOUNT MORRIS]
Her husband, on October 12, answers a long letter of hers about the
monuments in Canterbury Cathedral, and says--
“Since I came here I have passed my time much to my satisfaction,
the entire freedom and liberty that reigns here, the love and
harmony that dwells amongst the brethren, as it is very uncommon,
so is the more agreeable to me, as I cannot but take a part and
be affected with pleasure and pain in everything that relates
to you. If you had been here you would have much added to our
happiness, and I believe this not only to be my sentiments but
that of all the rest of the company. I have never before now had
an opportunity of sufficiently observing this house, which is very
large and perfectly regular, though it is not placed just where one
could wish it, ’tis easy to see is capable of great improvement by
openings and cuttings in a good deal of that fine prospect which is
now shut out by the walls and trees; and by grubbing up the bushes
and hedges and making a kind of Paddock on the South side of the
house. A bason of water like that at Newbold might also be easily
made.... Some of these things the worthy owner is not without
having some thoughts of doing, as well as cutting some walks and
vistas through his wood.”
There is a picture of Mount Morris in Harris’ ‘History of Kent,’
1719, a large square house with a cupola surmounted by a big ball and
weathercock. In front of the house and round it are the small walled
gardens, formally planted, the fashion of the period. These were
eventually pulled down by Matthew Robinson, the hedges grubbed and
all thrown into one large park,[19] in which his numerous horses and
cattle roamed at large. Mr. Montagu seemed to have enjoyed some fine
partridge shooting whilst at Horton. He also frequented “‘Old Father
Ocean’ at Hythe, with whose solemn majestic look I am always delighted.”
[19] A picture of Mount Morris as altered by Matthew is in the Kent
volume of “Beauties of England and Wales”.
[Page heading: ARCHIBALD BOWER]
Visits to the Scotts of Scotts Hall, the Brockmans of Beachborough,
etc., are spoken of. In a letter of the same date, October 12, to her
husband, Mrs. Montagu first mentions Archibald Bower[20] and his wife.
[20] Archibald Bower, born 1686, died 1766; wrote “The History of
the Popes,” etc., etc.
To give the whole biography of Archibald Bower would take too much
space in this book. An account of him can be found in the “National
Biography,” vol. vi. p. 48. He was a Scotsman, was sent to Douai, and
entered the Jesuit Society in 1706. In 1717 he studied Divinity at
Rome; became Reader of Philosophy and Adviser to the College of Arezzo.
Horrified at the “hellish proceedings” of the Court of Inquisition,
where he witnessed the torture of two innocent gentlemen, he fled to
England, and while there made the acquaintance of Dean Berkeley, the
old admirer and friend of Mrs. Donnellan, who was afterwards Bishop of
Cloyne. He entered, as tutor, the family of Mr. Thompson, Coley Park,
Berks, and afterwards that of Lord Aylmer. He revised the “Universal
History.” In 1748 he was made keeper of the Queen’s Library, and in
1749 he married a widow with one child, a niece of Bishop Nicholson.
His first volume of his “History of the Popes” was published in 1748,
the second in 1751, the third in 1753. Though renouncing the Jesuit
order, he seems to have had business dealings with the Society, some of
which brought him into considerable obloquy, but they are too lengthy
to be detailed here.
Mrs. Montagu, returning to Hayes, says--
“Mr. Bower and his wife are to come to me on Friday, and stay till
Saturday or Monday, he is a very merry entertaining companion. He
left all gloominess in that seat of horrors--the Inquisition. I
breakfasted with him on Tuesday, he is but between two or three
miles from Hayes. His wife is civil and silent, so I asked her to
come over with him. I never saw any country more beautiful than
about Chislehurst, where he lives. I cannot say much in praise of
his habitation, which he terms his Paradise, but indeed to a mind
so gay and cheerful as his, all places are a Paradise. He is much
engaged with those old ladies, the Popes, but says he will leave
the Santi Padri for his Madonna. He will teach me the pronunciation
of Italian, which he has reduced to a Method, so it may easily be
acquired. He taught it to Mr. Garrick at Tunbridge.”
[Page heading: “MADONNA”]
Apparently Bower was introduced to Mrs. Montagu by Gilbert West. He was
an intimate friend of Sir George Lyttelton. Both he and Sir George gave
Mrs. Montagu the sobriquet of “Madonna,” but as Bower’s first letter
of 1753 addresses her as “Madonna,” with him probably the nickname
originated. They corresponded for some years in Italian.
In the next letter of October 14, she says--
“The Bowers came here yesterday. Mr. and Mrs. West met them here at
dinner, and to-morrow we are all to dine at Wickham. This morning I
shall carry Mrs. Bower to see Cæsar’s Camp, the prospect from which
is now in high beauty.”
[Page heading: INOCULATION]
The five Botham children had been inoculated! Their mother had been
persuaded in her bad health to leave them in their father’s care.
Lydia, writing to Mrs. Montagu to thank her for a present of Madeira,
says--
“You will desire to hear something of my Babes. My letter from
their good Father to-day says they were well when he wrote, but
that my kind and humane friends, Dr. Shaw and Winchester, who had
both been with them in the morning, said their eyes were so heavy
and their pulses so loaded that they would not hold up long.”
A postscript to this letter gives the next day’s account in Mr.
Botham’s words--
“My dear Babes are all drooping round me, and wonder not if I tell
you I am glad they are so, since from the gentlest symptoms of the
distemper I have a good foundation to hope they will do well. They
are sometimes up and sometimes down, and sicken so gradually that
Winchester doubts not that they will have a favourable sort of the
smallpox. I expect they will be in their beds to-morrow.”
By November 16 the five children were well, and Mrs. Montagu writes to
Mr. West from Sandleford--
“Mrs. Botham returns to her little family to-morrow, they are
all quite recovered, and I hope this lucky event will hasten the
recovery of my Lydia. I should indeed be glad to behold the happy
smile that will illuminate her countenance at her return to her
babes. Mr. Rogers[21] is recovering from another mortification....
I really believe he will live to the age of Methuselah, for he
recovers of those illnesses which destroy the strongest.
“I find the Princess of Wales will have a drawing-room as soon as
the King returns, and I hope you will consult with your friends,
whether it will not be proper you should appear there.... Mr.
Linnell[22] brought me his bill the morning I left town, and
I think I will send a copy of it as a proper warning to your
Mrs. West, and if you will still proceed in spite of my sad and
woeful example, I cannot help it. I shall repent my misdeeds as
the daughters of Israel did theirs in sackcloth and ashes. Adieu
Brocade, Embroidery, and lace, and even the cheaper vanities of
lutestring and blonde.”
[21] John Rogers, of Denton Hall, to whom Mr. Montagu, his cousin,
was trustee, as he was a lunatic.
[22] Linnell had been decorating rooms in her house at Hill Street,
and Mr. West was also employing him at Wickham.
Mr. West took Mrs. Montagu’s advice as to going to Court and “kissing
hands, a ceremony which upon more deliberation I think it most
advisable to go through, however glad I should have been to avoid it.”
[Page heading: NEW BOOKS]
In a letter to Miss Anstey from Mrs. Montagu, of November 23, we gain a
glimpse of the books being read then--
“Mr. Hooke has published a second edition of his ‘Roman
History,’ which is much admired. Mr. Brown’s[23] essays on the
‘Characteristics of Lord Shaftesbury’[24] are well spoken of;
Lord Orrery[25] has just published his Observations on the ‘Life
and Writings of Dr. Swift.’ ... The ‘Biographia Brittanica’ will
entertain you with the Lives of many great men, some of them are
very well written. Mr. Warburton’s[26] Edition of Mr. Pope’s Works
contains some new pieces, and some alterations of old ones. ‘The
Memoires du Duc de Sully’[27] are very entertaining.... The Duke of
Cumberland has been dangerously ill, is now something better. Lord
Coventry[28] they say is to marry Miss Gunning. Some actors have
appeared at the Theatre, and their characters are not of the first
rank. One of them imitates Mr. Garrick.” This must have been Foote.
[23] John Brown, D.D., born 1715, died 1766. Eminent divine,
indefatigable writer.
[24] 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury, born 1671, died 1713; wrote
“Characteristics of Men, Manners, Opinions, and Times.”
[25] Charles Boyle, 4th Earl of Orrery.
[26] William Warburton, born 1698, died 1779. Divine and writer;
Bishop of Gloucester.
[27] Duc de Sully, favourite minister of Henry IV. of France.
[28] Lord Coventry, married March 5, 1782, to Maria Gunning.
[Page heading: “HISTORY OF THE POPES”]
Gilbert West was busied at this time planting his garden at Wickham
with firs and laurels, and Mrs. Montagu teased him by letter about his
“evergreen-nevergreen garden,” as she called it. She says--
“Remember that while you avoid winter, you exclude Spring, and
forbid the glad return of the vernal season, as well as the sad
approach of autumn. In your garden and in your life, may all that
is necessary for shade, for shelter and for comfort be permanent
and unchanged. May the pleasures and aromatics be various,
successive, sweet and new! ... I shall be much obliged to you if
when you see the incomparable Mr. Bower you will get of him the
second volume of the ‘History of the Popes.’ I have almost finished
Mr. Hooke’s history. I do not care to quit the city of Rome till
I have seen the establishment of its spiritual Monarchy.... I
have just received a collection of letters, wrote by Madame de
Maintenon, though Voltaire has diminished my opinion of her in some
degree; yet I have an impatience to open the book.... I shall like
to see what alteration there is in her from the wife and widow of
poor Scarron to becoming the consort of Louis le Grand.”
On December 2 Lady Courtenay sent feathers and shells to Mrs. Montagu
for her work. She was the daughter of Heneage, 2nd Lord Aylesford, and
married to Sir William Courtenay, afterwards 1st Viscount Courtenay.
She was a sister of Lady Andover’s, and a great friend of Lydia
Botham’s, and in this letter expresses great concern at Lydia’s sad
state of health.
On December 29 Mrs. Montagu writes to her sister Sarah that she had
sustained the great loss of her lady housekeeper, Mrs. Isted, who had
died very suddenly whilst Mr. and Mrs. Montagu had been spending a few
days with Lydia Botham. The latter was then supposed to be dying.
From the letters it appears Mrs. Isted was a widow lady, who had
lost an only child, and had been known to Mrs. Montagu in her more
prosperous years. Lydia Botham rallied for a time.
[Page heading: GEORGE LEWIS SCOTT]
A great dispute was going on at Leicester House at this time on the
subject of Prince George’s tutors. Amongst the sub-preceptors, it will
be remembered, was Mr. George Lewis Scott, Sarah’s (_née_ Robinson)
husband. Soon after this he was dismissed from the list of tutors. One
reason alleged was that he was a Jacobite, but there was little ground
for this supposition. Though a clever man, he seems to have been quite
an unsuitable person to be tutor to the princes, and Mrs. Montagu
comforts Sarah by saying his true character will now appear. “You will
see shortly that he and you will have justice done you, and with this
difference, that to you it will be a guardian angel, to him an avenging
minister. In the mean time ‘leave him to Heaven, and the thorns that
prick his bosom,’ as says good Mr. Hamlet.”
On December 23 she had an assembly, and writes to Mrs. Boscawen that
“the Chinese Room was filled by a succession of people from eleven in
the morning till eleven at night.”
The year ends with a letter to Gilbert West, who had had a terrible
attack of gout, sending him Birch’s[29] “Life of Archbishop
Tillotson,”[30] “which Mr. Birch left for you himself.”
[29] Rev. Thomas Birch, born 1705, died 1766.
[30] John Tillotson, born 1630, died 1694. Archbishop of Canterbury
in 1691.
[Year: 1753]
1753 opens with a letter from Mrs. Donnellan on January 2, to Mrs.
Montagu, then at Sandleford. In this she says--
“Two letters from Ireland informed me of a sort of determination
both of Dr. Delany’s affair and my own. I had a very particular
account of both from my Six Clerk and Manager, Mr. Croker, who is
Six Clerk to Delany’s adversarys, and a short letter from Mrs.
Delany. My Lord Chancellor has acquitted Dr. Delany of a hard word
in the law, called spoliation, but has ordered an account before
two masters in Chancery to be taken of all the late Mrs. Delany’s
personal estate, and what she was worth when she married the Dean.”
This law-suit, which lasted some years, and was a great annoyance and
expense to the Delanys, was caused by his having inadvertently burnt
a paper of importance belonging to his first wife. Mrs. Donnellan’s
brother had claimed the lease of the house lately belonging to their
mother, in London, owing to a defect in the execution of the will. Mrs.
Donnellan got the books, and some few hundred pounds, but, as she had
been residuary legatee in the will, suffered severe loss which she bore
with exemplary patience.
It is probable that at this period her brother-in-law, Bishop Clayton,
being wealthy and generous, gave up his wife’s marriage portion to her
sister, Anne Donnellan.
Anne now took a house in Bolton Row, London.
[Page heading: TURKEY PYE]
On January 3 Mrs. Montagu writes to thank Mrs. West for a portion of
Turkey “pye,” and some verses of her composing with it. She says--
“January 3.
“DEAR MADAM,
“For your pye and your verses what strains are sublime enough to
return proper thanks! You have held the balance of justice so
exactly and directed its sword so well where to fall that Mrs.
Temple West and I are determined to divide the pye this evening
according to the rules prescribed. Though our pye has not yet
been toasted, your verses have been well relish’d by some of the
greatest connoisseurs. About an hour after I had your letter Miss
West came to call on me; I communicated your poetic strains and
we were very merry over them. When Lord Temple and Sir George
Lyttelton came in we let them have a share, and they joined in the
laugh and commendation. Lord Temple desired his best and kindest
compliments to you and my cousin. He is not at all the worse for
his late illness.... Sir George and he were going to dine with Mr.
Pitt, whose health, I believe, is in much the same state as when
you saw him.”
[Page heading: THE DUCHESS OF CHANDOS]
Mrs. Medows wrote on January 6 from Chute, Wilton, then her
brother-in-law’s residence, to wish the Montagus a happy new year, and
in this letter she says--
“The Duke of C(handos)[31] our neighbour kept his Son’s[32]
birthday with great magnificence. I was invited, and not foreseeing
such an occasion for dress, I had neither manto nor sack, and
desired leave to come in a white apron in the evening, but the
Duchess insisted on my coming with it to dinner. You may imagine
how well I dined on two and forty dishes, and a dessert of one and
twenty, very well ordered and served; but the Duchess’s behaviour
was really an entertainment, not in the least embarrassed, she did
the honours perfectly well, and seemed conscious she should make
a good figure, and pleased with the opportunity. In the evening
there was a ball, cards for the grave people. I am pleased to find
that I can still see the young people dance and with pleasure;
our nieces[33] Pulses were the best dancers. I won four rubbers
and past for a good player; content with this, I came away before
supper. I was charmed with Mrs. Ironmonger[34] ... If you would
have me think you well get a Vandike Hankerchief. Mrs. Ironmonger
had one, and I am sure it will become you.”
[31] 2nd Duke of Chandos.
[32] His only son by first wife, afterwards 3rd Duke.
[33] Mrs. Medows’ nieces.
[34] Probably Mrs. _Iremonger_, of Wherwell, Hants.
The duchess here alluded to was the second wife of the duke, Anne
Jefferies, _née_ Wells. In the “Complete Peerage” we read, “See the
story of her being sold with a halter round her neck by her husband,
Jefferies, an ostler at the Pelican Inn, Newbury, and purchased by the
Duke of Chandos in ‘N & Q,’ 4th l. vi. p. 179.” She was married in 1744
to the duke, and died in 1759 _s.p._
[Page heading: THE POET GRAY]
January 18, Miss Anstey, writing from Trumpington, says--
“Have you heard that Mr. Gray[35] is going to publish his whole
stock of poetry, which, though it will consist of only one volume,
and contains but few things which have not been already printed,
the price will be half a guinea; but what seems most extraordinary,
it is expected there will be a very great demand for them, and I
am told there is already a great number bespoke, for they are to
be embellished and illustrated in the most curious and ingenious
manner with copper plates drawn and imagined by Mr. Bentley.[36]
I hear they are all very clever, and was told for a specimen
that the little ode on the cat is to have in the frontispiece
the Fates cutting her nine threads of her life, and the rats and
mice exulting upon the death of their enemy. At the end Puss is
represented as just landed from Charon’s Boat, and in her approach
towards Pluto’s Palace, she sets up her back and spits at Cerberus.
How do you like the conceit? They are said to be very highly drawn,
and Mr. Gray gives his poetry. Mr. Horace Walpole[37] is at the
whole expense of the printing and copper plates for the benefit of
Mr. Bentley....
“I hear the scholar[38] of St. John’s who has admitted himself
of the play house performs much better in a personated than he
did here in his real character. I suppose he does not regret his
being expelled the University, as he finds himself well received
by the Town, for excommunication would not hurt him there. I hear
he is really a good actor, which is a thing, I am afraid, much
more rare than a bad clergyman, so I am glad he has taken to the
stage instead of the Pulpit. I hear there were fourscore of this
University present at his first performance, and that if he has a
benefit the whole body will be present at it.”
[35] Thomas Gray, born 1716, died 1771.
[36] Richard Bentley, junior son of the Master of Trinity,
Cambridge.
[37] Horace Walpole, younger son of Sir Robert Walpole, born 1717,
died 1797.
[38] Is this Churchill?
This edition of Gray was published in March, 1753, printed at Mr.
Horace Walpole’s private press at Strawberry Hill.
[Page heading: BERENGER]
[Page heading: BISHOP BERKELEY]
Mr. West, attacked by his enemy the gout, was now a prisoner at
Wickham. On January 24, in a long letter, these paragraphs are of
interest--
“The joyous Berenger passed five days with us last week, read to us
a play in Shakespeare and the ‘Volpone’ of B. Johnson, and repeated
innumerable scraps out of a hundred others, laughed a great deal,
said many droll and some witty things, and then disappear’d,
after promising to come frequently to strut upon the little stage
of Wickham, which you may perceive has been lately graced with
almost as great a variety of characters as are exhibited at Drury
Lane, so that we have little occasion to run to the great city
in search of company, much less for the sake of society, which
indeed there is almost lost, in the various bustle of Resort, the
busy hum of Men, the embarrassments of Hoops,--Interruptions of
Messages and ostentatious dinners and Drums, Trumpets, Politics,
etc., etc.,--but besides the pleasures of social converse, we
have had amusements of a stiller kind furnished by the obliging
civility of some of my brother Authors; among which are two new
papers, ‘The Adventurer’ and ‘The World,’[39] by Adam Fitz-Adam.
The writer of the former sent me the first 14 numbers with a very
handsome letter. To the other I had indeed a kind of right since I
am inform’d that the judicious Tasters of the Town have declared
it to be written by Sir G(eorge) L(yttelton), by Mr. Pitt, or your
humble servant; with how much sagacity this opinion is form’d I
shall leave you to judge, for I doubt not but this character will
recommend them to your perusal, as it precludes me saying anything
in their favour: of the former I may be so free as to declare I
like them very well, but I will be still bolder in recommending to
you Dr. Leland’s ‘Observations of Lord Bolingbroke’s letter,’ which
was sent me by the author yesterday, and which I have read through
with great pleasure and edification. I must transcribe a part
of my boy’s[40] letter about the death of the Bishop of Cloyne:
‘We have had a great loss at Oxford; the poor Bishop of Cloyne
died on Sunday about 8 o’clock in the evening. Mrs. Berkeley[41]
was sitting by him, and spoke to him several times, and he never
answered, so it is supposed he was dead a quarter of an hour before
it was discovered, for he died without a groan or any sign of pain.’
“He has received Rollin, for which I thank you in his name.”
[39] Edward Moore published “The World.”
[40] His son Richard, then at Oxford.
[41] George Berkeley, born 1684, died 1753. Celebrated divine and
author.
To this Mrs. Montagu rejoins--
“How happy was the Bishop of Cloyne’s exit, or rather entrance,
one should call it into another, than departure out of this life,
for it had none of the agonising pangs of farewell. I pity poor
Mrs. Berkeley, who had so little preparation for so heavy a stroke.
I hope the constant conversation and example of a man so eminent
in every Christian virtue may have given her an uncommon degree of
fortitude and patience. I have heard her temper and understanding
highly commended. She had a perfect adoration of the Bishop....
Dr. Berkeley had formerly made his addresses to Mrs. Donnellan:
what were her reasons for refusing him I know not, friends were
consenting, circumstances equal, her opinion captivated, but
perhaps aversion to the cares of a married life, and apprehensions
from some particularities in his temper hinder’d the match; however
their friendship always continued, and I have always heard her give
him for virtues and talents the preference to all mankind.”
[Page heading: THE VAPOURS]
Mrs. Montagu continues that she had neither health nor spirits to read
with pleasure. “The misfortunes I have suffered and those I have feared
have worn me out; after the various turns of hope and fear on my poor
Lydia’s account, I am at last in despair about her. Mr. Botham sent to
us for a milch ass for her some days ago.” After a long lamentation
on Lydia’s behalf, she ends, “I am that poor little selfish animal,
a human creature, made more poor, more little, more selfish by the
Vapours; in all Sir Hans’ Museum there is not so ugly a monster as a
woman in Vapours.” Lydia becoming worse, Mrs. Montagu wrote to inform
her sister, Mrs. Laurence Sterne, whose curious letter I give in full
as a specimen of her style. Both she and her sister Lydia wrote large,
legible hands, much alike.
[Page heading: MRS. LAURENCE STERNE]
“Sutton,[42] March ye 9th.
“DEAR MADAM,
“I return you my sincere and hearty thanks for the Favour of your
most welcome letter; which had I received in a more happy Hour,
wou’d have made me almost Frantick with Joy; for being thus cruelly
separated from all my Friends, the least mark of their kindness
towards me, or Remembrance of me gives me unspeakable Delight. But
the Dismal Account I receiv’d at the same time of my poor Sister,
has render’d my Heart Incapable of Joy, nor can I ever know Comfort
till I hear of her Recovery.
“Believe me, Dear Madam, you were never more mistaken than when you
imagine that Time and Absence remove you from my Remembrance. I do
assure you I do not so easily part with what affords me so great
Delight, on the Contrary I spare no pains to improve every little
accident that recalls you to my Remembrance, as the only amends
which can be made me for those Unhappinesses my Situation deprives
me of. As a proof of this I must inform you that about three
weeks ago I took a long Ride Through very bad weather, and worse
Roads, merely for the satisfaction of enjoying a Conversation with
a Gentleman who though unknown to you had conceiv’d the highest
opinion of you from the perusal of several of your Letters, for
which he was indebted to Mrs. Clayton. Had this Gentleman nothing
else to recommend him, it certainly would be Sufficient to have
made me desirous of his acquaintance; but he is both a Man of Sense
and good Breeding, so that I am not a little pleas’d with my new
Acquaintance. Your Supposition of my Sister’s having Boasted to me
of her Children is doubtless extremely Natural, I wish it had been
as Just: But I can in three words inform you of all I know about
’em,--to wit their number and their Names, for which I am indebted
to Johnny. Had my Lydia been so obliging as to have made them the
Subject of her Letters, I shou’d by this time have had a tolerable
Idea of them, by considering what she said with some abatement:
but as it is I no more know whether they are Black, Brown or Fair,
Wise, or other wise, Gentle, or Froward than the Man in the Moon.
Pray is this strange Silence on so Interesting a Subject owing
to her profound Wisdom or her abundant Politeness? But be it to
which it will, as soon as she recovers her Health I shall insist
on all the satisfaction she can give on this head. In the meantime
I rejoice to find they have your approbation and am truly thankful
that Nature has done her part, which indeed is the most Material,
though I frankly own I shall not be the first to Forgive any
slights that Dame Fortune may be dispos’d to shew them.
“Your god-Daughter, as in Duty bound, sends her best Respects to
you. I will hope that she may enjoy what her poor Mother in vain
Laments, the want of a more intimate acquaintance with her Kindred.
“Be so good as to make Mr. Sterne’s and my compliments to Mr.
Montagu, and Believe me, Dear Madam,
“Your most affectionate Cousin,
and oblig’d Humble Servant,
“E. STERNE.”
[42] The Rev. Laurence Sterne was Vicar of Sutton-in-the-Forest,
Yorkshire.
[Page heading: LYDIA STERNE]
The godchild was Lydia Sterne, born December 1, 1747, then in her sixth
year. The Sternes had lost their first child, also a _Lydia_, born in
October, 1745.
Lydia Botham did not long survive; I do not know the exact day of her
death, but West, writing on April 2, to Mrs. Montagu, says--
“I cannot conclude without thanking you, my dearest Cousin, for
informing me of your health, about which I should have been under
great alarms upon hearing of Lydia’s Death, of which your letter
brought me the first intelligence. This kind attention to my
happiness at a time when your heart was overflowing with sorrow is
such a proof of your regard for me I shall always remember with
gratitude.”
Though deeply lamented, Lydia’s sufferings, latterly from asthma,
dropsy, and a complication of disorders, made her death more or less a
release. Mr. Botham was now left a widower with five children.
[Page heading: LADY BATH’S ASSEMBLY]
Writing from London, the end of April, to Sarah Scott in John Street,
Bath, where she and Lady Bab were living, Mrs. Montagu says--
“I have been at Oratorios so crowded and plays so hot I have almost
fainted, but first of all crowds and greatest of all mobs, I must
in justice name Lady Bath’s[43] assembly, from whence at hazard
of life and limb I broke away a little after one on Tuesday last.
Her ladyship had happily gathered together eight hundred Christian
souls, many of which had like to have perished by famine and other
accidents. I suffered the most from the first of these; being ill,
I had not eat a morsel of dinner, and there was not a biscuit nor
a bit of bread to be got, and half the company got out through the
stables and garden. The house was not empty till near 3 in the
morning.”
[43] _Née_ Anna Maria Gumley, wife of Pulteney, Earl of Bath. She is
said to have been a great “screw.”
Mrs. Montagu had for some time been expecting Miss Carter, the young
daughter of Mr. Montagu’s faithful agent, to stay with her. She says--
“My little disciple[44] is very good, and takes to me wondrous
well. I expect the eldest Miss Botham next week, you may suppose it
was some denial not to choose the second, but I thought the other
my duty rather, and the eldest would have been much grieved to be
passed over.”
[44] Miss Carter.
Writing to Mr. Montagu (who had gone to Sandleford on business, and to
cure a bad cold) on May 3, his wife describes a Rout she had given. “I
had rather more than an hundred visitants last night, but the apartment
held them with ease, and the highest compliments were paid to the house
and elegance of the apartments.”
[Page heading: “A PERFECT WOMAN”]
Gilbert West from Wickham, on May 23, gives the following account of
Mr. Pitt, whose health had been causing much anxiety to his friends--
“Had I answered your letter last night I should have given you
a good account of Mr. Pitt, who was yesterday in better spirits
than I have seen him in since he came hither, but I find by
inquiring after him this morning that he has had a bad, that is,
a sleepless night, which has such effect on his spirits that I
am afraid we shall see him in a very different condition to-day.
This has happened to him every other night since Friday last, so
I am persuaded there is something intermitting in his case, of
which neither the Physicians nor himself seem to be aware. I think
he ought to go to town to consult with them, but to this he has
so great an aversion that I question if he will comply with our
request. Sir George Lyttelton, who saw him on one of his bad days,
Saturday last, promised to come hither to-day, and his voice added
to ours may possibly prevail....
“Mr. Pitt express’d a due sense of your goodness in inquiring so
particularly after him, and that you may know how high you stand in
his opinion, I must inform you that in a conversation with Molly he
pronounced you the most _perfect woman_ he ever met with.”
[Page heading: MR. PITT’S INSOMNIA]
Mr. Pitt was recommended by his doctors to go to Tunbridge Wells to
drink the waters. Accompanied by Mr. West, Mrs. West, and Miss West, he
set off on May 26. West, writing to Mrs. Montagu, says--
“Tunbridge Wells, May 27, 1753.
“MY DEAREST COUSIN! MY BEST AND MOST VALUABLE
FRIEND!
“Your kind letter which I received on coming from Chapel is the
most agreeable thing I have met with at Tunbridge, where we
arrived last night about 7, after only stopping at Sen’nocks,
and dining at Tunbridge Town. It came very seasonably to relieve
my spirits which were much sunk by the extreme dejection which
appears to-day in Mr. Pitt, from a night passed entirely without
sleep, notwithstanding all the precautions which were taken within
doors to make it still and quiet, and the accidental tranquillity
arising from the present emptiness and desolation of this place, to
which no other invalids, except ourselves are yet arrived, or even
expected to arrive as yet. He began to drink the waters to-day,
but as they are sometimes very slow in their operations, I much
fear both he and those friends who cannot help sympathizing with
him, will suffer a great deal before the wished-for effect will
take place, for this _Insomnium_ his Physicians have prescribed
Opiates, a medicine which, in this case, though they may procure
a temporary ease, yet often after recoil upon the spirits. He
seems inclined to take Musk, and intends to talk with Molly about
it. I think his Physicians have been to blame in giving all their
attention to the disorder in his bowels, and not sufficiently
regarding the Distemperature of his spirits, a Disease much more
to be apprehended than the other; while he continues under this
Oppression, I am afraid it will be impossible for me to leave
him, as he fancies me of the greatest use to him as a friend, and
a comforter, but I hope in God he will soon find some alteration
for the better, of which I shall be glad to give you the earliest
information. In the meantime I beg you will take care of your
health, and as the most effectual means of establishing it, I most
earnestly desire you will follow Mr. Montagu’s exhortations to
repair forthwith to Tunbridge, as by so doing you will not only
contribute to the regaining your own health, but to the comfort
and felicity of some here who love you.... Kitty, Molly and Mr.
Pitt desire their affectionate compliments. Molly begs you will
communicate this account of Mr. Pitt to Sir G(eorge) L(yttelton).”
[Page heading: RENT OF LODGINGS]
In West’s next letter, of May 30, he says--
“I think Mr. Pitt is somewhat better, tho’ his spirits are too
low to allow him to think so, and his nights are still sleepless
without the aid of Opiates. I write this from the ‘Stone House’ to
which we were driven by the noisy situation of our house at the
foot of Mount Sion. How many pleasing ideas our present habitation
recalls I leave you to judge, though there needs no such artificial
helps to make you ever present to my memory.... Mr. Pitt is lodged
in your room, and I in that which was Mr. Montagu’s dressing-room
on the ground floor.”
The Montagus and Wests together had rented the “Stone House” the year
before this. On May 31 West writes to say he is leaving Mr. William
Lyttelton with Mr. Pitt, and will return to Wickham on Saturday, and
dine with Mrs. Montagu at Hayes _en route_. He adds, “Mr. Pitt feels
a little gout in his foot, which we hope will increase so as to be an
effectual Remedy for all his disorders.”
On June 6, West, who had been commissioned to find a house for Mrs.
Montagu, looks at the last two left on Mount Ephraim, a Mr. Spooner’s
and a Mr. Sele’s; he decided on the latter, orders the chimney to be
made higher, and a _hovel_ put on it to stop smoking, and to order the
owners to lie in the beds to air them!
“The price he told me was 4 guineas a week, or thirty-five guineas
for the whole season, that is till Michaelmas, or a week or two
over; for this price you are to have stabling for eight horses,
and a coach house for two carriages.... Mrs. West will be obliged
to you if you will bring her jewels with you.”
Mrs. Montagu arrived at Tunbridge on June 11, and on the 13th writes to
her husband, then in London, to say
“my cough is much abated, and my appetite increased: the asses’
milk sits well on my stomach.... I have a constant invitation to
dinner at the ‘White House’; Mr. Pitt is too ill to dine abroad,
and the Wests cannot leave him, so as often as I am disposed for
company, I dine there; the rest of my time passes in taking air and
exercise, and now and then the relief of a book.”