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.]
INDEX.
_The figures in italics refer to the notes only._
A
Abbas, Shah, ii. 99
Abel, ii. 245
Achard, Mr., tutor, afterwards secretary to Duke of Portland, i. 44,
48, 61, 90, 158, 185
Adam, ii. 245
_Adventurer, the_, ii. 25
_Advertiser, the_, ii. 123
Æsop’s _Fables_, i. 73
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, i. 259
Albemarle, George Keppel, 15th Earl of, ii. 220
Albemarle, Lady, ii. 259
Aldworth, Richard Neville, ii. 250
Alexander, William, ii. 98, 108
Alexander, Mrs. W. (_née_ Monsey), ii. 98
Allen, Lady, i. 267, 268; ii. 121
Allison, A., _i. 179_
Alnwick Castle, ii. 166
Alstone, Mr. and Mrs., i. 286
Ameen, Joseph. _See_ Emin, Joseph
Amelia, Princess (daughter of George II.), ii. 152, 213, 214
Amesbury, i. 249
Amherst, General, ii. _134_, 140, 154
Amyand, Mr., i. 167; ii. 163
Ancaster, Duchess of, ii. 252
Ancaster, Peregrine, 3rd Duke of, i. 279
Ancram, Lady, i. 269
Andover, Mary, Lady (Mrs. Botham’s intimate friend and patroness),
i. 55, 95, 102, 115, 144, 194; ii. 19;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 230, 231
Andover, William, Lord, i. _55_, _144_, 224, 230
Anne, Queen, _i. 245_
Anson, Admiral Lord, i. 107, 268; ii. 89, 154;
captures a Spanish treasure-ship, i. 186;
_A Voyage round the World_, i. 259
Anson, Lady, i. 268, 269; ii. 142
Anstey, Christopher, _New Bath Guide_, i. 19, _256_; ii. 87
Anstey, Miss, i. 256, 259, 270, 275; ii. 54, 56, 70, 82;
works a panel of Mrs. Montagu’s feather screen, i. 268;
her death, ii. 87;
letters from Mrs. Montagu to, i. 19, 281; ii. 18, 77;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 23
Apreece, Mr. and Mrs., i. 286
Archdeacon, Dominick, ii. 129
Archdeacon, Mrs. D. (Mary Creagh), ii. 129
Archdeacon, William, ii. 160
Arezzo, Collection of, ii. 15
Argyll, John, 2nd Duke of, and Duke of Greenwich, i. 117; ii. 38, 233
Argyll, Duchess of (Elizabeth Gunning), i. 270, 287, 288
Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of, ii. 165, 167, 195
Argyll, John, 5th Duke of, _i. 270_
Arran, Earl of, ii. 155
Arran, Elizabeth, Countess of, ii. 155
Ascham, Miss, i. 286
Ashe, Miss, called by Walpole, the “Pollard Ashe,” i. 287, 288
Askew, Dr., ii. 128, 144
Athole, Duncan de Atholia, Earl of, i. 1
Athole, John Murray, 3rd Duke of, ii. 168
Atkinson, Mr., farm bailiff at Sandleford, i. 145; ii. 147
Atterbury, Bishop, _i. 194_
Audley, Dr., i. 129
Audley, Mr. (Hinchinbroke House), i. 270
Augusta, Princess (daughter of George II.), i. 53
Austin, Sir Robert, i. 27
Austria, Emperor of, ii. 146
Aveiro, Duke of, ii. 180
Aylesbury, Lord, i. 233
Aylesford, Countess of, _i. 269_
Aylesford, Heneage, 1st Earl of, _i. 39_
Aylesford, Heneage, 2nd Earl of, i. 41, _55_, 144; ii. 19, 55
Aylmer, Lord, ii. 15
Ayscough, D.D., Rev. Francis, ii. 40, 63
Ayscough, Mrs. (_née_ Lyttelton), ii. 63
B
Baden, Prince of, i. 286
Bagshot Heath, ii. 74
Balchen, Admiral Sir John, ii. 92
Balmerino, Lord, _i. 231_
Baltimore, Lord, ii. 70
Banbury, Charles Knollys, 3rd Earl of, i. 22
Banks, Miss, ii. 45
Barbarini, i. 92
Bareil, M. de, _ii. 158_
Barrington, Dowager Lady, i. 269
Barrington, 2nd Viscount, ii. 185
Barrow, Rev. Dr. Isaac, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, ii. 91
Barrows, Mrs., i. 241
Barry, Spranger, Irish actor, i. 279
_Bas bleus_, the, ii. 98;
and shells, ii. 268
Basildon, Lady Fane’s grottoes at, i. 245
Bateman, Lord, ii. 95
Bateman, Richard, ii. 192
Bath, i. 36–41, 254;
“Coffee House” at, i. 255
Bath, William Pulteney, 1st Earl of, i. 102; ii. _11_, _29_, 47, 145,
155, 185, 193, 204, 219, 223, 225, 241, 246, 250, 252, 262, 267;
his wife’s death, ii. 152;
_Letter to Two Great Men_, ii. 178;
“Patriot and Philosopher,” ii. 179;
his character, ii. 189, 247;
“is fall’n desperately in love with Mrs. Montagu,” ii. 200, 201,
212;
on green tea and snuff, ii. 207;
and Mrs. Carter, ii. 235, 236;
on Mrs. Montagu’s _Dialogues of the Dead_, ii. 237;
Reynolds’ portrait of, ii. 258, 268, 269;
letters from Mrs. Montagu to, ii. 220, 222, 233;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 222, 224, 226, 233, 237, 263, 268,
269
Bath, Countess of (Anna Maria Gumley), a “screw,” ii. 29;
death of, ii. 152, 189
Bath, Thomas, 1st Marquis of, i. 17
Bath, Elizabeth, Marchioness of (_née_ Bentinck), i. 17
Bathing tubs, i. 89
Bathurst, Lady Selina, i. 139
Bathurst, Lord, i. 280
Bathurst, Mr. (Lady Selina’s son), i. 167
Bayham Abbey, ii. 250
Beau, description of a, i. 133
Beauchamp, Richard, Bishop of Salisbury, i. 151
Beauclerc, Lord Aubrey, i. 80
Beauclerc, Lord Harry, ii. 228
Beauclerk, Lord and Lady Vere, i. 269
Beaufort, Cardinal, i. 247
Beaufort, 4th Duke of, i. 39, 41, 42
Beaulieu, i. 248
Beaulieu, Edward Hussey, Earl of, i. 201
_Beauties of England and Wales_, _ii. 14_
Beckford, Alderman, ii. 127, 128, 153, 220
Bede, Venerable, _History of the British Nation_, etc., ii. 138
Bedford, Duchess of, i. 63, 269
Bedford, John, 4th Duke of, i. _63_, 216, 218, 219, 248, 266
Bejot, Monsieur, ii. 257
Bell and Sons, George, publishers, ii. 174
Bellardine, Harry, Governor of Hurst Castle, i. 248
Bellegarde, Marquis de, i. 286
Belle-Isle, Duc de, French Marshal, i. 197
Benson, Dr., Bishop of Gloucester, i. 234
Bentinck, Lord Edward Charles, i. 178
Bentinck, Lady Elizabeth (afterwards Marchioness of Bath), i. 17, 150
Bentinck, Lady Frances, i. 69, 100, 146
Bentinck, Lord George, i. 46, 48, 98
Bentinck, Lady Harriet, ii. 197
Bentinck, Lady Isabella, i. 23
Bentinck, Lady Margaret, i. 33
Bentley, Richard, ii. 23, 24
Berenger, Moses, i. 284
Berenger, R., “the little Marquis,” _History and Art of Horsemanship_,
i. 283, 284; ii. 1, 24, 226
Berenice, ii. 238
Berkeley, Elizabeth (afterwards Lady Noel Somerset), i. 42
Berkeley, George, Bishop of Cloyne, ii. 15, 25, 26
Berkeley, Mrs. George, ii. 25, 26
Berkeley, James Symes, of Stoke Gifford, _i. 42_
Berkeley, Lord, i. 167; ii. 95
Berkshire, 4th Earl of, i. 39, 41, 224
Berkshire, Lady (Catherine Grahame), i. 39, 66, 224
Berkshire, Tom, 6th Earl of, i. 39
Bernard, Dr., head master of Eton, ii. 150
Best, Mrs. T. (Caroline Scott), i. 86, 103, 121, 184
Best, Thomas, i. 121, 184; ii. 50
Bevern, Prince of, ii. 114
Bevis Mount, Lord Peterbrough’s place, i. 22
Bewdley, Sir George, ii. 78
_Biographia Britannica_, ii. 18
Birch, Rev. Thomas, _Life of Archbishop Tillotson_, ii. 20
Blackett, Sir Walter, ii. 138, 201, 202
Bland, _Military Discipline_, ii. 100
Blooding, panacea of, i. 33, 83, 98, 100, 135
“Blue Stockings,” first allusion to, ii. 98
Boccacio, _Decameron_, i. 61
Boileau, Nicholas Despreaux, i. 154, 282
Bolingbroke, Lady, ii. 116
Bolingbroke, Lord, i. 89, 280;
_Dissertations upon Partys_, i. 176;
_The Idea of a Patriot King_, i. 265;
_An Occasional Letter_, i. 281;
“that foul fiend,” ii. 61;
his “pompous Rhetorical and inconsistent Declamations,” ii. 63;
his marriage, ii. 116;
Voltaire _v._, ii. 163
Bolton, Duchess of (Lavinia Fenton, _alias_ “Polly Peacham”), ii. 37
Bolton, 3rd Duke of, i. 248; ii. 37
Bonus, Mr., picture cleaner, ii. 172
Boscawen, Admiral the Hon. Edward, i. 277; ii. 81, 83, 84, 123, 151,
155, 156, 170, 190;
captures two French men-of-war, ii. 74;
blockades Louisburg, ii. 76;
the Martinico ships, ii. 90;
recalled, ii. 111, 116;
Mrs. Montagu’s opinion of, ii. 118;
receives a fresh commission, ii. 118, 121;
“had saved North America,” ii. 134;
captures Louisburg, ii. 140;
the thanks of Parliament, ii. 154;
defeats French off Cape Lagos, ii. 167;
his illness and death, ii. 228–230;
his letter to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 95
Boscawen, Mrs. Edward (Frances Glanville), i. 277; ii. 69, 74, 81, 83,
170, 196, 217, 229, 230, 242, 247, 257;
Mrs. Montagu’s letters to, i. 278; ii. 20, 40, 52, 70, 88, 118;
her letter to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 133
Boswell’s _Life of Johnson_, ii. 161, 174
Boteler, Sir Philip, ii. 227
Botham, Rev. John, i. 55, 265, 278; ii. 43, 46, 73, 88, 129, 241, 259;
a legacy, i. 84;
his “sermonical lullaby,” i. 96;
rector of Yoxall, Staff., and chaplain to Lord Aylesford, i. 144;
wishes for a King’s chaplaincy, i. 180, 181;
the Albury living, i. 230;
“such a Johnny,” i. 231;
farming his glebe, i. 235;
his appeal for further preferment, ii. 2, 3;
inoculation of his children, ii. 17;
his wife’s last illness and death, ii. 26–29;
a school-girls’ bill, ii. 48;
in the North with Edward Montagu, ii. 51, 53;
appointed to Ealing, ii. 54, 55, 58;
his letter to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 76
Botham, Mrs. John (Lydia Lumley), i. 3, 55, 95, 143, 152, 194, 224,
265, 268; ii. 4;
an opportune legacy, i. 84;
her character, i. 180, 181;
excessive melancholy of, i. 230;
Mrs. Montagu’s advice, i. 233;
curious remedies, i. 235;
her state of health, ii. 11, 19, 20;
her five children inoculated, ii. 16;
illness and death of, ii. 26–29;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 84, 228
Botham, Miss, ii. 29, 33, 37, 46, 185
Botham, Miss Kitty, ii. 47, 48
Botham, Miss Molly, ii. 47, 48
Bower, Archibald (_History of the Popes_), ii. 11, 15, 16, 19, 35, 42,
70, 72, 90, 178;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 50, 81, 94
Bower, Mrs. A., ii. 16
Bowes, George, of Streatlam Castle, and Gibside, Durham, i. 234, 290;
ii. 36, 138, 201, 203
Braganza, Catherine, wife of Charles II., i. 111
Braganza, Duke of, ii. 158
Branson, Mr., i. 241
Braybrooke, Lord, ii. 250
Breadalbane, Lord, ii. 165, 168
Bridport, 1st Viscount, _i. 278_; ii. 135
Bridport, Maria, Viscountess (_née_ West), i. 278; ii. 10, 22, 30, 32,
40, 57, 86, 87, 92, 115, 135
Bridgewater, Dowager Duchess of, ii. 95, 191
Bridgewater, Scroop, 1st Duke of, ii. 191
Bristol, George William, 2nd Earl of, i. 234; ii. 266
Bristol, Viscount, _i. 265_
British Museum, established at Montagu House, Harleian MSS. in, i. 8,
83; ii. 243;
Cottonian MSS. in, ii. 243
Broadley’s Bath Collection, _i. 255_
Brocchi, Carlo (Farinelli), i. 16
Brockman, James, of Beachborough, i. 15, 76, 108, 225,; ii. 13, 15
Brockman, Miss, i. 147
Bromedge, Mr., i. 294
Brown, Lieut.-General George, i. 222; ii. 142
Brown, D.D., John, _Essays on Lord Shaftesbury’s Characteristics_,
ii. 18
Bruce, Lord, i. 250
“Brusher” Mills, the New Forest snake-catcher, ii. 151
Brydges, Sir Egerton, _Biography_, ii. 93
Brydges, Mary, Lady (_née_ Robinson), _ii. 93_
Buchan, Earl of, i. 33
Buckley, Mr., i. 125, 202, 234
Bullstrode, i. 13, 49
Bunyan, John, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. 73
Burgess, Dr., ii. 77
Burgundy, Louis, Duke of, the Dauphin, i. 291, 295
Burlington, Richard, 3rd Earl of, i. 191; ii. 145
Burlington, Lady, ii. 145, 146
Burke, Edmund, ii. _100_, 101, 108, 144;
_Vindication of Natural Society_, ii. 156;
_Sublime and Beautiful_, ii. 159;
Lady Bab Montagu and, ii. 163;
and the Madrid Consulship, ii. 170;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 169, 173
Burke, Mrs. (_née_ Nugent), ii. 171
Burnet, Bishop, _History of the Reformation_, i. 101
Bute, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of, i. 237; ii. 84, 97, 214, 226
Bute, Mary, Countess of (_née_ Montagu), i. 51, 237, 244; ii. 44, 197,
_214_, 217, 252
Butler, Lady Emily, ii. 155
Byng, Admiral John, ii. 88–93, 97, 102
C
Cadaval, Duc de, _ii. 180_
Cadogan, Lord, ii. 83
Caffarelli, Gaetano Majoriano, Italian singer, i. 27
Cain, ii. 245
Caledon, 1st Earl of, ii. 98, 108
Calves Pluck water, ii. 163
Cambridge, Richard Owen, ii. 263;
_Scribbleriad_, ii. 54, 61
Cambridge University, i. 256, 257
Camden, Pratt, 1st Earl, Lord Chancellor, and Lord President of the
Council, ii. 217
Camelford, Thomas Pitt, Junr., 1st Lord, ii. 150, 153
Campbell, General, i. 267
Campion, Pitt’s _chef_, ii. 64
Canning, Elizabeth, ii. 53
Canterbury Cathedral, ii. 12, 14
Canterbury Races, i. 9, 17, 31
Cape Lagos, naval battle of, ii. 167
Cardigan, Lady, i. 267; ii. 217, 218
Carlisle, Bishop of, ii. 96
Carlisle, 7th Earl of, i. 104, 209
Carlisle, surrendered to the rebels, i. 218
Carnarvon, 6th Earl of, ii. 38
Caroline, Princess, wife of Christian VII. of Denmark, i. 256
Caroline, Queen, _i. 255_
Carr, Lord Robert, i. 167
Carte, Rev. Thomas, _History_, i. 194
Carter, Edward, agent to Lord Aylesbury, afterwards to Edward Montagu,
i. 130, 139, 233, 234, 289, 291; ii. 51
Carter, Hannah, _Memoirs of her Life_, ii. 189
Carter, Miss, ii. 29, 33, 37, 38, 46, 51, 52
Carter, Mr., “Old Trusty,” Edward Montagu’s steward and agent, i. 107,
118, 141–143, 147, 166, 182, 184;
death of, i. 233
Carter, Mrs. (wife of above), ii. 51
Carter, Mrs. Elizabeth, the Greek scholar, i. 111; ii. 235, 236, 246,
248, 250, 251, 255, 256;
an edition of her _Works_, ii. 267;
Mrs. Montagu’s letters to, ii. 130, 138, 159, 160, 162, 163, 182,
183, 207, 241, 244, 257, 259, 266, 267, 269
Carter, D.D., Rev. Nicholas, ii. 130.
Carter, William, i. 130, 182
Carteret, John, 2nd Baron (afterwards Earl Granville), Secretary of
State, i. 102, 135, 179, 187
Carteret, Lady (Lady Sophie Fermor), i. 179, 181
Carteret, Lady Sophia, ii. 261
Carthagena, naval battle of, i. 79
Cathcart, 9th Lord, ii. 101, 168
Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II., i. 111
Cattle disease, i. 196, 219
Cesar, Miss, i. 46
Chalmers, Anne (Mrs. James Gregory), i. 179
Chalmers, Dr., of Ripon, i. 213
Chandler, Mrs., i. 265
Chandos, 1st Duke of (the “Princely Duke”), i. 273
Chandos, 2nd Duke of, ii. 22, 23
Chandos, 3rd Duke of, ii. 22
Chandos, Duchess of (_née_ Wells), formerly Mrs. Jefferies, ii. 22, 23
Chandos, Dowager Duchess of (_née_ Van Hatten), i. 281;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 273, 274
Chapone, Mrs. (Hester Mulso), _Letters on the Improvement of the
Mind_, ii. 260
Charlemagne, i. 59
Charles II., i. _80_, 111; ii. 211
Charles XII. of Sweden, ii. 181
Charlotte, Queen, ii. 249, 251, 252, 258–260
Charters, Mr., ii. 166
Chateauneuf, Mdlle. de, i. 44
Chatham, Baroness of. _See_ Pitt, Lady Hester
Chatham, William Pitt, 1st Earl of. _See_ Pitt, William
Chaucer, Geoffrey, i. 155, 199
Chaucer, Thomas (son of above), i. 198
Cheer, Mr., ii. 42
Chenevix, Mrs., her famous _bric-à-brac_ shop, i. 187, 294
Chesilden, Dr. William, i. 196; ii. 4
Chester, Mrs., ii. 42
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of (_Letters_), i. 198,
238, 253, 262; ii. 87, 113, 121, 181, 207, 223
Chinese rooms, Mrs. Montagu’s, ii. 8
Christian VII. of Denmark, _i. 256_
Chudleigh, Miss, maid-of-honour (afterwards Duchess of Kingston),
i. 265
Churchill, Arabella, _i. 156_
Churchill, General Charles, commonly called “old Charles Churchill,”
i. 156
Cibber, Colley (_Apology for his Life_), i. 91, 200, 242
Cibber, Theophilus, i. 242
Cibber, Mrs. Theophilus (Anna Maria Arne), i. 242;
as “Cordelia,” i. 253
Cistercians, _i. 248_
Clare, Earls of, _i. 204_
Clarendon, Lord, _History of the Rebellion_, ii. 157
Clarke, D.D., Samuel, i. 61; ii. 62
Clarke, William, of Merivale Abbey, i. 2
Clarke, Dr. W., i. 88, 91
Clavering, Sir James, i. 144, 147
Clavering, Sir Thomas, i. 290; ii. 37, 138, 139, 202, 203, 223, 228
Clayton, Robert, Bishop of Killala, afterwards of Clogher, i. 85; ii.
21, 124, _163_
Clayton, Mrs. Robert, i. 25, 85, 93, 129; ii. 27, 163, 164
Clayton, Sir William, _ii. 163_
Clegg, Jenny, i. 139
Cleopatra, ii. 238
Cleveland, Mr., ii. 134
Clifton, Sir Robert, ii. 135
Cobham, Viscount, ii. 60
Cobham, Sir Richard Temple, Baron, i. 102, _189_
Cobham, Lady, ii. 1, _41_, 71, 77, 86
Cock, Sarah (Mrs. John Rogers), i. 111
Cocoa Tree Coffee-house, ii. 217
Coke, Lady Mary, ii. 38
Coke, Lord, ii. 38;
_on Lyttelton_, ii. 226
“Cold Loaf” = a picnic, ii. 12
Colebrooke, Sir James, ii. 202
Collet, Sir James, i. 2
Collingwood, Mrs., i. 48
Colman, the Elder, George, _The Jealous Wife_, ii. 226.
Colman, Mrs. George (_née_ Gumley), ii. 227
Concini, Signor, ii. 83
Coningsby, Earl of, ii. _115_, 140, 141
Coningsby, Lady, ii. 247
Conway, Lord, _i. 265_
Conway, Miss Jenny, i. 265
Conway, General Seymour Henry, ii. 114, 120, 156, 158
Cooke, Lord, i. 235
Cookham, ii. 41, 42
Coombe Bank, i. 267
Cope, Sir John, Commander-in-Chief for Scotland, i. 206, 210–212
Cornbury, Lord, i. 101, 104
Cornwallis, Colonel, ii. 114
Cotes, Dr., i. _95_, 158, 160, 162; ii. 34
Cotes, Mrs., i. 95, 98, 163–166, 181, 224, 271
Cottington, Mr. and Mrs., i. 52
Cottonian MSS., ii. 243
Courayer, LL.D., Peter Francis le (“the little Père”), i. 124, 126,
154, 201, 232, 241–244, 247, 294;
his letter to Mrs. Montagu, i. 250
Courtenay, Lady, ii. 19
Courtenay, Sir William, afterwards 1st Viscount, ii. 19
Courteney, Mr., i. 240
Coventry, Countess of (Maria Gunning), i. 270, 287, 288; ii. 172
Coventry, Earl of, _i. 270_; ii. 18
Cowley, Abraham, ii. 244
Cowper, Henrietta, Countess, i. 19; ii. 158
Cowper, William, 2nd Earl, i. 19
Cowper, William, poet, i. 268
Cradock, William, i. 151
Cranwell, Mrs., i. 240
Cranworth, 1st Baron, ii. 98
Craon, Princesse de, i. 284
Crashaw, Richard, poet, i. 283
Crawford, John, 17th Earl of, and 7th Earl of Lindsey, i. 41
Creagh, Mary (Mrs. D. Archdeacon), ii. 129
Creed, Mr., ii. 50
Crewe, Lady (Dorothy Forster), i. 188
Crewe of Stene, Nathaniel, Baron, i. 188, 190; ii. 155
Croker, John Wilson, _Boswell’s Life of Johnson_, ii. 146, 147
Croker, Mr., Mrs. Donnellan’s Six Clerk and Manager, ii. 21
Cromartie, Lord, i. 232
Cromwell, Oliver, i. 270
Crosby, Mrs., Mrs. Montagu’s housekeeper, ii. 146, 147
Cruickshank, Dr., ii. 99
Culham Court, Berks., ii. 105
Cullen, John, Edward Montagu’s gamekeeper, i. 226
Cumberland, Duke of, acts as proxy at Princess Mary’s wedding, i. 53;
Septimus Robinson, Governor to, i. 177;
his tutor, Dr. Robert Smith, i. 200;
Edward Montagu’s wish, i. 208;
and young Wortley Montagu, i. 238;
dangerously ill, ii. 18;
praises Admiral Boscawen, ii. 74;
and Emin, ii. 101, 108;
battle of Hastenbeck, ii. 108–111;
“is gone to plant cabbages,” ii. 119;
passes through the city, ii. 120;
the gout, ii. 152;
will of George II., ii. 212–214
Cumberland, Richard, dramatist, ii. 2
Cunningham, Captain, ii. 76
Cunninghame, Mr., ii. 134
Curll, Edmund, i. 38
Cutler, Sir John, ii. 202
D
Dale, Dorothy, afterwards Lady Forbes, i. 179
D’Alembert, ii. 159
Dalrymple, Sir Hugh, ii. 166
D’Ancre, the Marechalle, ii. 83
D’Arcy, Sir Conyers, afterwards 6th Earl of Holdernesse, i. 209, 293;
ii. 6
Darlington, Lady, ii. 233
Darlington, Lord, ii. 202
Dartmouth, William, 2nd Earl of, _i. 231_
Dashwood, Miss, the “Delia” of the poet Hammond, i. 25, 42, 46, 103;
ii. 91;
her letter to Mrs. Montagu, i. 116
Dashwood, Sir Francis, afterwards Lord Le Despencer, leader of the
Hell Fire Club, i. 27, 218
D’Aubigné, Mdlle. (Madame de Maintenon), _i. 38_
Davall, Sir Thomas, i. 273
Davis, Governor, ii. 101
Davis, Sir Paul, i. 194
Dayrell, Mr. and Mrs., of Lillingston Dayrell, ii. 57
Delany, Mrs. (formerly Mrs. Pendarves), _Memoirs_, i. 56, 57, 153,
156, 170, 173, 187, 235, 293, 294; ii. 2, 5, 6, 21, 45, 123,
124. _See also_ Pendarves, Mrs.
Delany, Rev. Dr. Patrick, Dean of Down, Bishop of Clogher, i. 153,
170, 173, 187, 293, 294; ii. 6, 21, 85, 208;
the protracted lawsuit, ii. 123, 124
Delaval, Anne (afterwards Mrs. John Rogers), i. 145
Delaval, Sir John, ii. 129
Delawarr, Lord, i. 248
Delves, Lady, i. 17
Demoivre, Abraham, _The Doctrine of Chances_, etc., ii. 67
Demosthenes, ii. 41
Denton Hall, near Newcastle-on-Tyne, i. 289; ii. 137, 281, 282
Dering, Sir Edward, ii. 33, 252
Desbouveries, Miss, ii. 227
des Champs, Monsieur, ii. 186
Dettemere, Mrs., Mrs. Montagu’s lady’s-maid, i. 183, 258, 259, 272
Dettingen, battle of, i. 154, 157
“Devil’s Drops,” i. 252
Devonshire, Duke of, i. 266; ii. 95
Devonshire, Georgiana, Duchess of, ii. 148
D’Ewes, John, i. 47
D’Ewes, Mrs. John (_née_ Granville), “Pip,” i. 47, 56, 57, 101; ii. 5,
80
_Dialogues of the Dead_, by Lord Lyttelton and Mrs. Montagu, ii. 181,
182, 200, 204, 207, 238
Dickens, Sergeant, i. 82
_Dictionary of National Biography_, i. 7, 97; ii. 15, 146, 189
Dido, Queen of Tyre, i. 64
Dingley, Colonel, ii. 100
Ditched, Mrs., ii. 84
Doddington, Mr., ii. 84
Dodsley, ii. 174
Dohna, Count, ii. 142
Domville, Mr., ii. 189
Donnellan, Rev. Christopher, i. 25, 41; ii. 2
Donnellan, Nehemiah, Lord Chief Baron of the Exchequer, Ireland, i. 41
Donnellan, Mrs. Nehemiah (Martha Usher), i. 41
Donnellan, “Mrs.” Anne, i. 25, 40, 41, 43, 52, 84, 124, 146, 197, 232,
240, 242–244, 252; ii. 2, 5, 13, 21, 26, 51, 183;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 44, 53, 58, 70, 80, 85, 92, 93, 99,
102, 112, 128, 139, 161, 168, 169, 186, 187, 194, 253, 259, 293;
ii. 6, 21, 45, 80, 116, 120, 147;
Mrs. Montagu’s letters to, i. 56, 68, 72, 86, 91, 92, 96, 139, 159,
160, 184, 248, 254–256, 281
Donnington Castle, i. 155, 198
Dorchester, Countess of (Lady Caroline Sackville), i. 53
Dorset, Duke of, _i. 53_; ii. 2
Dorset, Duchess of (Elizabeth Colyear), i. 53
Douglas, Colonel, i. 80
D’Oyley, Christopher, ii. 186
D’Oyley, Mrs. (Sarah Stanley), ii. 186
Drake, Councillor Robert, of Cambridge, i. 4
Drake, Elizabeth (Mrs. Matthew Robinson), i. 4
Drake, Mrs. Robert (Sarah Morris), afterwards Mrs. Conyers Middleton,
i. 4, 5, 119
Drakes of Ashe, Devon, the, i. 4
Dufour, Mdlle., Mrs. Montagu’s French maid, i. 89, 91
Dummer, Mr., of Cranbury Park, i. 247
Duncan, Dr., ii. 77
Duncan, king of Scotland, i. 1
Dupplin, Viscount (afterwards 8th Earl of Kinnoull), i. 8, 9, 44, 46,
54; ii. 84, 85, 168, 179
Duncannon, Lord, ii. 95
Durham, Bishop of, ii. 202
E
Earle, Mr., i. 93, 94
Earthquake, in London (1750), i. 274; in Lisbon (1755), ii. 85
_Eau de luce_, Mrs. Montagu’s accident with, ii. 144
Edgecumbe, Mr., ii. 95
Edinburgh, taken by the rebels in 1745, i. 205, 209
Edward IV., i. 151
Edwin, Mrs., ii. 42, 45
Egerton, Lady A. Sophia, ii. 122
Egerton, Bishop, i. 180
Eglinton, 10th Earl of, i. 269, 286
Egmont, 1st Earl, i. 41, 186; ii. 84
Egremont, Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of, ii. 217, 262;
Secretary of State, ii. 265
Elibank, Lord and Lady, i. 269
Elixir of vitriol, a remedy for asthma, i. 235
Elliot, Mr., ii. 95
Elliot, Mrs., i. 164
Ellis, Lady (afterwards Lady Dashwood), i. 218
Ellis, Mrs. W. (_née_ Stanley), ii. 186
Ellis, Welbore (afterwards Lord Mendip), ii. 186
Elstob, Mrs., i. 133
Emerson, William, _Doctrine of Fluxions_, etc., i. 111, 234
Emin, or Ameen, Joseph, an Armenian, ii. 99, 115, 122, 165, 214;
his flight to England, ii. 100;
Duke of Northumberland’s kindness to, ii. 101, 102;
his patron Burke, ii. 101, 108, 144, 156, 171;
his letter from Limburg to “all his ladies and Patronesses,”
ii. 108–110;
Mrs. Montagu’s description of, and tribute to, ii. 114, 117, 154;
his application to Pitt, ii. 125, 126;
joins Frederick the Great’s army, ii. 127, 132, 141;
his description of Frederick the Great, ii. 143, 154;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu--“My Queen of Sheba,” ii. 102, 114;
“To the most learned and most magnanimous Mrs. Montagu,” ii. 162;
“To the Montagu the Great,” ii. 168;
“To the wisdom of Europe,” ii. 241
England _v._ France in Canada--the Mordaunt Expedition, ii. 116–122;
the attempted invasion at St. Malo, ii. 126, 127
Erringtons, the, i. 144
Essex, Lady (_née_ Williams), ii. 162
Euston, George, Earl of, i. 17
Eve, ii. 245
Evelyn, Mrs. Ann, ii. 75
Evelyn, Sir John, _Sylva, or Discourse on Forest Trees_, etc., ii. 75,
145
F
Falconer, R. N., Lieutenant, i. 287
Falmouth, 1st Viscount, i. 277
Fane, Charles, 1st Viscount, i. _87_, 245
Fane, Miss Charlotte, ii. 11, 102
Fane, Miss Dorothy, afterwards Lady Sandwich, _q.v._
Fane, Mary Stanhope, Viscountess, once Maid-of-Honour to Queen Anne,
her grottoes, i. 245
Farinelli (Carlo Brocchi), i. 16
Fauconberg, Viscount, i. 209
Fausan, M. and Mdlle., i. 48
Fawcet, Mr., i. 140
Feather screen, Mrs. Montagu’s, i. 268
Fenelon, i. 296
Fenton, Lavinia, _alias_ Polly Peacham, Duchess of Bolton, _ii. 37_
Ferdinand of Brunswick, Prince, ii. 165, 178
Ferdinand VII. of Spain, ii. 158
Ferguson’s lectures on philosophy, ii. 191
Fermor, Lady Sophie (afterwards Lady Carteret), i. 179
Ferrers, Robert, 1st Earl, _i. 39_
Ferrers, Laurence, 2nd Earl, executed at Tyburn, ii. 183
Feversham, Lord and Lady, ii. 187
Fielding, Captain and Mrs., i. 21
Fielding, Lady Betty, i. 21
Fielding, Henry (novelist), i. _21_, 164
Finch, Lady Anne, i. 39
Finch, Lady Charlotte, i. 21
Fisher, Kitty, ii. 160
Fitz-Adam, Adam, ii. 25
FitzGilbert, Richard, _i. 204_
Fitzroy, Lord Augustus, i. 17
Fitzwalter, Lord and Lady, i. 269
Fitzwilliam, 1st Earl, i. 209, 294
Fitzwilliam, Lady, i. 294; ii. 185
Foley, Thomas, 1st Baron, i. 83
Foley, Thomas, 2nd Baron, i. 46
Fontenoy, battle of, i. 237
Foote, the actor, ii. 19
Forbes, Lady (Dorothy Dale), i. 179; ii. 226
Forbes, William, 13th Baron, i. 179; ii. 266
Forster, Sir James William, i. 188
Forster, Dr., ii. 99
Forster, Elizabeth (Mrs. Charles Montagu), i. 111, 188
Fortescue, Chichester, _ii. 80_
Fortescue, Mrs. C. (_née_ Wesley), ii. 80, 255
Fortescue, Hugh, of Filleigh, Devon, i. 110
Fountayne, Dr., Dean of York, ii. 174
Fox, M.P. for York City, i. 209
Fox, Captain, ship _Walpole_, ii. 100
Fox, Lady Caroline, ii. 97
Fox, Henry, 1st Lord Holland, ii. 81, 84, 94, 103, 104
Fox, Stephen, i. 105.
France _v._ England, in Canada--the Mordaunt Expedition, ii. 116–122;
the attempted invasion at St. Malo, ii. 126, 127
Franking letters, use and abuse of, i. 12
Frederick, Mrs., ii. 230
Frederick the Great, ii. 120, 123, 124, 132, 154, 178, 225, 241;
his defeat at Kollin, Bohemia, ii. 114;
battle of Rosbach, ii. 122;
Zorndorff, ii. 141, 142;
Emin’s description of, ii. 143
Frederick William, of Prussia, _i. 206_
Frederick V., King of Denmark, ii. 111
Freind, Rev. Dr. Robert, Head Master of Westminster School, i. 30, 52,
192
Freind, Mrs. Robert (Jane de l’Angle), i. 52
Freind, Rev. William, Dean of Canterbury, i. 30, 52, 57, 114, 122,
148, 174, 180, 189, 233, 235; ii. 45;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 66, 79, 191, 192;
Mrs. Montagu’s letters to, i. 49, 52, 58, 63, 75, 78, 81, 106, 109,
131, 177, 179, 190, 219, 225, 248, 269
Freind, Mrs. William (Grace Robinson), i. 30, 40, 66, 143, 148, 174,
177, 189, 191, 233;
Mrs. Montagu’s letters to, i. 49, 122, 227
French invasion, fears of, i. 174–177, 219–226; ii. 82, 114
Freydag, Major, ii. 109
Froissart, _Chronicles_, ii. 257, 260
Fromantel, Mr., i. 145
Furnese, Lady Anne, i. 39
G
Gage, Miss, i. 39
Galissionière, Admiral, ii. 90
Garrick, David, i. _92_, 131, 284; ii. 11, 16, 19, 83, 129, 130, 145;
as “Richard III.,” i. 107;
“King Lear,” i. _177_, 253;
“Hotspur,” i. 237;
“Romeo,” i. 279;
“Antony,” ii. 158;
his marriage, ii. 146
Garrick, Mrs. (Eva Marie Veilchen, “La Violette”), ii. 129, 130, 145
Gascoigne, Sir Crispe, Lord Mayor of London, ii. 53
Gataker, Dr., ii. 235
Gay, John, poet, _Court of Death_, i. 39, 249
_Gazette_, ii. 122
Gee, Mr., i. 261
George, Prince, ii. 20
George I., i. 206
George II., i. 53, 94, _236_, 256; ii. 83, 87;
his offer to Prince of Wales, i. 99;
creates Walpole Earl of Oxford, i. 100;
the Hanoverian troops, i. 135;
pardons Lord Cromartie, i. 232;
makes Lyttelton a peer, ii. 96;
a fainting fit, ii. 116;
his reception of Mordaunt and Hawke, ii. 120;
Frederick the Great’s report of Zorndorff victory, ii. 142;
his illness, ii. 152;
and Pitt, ii. 153;
death, ii. 208–215
George III., i. 177, 280; ii. _160_, 209–215;
and G. L. Scott, ii. 44, 97;
Lady Yarmouth, ii. 126;
his first speech as king, ii. 217;
Bishop Sherlock’s letter to, ii. 221;
Lord Chesterfield’s _bon mot_, ii. 223;
his engagement and marriage, ii. 249, 251, 252;
coronation, ii. 259
Germain, Lady Betty, i. 269
Germain, Lord George, ii. 165
Geronsterre waters, the, i. 53
Gesner, S., _La Mort d’Abel_, ii. 245, 248
Gilbert, Dr., Archbishop of York, ii. 73, 190, 270
Giles, i. 193
Glamis Castle, ii. 168
Glanville, William Evelyn, _ii. 118_
Gloucester, Duke of, i. 177
Gloucester, Richard de Clare, Earl of, i. 204
Gloucester, Duchess of, _ii. 160_
Goddard, Harry, i. 73, 74
Godolphin, 1st Earl of, i. 285; ii. 98, 102, 132, 142, 147
Godolphin, Lady Harriet, afterwards Duchess of Leeds, i. 51
Godolphin, Lady Mary, i. 51
Godolphin, Mr., ii. 209
Godschall, Miss, i. 265
“Golden Ball,” the, i. 15, 16
Goodwin, John, i. 216
Goring, Viscount, i. 286
Grafton, 2nd Duke of, _i. 17_
Graham, Sir R., i. 209
Grahame, J., of Levens, Westmoreland, _i. 39_
Grammont, _Memoirs of the Count de_, ii. 172
Granby, Marchioness of, _i. 269_
Granby, Lord, i. 269
Grantham, Lord (“Short” Sir Thomas Robinson), i. 259, 260, 277, 288;
ii. 259
Granville, Anne (Mrs. Pendarves’ sister), afterwards Mrs. D’Ewes,
i. 47, 56, 57
Granville, Anne (Mrs. Pendarves’ aunt), afterwards Lady Stanley,
_i. 46_
Granville, Countess, i. 195
Granville, Grace, Viscountess Carteret and Countess, i. 153
Granville, Mr. (brother of Mrs. Pendarves), i. 46, 236
Granville, Mrs., i. 254
Granville, Miss, i. 196
Granville, John, _i. 18_
Granville, John, Earl, i. 102, 104
Granville, the Misses (Lord Lansdowne’s daughters), i. 50
Gray, Thomas, the poet, i. 119, _253_, 285; ii. 23, 24, _87_, 183
Green, Dr., musician, i. 60
Green, Dr. John, Bishop of Lincoln, i. 249, 275
Greenland, Augustine, of Belle Vue, Kent, ii. 92
Greenland, John, of Lovelace, Kent, ii. 92
Greenwich, Caroline, Baroness, i. 117
Gregory, James, inventor of the Gregorian telescope, i. 179
Gregory, Dr. James, i. 179
Gregory, Dr. John, Professor of Philosophy at Edinburgh, i. 179;
ii. 73, 76, 204, 211, 226, 266
Gregory, Mrs. John (Elizabeth Forbes), i. 179; ii. 226
Gregory, Lady Mary, ii. 155
Grenville, Mr., i. 54
Grenville, George, ii. 90, 95, 266
Grenville, James, ii. 95, 262
Grenville, Jenny, ii. 90
Grenville, Richard, ii. 60, 83, 84
Greville, Mr., i. 167
Greville, Mrs., i. 39
Grey, Mr., i. 147
Grey, Rev. Dr. Zachary, i. 62
Griffith, Edward Montagu’s valet, i. 136, 140, 143
Grinfield, Miss, dresser to George III.’s daughters, i. 256; ii. 84
Grosmith, Rev. ----, i. 85
Grosvenor, Mrs., i. 255
Grosvenor, Sir Richard, 1st Earl, ii. 156, 217
Grounen, Mr., i. 261
Guerin, Mr., i. 183
Guilford, Earl of, _i. 63_
Gunning, John, of Castle Coote, Roscommon, i. 270
Gunning, Elizabeth, (1) Duchess of Hamilton, (2) Duchess of Argyll,
i. 270, 287, 288; _ii. 252_
Gunning, Kitty, Mrs. Robert Travers, i. 270
Gunning, Maria, Countess of Coventry, i. 270; ii. 18
H
Habeas Corpus Bill, ii. 127
Hagley House, Lyttelton’s place, ii. 192
Halifax, Anne, Lady (_née_ Dunk), i. 201
Halifax, William, 2nd Marquis of, _i. 18_; ii. 145
Halifax, 2nd Earl of, i. 256
Halifax, George, 5th Earl of, i. 104, 201; ii. 243
Hallows, Mrs., Dr. Young’s lady housekeeper, ii. 248
Hamilton, Mr., of Painshill, ii. 75
Hamilton, Duke of, i. 167, _270_
Hamilton, Duchess of (Elizabeth Gunning), i. 270, 287, 288; _ii. 252_
Hamilton, Lord William, _ii. 2_
Hammond, the poet, i. 25
Hampton, the Temple at, ii. 130
Hampton Court, Herefordshire, ii. 140, 141
Handcock, Mrs., ii. 192
Handcock, William, i. 267
Handel, George Frederick, i. 27, 44, 70, 92, 131, 274
Hanmer, Lady Catherine, i. 162
Hanoverian troops, employed by England, i. 130, 134, 135, 137, 173
Hardwicke, Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of, _i. 7_; ii. 127, 192, 212, 262,
266
Hardwicke, 2nd Earl of, ii. 127, 217
Hare, Dr. Francis, Bishop of St. Asaph and Chichester, i. 50
Hare, Mrs., i. 50
Harleian MSS. in British Museum, i. 8, 83; ii. 243
Harley, Lady Margaret Cavendish. _See_ Portland, Duchess of
Harley, Mr., i. 104
Harrington, William Stanhope, 1st Earl of, i. 48;
President of the Council, i. 102;
Viceroy of Ireland, i. 260
Harris, _History of Kent_, i. 7; ii. 14
Hart, Governor, ii. 106
Hartley, Dr. David, i. 254
Hastenbeck, battle of, ii. 56, 58
Hawke, Sir Edward, Lord, ii. 89, 116, 118, 120, 121
Hawkesworth, LL.D., John, _Oriental Tales_, ii. 247
Hawkins, Mr., Surgeon, i. 158, 161–163
Hay, Lord Charles, ii. 116
Hay, Rev. Robert, Archbishop of York, i. 47
Hay, Hon. John, i. 51, 61
Hay, Dr., ii. 95
Hayton Farm, i. 66
Hearne, Thomas, _Diary_, _i. 12_; ii. 62
Heberden, Dr. William, i. 276
Hell Fire Club, i. 218
Helvetius, Claud Adrien, _De l’Esprit_, ii. 157
Henrietta Maria, Queen, i. 264
Henry II., i. 150
Henry IV. of France, _ii. 18_
Henry VIII., i. 151
Heraclius II., King of Georgia and Armenia, ii. 101