Transcribers’ Note
Words in italics are marked with _underscores_.
Words in small capitals are shown in UPPER CASE.
Please also see the note at the end of this volume.
[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.”
[Page heading: CANVASSING]
On account of the Jew Bill and other unpopular measures coming before
Parliament, a General Election was anticipated, and Lord Sandwich was
already arranging for it by canvassing his constituents, and those at
Huntingdon, and summoned Mr. Montagu to meet him at Hinchinbrooke the
second week in August. Previous to this he spent a few days with his
wife at Tunbridge hence proceeding to Yorkshire for his annual estate
business. Old Mr. Robinson accompanied his friend, Sir Edward Dering,
to canvass for him in Kent, and his daughter says, “My Father would
have made a good counterpart to Sir Edward Dering; if _bon mots_ could
carry a county, I know few that would care to contend with them.”
Previous to going to Tunbridge, Mrs. Montagu placed her two young
charges, Miss Carter and Miss Botham, in a boarding-school. She writes
to her sister Sarah--
“Mr. Montagu thought Miss Carter’s dancing would be better
improved if she went to School, and he is as desirous she should be
a fine dancer as if she was to be a Maid of Honour. I was the more
willing in regard to Miss Botham going, for my cousin is of such
a ‘diversian’ temper, as Cotes used to express it, that I feared
she would not be easily restrained in a place of this sort; she
is a fine girl, but so lively and so idle, she requires infinite
care. With great capacity of learning she has prodigious desire
to be idle, and thinks it quite hard not to take her share of all
the diversions she hears of. On being asked how she liked London
she said very well, but should do so much better if she was to go
to Ranelagh every night! I have left them at a very good school,
but an expensive one; however, they are only to stay there till
the 15th of August, for then the school breaks up, and if I do not
leave this place sooner, they must come. I believe no gouvernante
ever took half the pains I have done with these children,
explaining to them everything they read, and talking to them on all
points of behaviour.”
[Page heading: PENSHURST]
On July 4, in a letter to Mr. Montagu, who was at Theakstone, his wife
writes--
“All the family at the ‘Stone House’ and myself in their train went
yesterday to Penshurst; we spent a good deal of time in viewing the
pictures. I was most pleased with the portraits, as I know not any
family that for Arts and Arms, greatness of courage and nobility of
mind have excelled the Sydney Race. Beauty too, has been remarkable
in it.”
And on July 8--
“It has been much the turn of the Society I am in to go out
in parties to see places, and last post day we settled upon
an expedition of this sort with such precipitation, I had not
opportunity to write without keeping the company waiting. We went
to see an old seat of a Mr. Brown’s; it is well situated, was
built by Inigo Jones, has some fine portraits.... We went from this
venerable seat to a place called New Vauxhall, where Mr. Pitt had
provided us a good dinner; the view from it is romantic; we staid
there till the cool of the evening, and then returned home. We
drank tea yesterday in the most beautiful rural scene that can be
imagined, which Mr. Pitt had discovered in his morning’s ride about
half a mile from hence; he ordered a tent to be pitched, tea to
be prepared, and his French horn to breathe music like the unseen
genius of the wood: the company dined with me, and we set out,
number 8.... Sir George Lyttelton and Mr. Bower are come to spend a
few days with Mr. Pitt.”
To this her husband replies, “I very much approve of the excursions
you make, and think the more the better, as they both entertain the
mind and give exercise to the body.” He adds, the epidemic then raging
amongst cattle in England had not been so severe on his northern
property as in other parts of the country.
[Page heading: TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY]
Mr. Pitt went to Hastings for two days, and on his return, Mr. West
made a tour to Canterbury, Dover, etc., which lasted five days. Dr.
Smith,[45] Mr. Montagu’s old friend, was then at Tunbridge, and Mrs.
Montagu says--
“We fell into discourse upon some embellishments and ornaments to
be added to the fine Library at Trinity College. There are to be 26
Bustos put up, 13 in memory of the ancients, 13 of modern, these
are to be cast in plaister of Paris: but Mrs. Middleton talks of a
fine Marble Busto of Dr. Middleton to be done by Roubilliac,[46]
which I think very proper, as he was so eminent, there should be a
public memorial of him, and as he was long Librarian it is proper
it should be in that place: there are likewise to be 48 portraits
of considerable persons that have been of the College.”
[45] Dr. Robert Smith, then Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Founded “Smith’s Prizes.”
[46] Louis François Roubilliac, born 1695, died 1762. Eminent
sculptor.
To this Mr. Montagu replies--
“I am very well pleased with what Dr. Smith is doing at Trinity
College. I hope he has not lay’d aside the noble design he had
form’d of having a Statue[47] of the great Newton. Such men as he
and Dr. Middleton should be represented in something more durable
than plaister of Paris, and I honour Mrs. Middleton for her
intention.”
[47] In 1755 Dr. Smith gave the statue of Sir I. Newton, sculptured
by Roubilliac.
[Page heading: GIBSIDE]
After seeing to the business consequent on his trusteeship to his
cousin, Mr. Rogers, of Newcastle, Mr. Montagu had returned to
Theakstone on July 29. He describes Gibside, the seat of Mr. Bowes[48]--
“I dined this day sennight at Gibside; it was one of the finest
summer days I ever saw. It set off to great advantage the whole
vale through which the river Tyne runs, which consists of a great
deal of good rich land. The Moors, tho’ not so pleasing to the eye,
make abundant amends by the riches of the mines. All the gentlemen
are planting and adorning their Seats, but nothing comes up to
the grandeur and magnificence of what Mr. Bowes has done, and is
a (_sic_), doing, I mean without doors, for his house is but an
indifferent one. It stands in the midst of a great wood of about
400 acres, through which there are a great many noble walks and
rides interspers’d with fine lawns, with a rough river running
thro’ it, on each side of which are very high rocks, which gives
it a very romantick look. Mr. Bowes is at present upon a work of
great magnificence, which is the erecting a column of above 140
feet high. This, as far as I know, may be the largest that ever was
erected by a subject in this Island, and may yield to nothing but
the Monument at London. I ought not to omit telling you that he
has already erected upon a rising ground a gothick building which
he calls a Banquetting room, in which the night before there was a
concert of Musick (_sic_), at which Jordain and an Italian woman
performed, whom Mrs. Lane[49] brought with her from Bramham Moor,
from which she came in a day.... On Monday I dined with Sir Thomas
Clavering.[50] This gentleman’s house is very old and bad, but
the situation good and prospect pleasant. He has made a long road
leading to his house and improved his park, and made a serpentine
river.... He has also, as well as all the other gentlemen in that
county, made a kitchen garden with very high walls, planted with
the finest fruit trees. I question not peaches and nectarines may
succeed very well, but for grapes they must be beholden to fire.”
[48] George Bowes, of Streatlam Castle, and Gibside, Durham.
[49] Mrs. Lane, of Bramham Park, Yorkshire.
[50] 7th Baronet, related to the Roger family, Oxwell Park.
[Page heading: EXCURSION TO STONELANDS]
From this it would appear that walled kitchen gardens were new things
in the North then; probably “Kail yards” reigned supreme. Miss Carter
and Miss Botham now joined Mrs. Montagu at Tunbridge from their school.
Another excursion to Stonelands[51] with Mr. Pitt took place, and in a
letter to Mr. Montagu on August 3 we learn--
“This dry Summer has been so favourable to the Waters that they
have made several surprising cures. I think Mr. Pitt may be
numbered amongst them. The first time I saw the Duke of Bolton,[52]
I could hardly imagine he would last a month, but seeing him again
yesterday I was amazed at the amendment.”
[51] A seat of the Duke of Dorset’s, now called Buckhurst, in
Surrey.
[52] 3rd Duke; he died August 26, 1754. Married as second wife
Lavinia Fenton, _alias_ “Polly Peacham.”
[Page heading: “MINOUETS”]
In the afternoons Mrs. Montagu and Mr. Pitt were attending Mr. King’s
lectures on philosophy, etc., and “Mr. Pitt, who is desirous of
attaining some knowledge in this way, makes him explain things very
precisely.” In another letter she says--
“Miss Carter will excell in dancing. I did not think it right she
should dance Minouets at the ball till she was quite perfect in it,
but Mr. West, Mr. Pitt and all their family and some other company
were here the other day, and I made her dance a Minouet with Master
West by way of using her to do it in company; she acquitted herself
so well as to get great commendation.”
As usual, the husband and wife exchanged loving letters on the
anniversary of their wedding-day, August 5. Mrs. Montagu mentions--
“There is a report that Lord Coke is dying; his wife, Lady Mary,
is here; she is extremely pretty, her air and figure the most
pleasing I ever saw. She is not properly a beauty, but she has more
_agrémens_ than one shall often see. With so many advantages of
birth, person and fortune, I do not wonder at her resentment being
lively, and that she could ill brook the neglects and insults of
her husband.”
Lady Mary was the daughter of the 2nd Duke of Argyll and Duke of
Greenwich. She is often mentioned by Horace Walpole. Her husband
treated her with great brutality, and she gained a separation from him.
He died August 31, 1753; she survived him till 1811.
[Illustration:
_John Nixon, pxt._]
TEA AND COFFEE IN THE BATH-ROOM.]
[Page heading: “BEAU” NASH]
Mr. Herbert is mentioned as being very ill at Tunbridge; this was the
uncle of the 6th Earl of Carnarvon, of Highclere Castle, Hants.
Mr. Montagu says, “He has done a great deal to adorn and beautify
Highclere; he had designed to do much more, if he dies it will want his
finishing hand.” On August 13 Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband--
“Mr. Nash[53] had a fit yesterday, by which it is imagined this
Monarch will soon resign that Empire over Mankind, which in so
extraordinary a manner he gained and has preserved. The Young
Pretender is now known to be at Passi, near Paris, where he keeps
himself so concealed that he may on any project be able to leave it
without exciting the attention of the people. It is said in case
of a Minority he will make us a visit. Lord Rochford intercepted a
letter from a Cardinal in France to his brother in Italy, in which
he said he had supped with Prince Charles the night before. I hear
this young adventurer is much a favorite with the French officers
and soldiers, whose romantic visions of honour may excite them to
do more than even the policy of their Monarque requires.”
[53] Richard Nash, “Beau Nash,” Leader of Fashion at Bath and
Tunbridge, born 1674, died 1761.
On August 20 Mr. Montagu arrived at Hinchinbroke to stay with Lord
Sandwich, in order to beat up votes for the next election for
Huntingdon and the county. A Mr. Jones, an eminent merchant, was to be
his fellow-candidate.
“On Tuesday we are to go about the town and canvass, where an
entertainment will be prepared for the Burgesses, who will
to-morrow night be treated with their wives, with a ball for them
only, a thing intirely new and which must produce something new and
out of the common. On Friday we shall be at liberty to move off,
but on Monday night we are to meet and entertain the Londoners at
the King’s Head, Holbourn.”
Writing on August 21 to Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Montagu mentions--
“I am living in the very house my dear Mrs. Boscawen inhabited
three years ago. At the Stone Castle reside Mr. Pitt, Mr. and Mrs.
West and Miss West. Instead of making parties at Whist or Cribbage,
and living with and like the _beau monde_, we have been wandering
about like a company of gipsies, visiting all the fine parks and
seats in the neighbourhood.”
These excursions were much encouraged by Mr. Pitt, who considered them
“as good for the mind as the body,” and that an occasional day without
drinking the waters gave them a greater effect.
Mention of a ventriloquist now occurs as something new--
“I have been this morning to hear the man who has a surprising
manner of throwing his voice into the Drawer, a bottle, your
pocket, up the chimney, or where he pleases within a certain
distance.... I was last night at Mr. King’s, we had the Orrery and
an astronomical lecture.”
[Illustration:
_Thos. Malton, pxt._]
THE CIRCUS, AT BATH.]
[Page heading: MR. PITT VISITS HAYES]
Mr. Montagu joined his wife for a week at Tunbridge, when he had to
return to London. On September 16 she writes to him--
“I intend to be with you on Thursday.... I find Mr. Pitt has some
intentions, as _I told you when you was here, of going to Heys_,
in case he should not be well enough to take the long journey he
intends, and he seems much pleased that I will lend him that little
tenement; but as I apprehend a feather bed more will be wanted than
used to be, I propose to send one from Hill Street.... Mr. Pitt
leaves this place to-morrow, he is now going to Dr. Ascough’s, and
from thence to Stowe[54] and Hagley.[55] Mr. West goes to Stowe
with him.”
[54] Lady Cobham’s.
[55] Sir George Lyttelton’s seat.
Probably it was from this time that Pitt took such a fancy to Hayes,
which endured all his lifetime.
[Page heading: MR. HOOKE]
The next letter to Gilbert West I transcribe in portions--
“Sandleford, September 27, 1753.
“MY MOST HONOURED COUSIN,
“Your kind and agreeable letter restored me in some measure to the
temper I lost at going out of town the very day you came to it. I
know not what poets may find in the country, when they have filled
the woods with sylvan Deities, and the rivers with Naides; but to
me groves and streams and plains make poor amends for the loss of a
friend’s conversation. You have better supplied Mr. Pitt’s absence
by reading the Orations of his predecessor, Demosthenes, and I can
easily imagine you would rather have passed the evening with the
British than the Grecian Demosthenes, whom in talents perhaps he
equals, and in grace of manners and the sweet civilities of life,
I dare say he excels. But when you seem to say you would even have
preferred the simple small talk of your poor cousin to the Athenian
Orator, I cry out,--Oh wondrous power of friendship, which like the
sun gives glorious colours to a vapour, and brightens the pebble
to a gem, till what would have been neglected by the common herd
is accepted by the most distinguished.... On Tuesday morning about
eight o’clock I called upon Mr. Hooke at his hermitage. I found
him like a true Savant surrounded by all the elements of Science,
but though I roamed round the room, I could not perceive any signs
of the Author, no papers, pen, ink, or sheets just come from the
press. I fear the fine ladies and fine prospects of Cookham divert
his attention from the Roman History.... I desired him to carry
me to Mrs. Edwin’s, which I heard was a pretty place.[56] There
is an old ferry woman who crosses the Thames very often before
Mrs. Edwin’s terrace.... While we were in Mrs. Edwin’s garden he
betrayed my name to her ... she came down, showed me her house and
the pictures, which are very fine, but the views from her windows
gave one no leisure to consider the works of art.... Cliefden Hill
rises majestically in view, and the only flat shore you see from
this place lies straight before it, and is a large plain of the
finest verdure and full of cattle.”
[56] Could this be Hedsor?
[Page heading: THE WICKHAM URN]
To this letter Gilbert West replies--
“I am glad your journey to Sandleford was relieved by the agreeable
digression you made to Cookham, where I hope to find, at least in
the memory of Mr. Hooke, the vestiges of your having been there,
which will be an additional motive to me to make him a visit from
Stoke, for I am going once more from Wickham, notwithstanding the
neighbourhood of Sir Thomas Robinson,[57] the Archbishop,[58] and
Bower, and the arrival of my Urn, which is to come this very day,
and which Mr. Cheer hath taught me to consider as an emblem and
monument of the polished, elegant and accomplished Mrs. Montagu,
by assuring me ‘that it is indebted for all the extraordinary and
highly finished ornaments he hath bestowed upon it, to the great
regard and veneration he hath for her, and that he will not either
for love or money make such another.’ ... I was paying a visit
at Fulham, where I enjoyed the smiles of my beloved Bishop,[59]
the presence of Mrs. Sherlock, and the agreeable conversation of
Mrs. Chester, with the more substantial delicacies of an excellent
English Venison Pasty.”
Further on he says he is going to Lillingston Dayrell to see his
mother, Lady Langham.
[57] “Long” Sir Thomas, Mrs. Montagu’s cousin.
[58] Archbishop Secker.
[59] Thomas Sherlock, born 1678, died 1761. Bishop of London.
[Page heading: THE NEW POST-CHAISE]
In the next letter (Oct. 3) from Sandleford to Mr. West occurs
this sentence, “Mr. Montagu returned hither on Monday with the new
four-wheeled post-chaise; it is the pleasantest machine imaginable
in rough roads, but I think it too easy on even roads.” The coachmen
had nothing intermediate between the two-wheeled vehicles and the
ponderously long six-or four-horsed coach, which required elaborate
skill in turning.
Staying again at Fulham, Mr. West mentions that he has been urging
Bishop Sherlock to publish some of his sermons, which he promised
to do. West had a fresh attack of the gout, which made him return
home. Mr. Pitt had left Hayes suddenly for Bath, Tunbridge waters not
having been of sufficient use to him; and in a letter of October 13,
to West, in capital letters, her inquiries not being answered, Mrs.
Montagu asks, “I desire TO KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD CONCERNING MR.
PITT’S HEALTH?” Describing her daily life, she says she keeps up the
Tunbridge habit of driving an hour or so after dinner (which, it must
be remembered, was then early) over the adjacent common; after these
airings she drank tea, and retired to her dressing-room for two or
three hours of reading.
On October 14 West writes--
“The Duke and Duchess of Portland, with two of their daughters,
dined here last Thursday, and we are to make them a morning’s
visit to-morrow at Bullstrode. Her Grace was extremely courteous
and obliging to me, but never made any inquiry after you, which
piqued me so much, that I put her against her upon talking about
Mr. Botham, and from what she said about the distrest situation of
his family, took occasion to extol you as the most generous and
sincere friend, and indeed the only one the poor man could depend
on.”
[Page heading: LADY BUTE]
The reader will have doubtless missed the frequent mention of the
duchess and her letters. There is no doubt that the coolness between
the quondam intimate friends was on account of the Scott separation.
It will be remembered the duchess sided with Mrs. Scott’s engagement
against Mrs. Montagu’s opinion. After the Scott separation, probably
influenced by her intimate friend, Lady Bute, who with the Princess of
Wales seems to have defended him,[60] the duchess appears to have taken
his part; but his true character is shown by the fact that the Prince
of Wales (George III.), on being given a Household in 1756, begged that
Scott[61] should not be continued about him, and to make up for this
dismissal he was given a commissionership in the Excise. Later on the
duchess and Mrs. Montagu had a _rapprochement_, but the letters were
never as cordial as in previous times.
[60] _Vide_ Walpole’s “Memoirs of the Reign of George III.,”
vol. ii. p. 259.
[61] Scott is said to have been a Jacobite secretly. That he was
double-faced is evident from letters.
[Page heading: BULLSTRODE MENAGERIE]
Writing from Lillingston on October 27, West describes his visit to
Bullstrode--
“I was very kindly received both at Bullstrode and Cookham; at
the former we were shown a great many fine and great many curious
things, both in doors and without; the day proved too cold, and I
was not enough recovered to see all the rarities of the animal as
well as the vegetable kind, which were dispersed over the Park and
gardens. Those that might be seen from the windows, as some spotted
Sheep and a little Bull from Fort St. David’s, whose resemblance
I have often seen in China ware, I beheld with admiration and
applause, and ventured two steps into the garden to take a view
of the orange trees against the wall.... Her Grace promised to
make me a present of some trained up for that purpose. In her
closet we were shown some curious works in Shells, performed by
Mrs. Delany, whom her Grace expected at Bullstrode in a short
time, and expressed great pleasure and not a little impatience in
the prospect of seeing so dear and so ingenious a friend. Of you
she said nothing, till upon her naming Mrs. Donnellan, I said I
could give her some account of her, having been informed by you
that she was gone to town; she then asked when I heard from you,
and where you was, but carried her enquiry after you no further.
At Cookham I spent some hours with Mrs. Stanley, for Mr. Hooke
had gone out with Mrs. Edwin to make a visit to Dr. Freind....”
He further states that he found his mother well, and “very little
alter’d since I last saw her, excepting that she has grown a little
fatter, a circumstance to a woman of seventy is greatly preferable
to wrinkles. In my way thro’ Stowe Park I met Miss Banks riding
out with Lord Vere,[62] of her I enquired much about Mr. Pitt,
and received from her the same answer, which I must have made for
your enquiries after him, that they had heard nothing of him since
he left Stowe.... While he staid at Stowe he was in good health
and spirits, he went from thence to Hagley, and she believed he
intended to go from Hagley to Bath.”
[62] Baron Vere, of Hanworth.
On November 10 Mrs. Donnellan, to whom Mrs. Montagu had lent her house
in Hill Street, whilst she searched for lodgings in the suburbs, her
lungs not permitting her to live in the town during the winter, writes--
“I have taken a little house on tryal at Kensington Gravel Pits
... both Richardson’s house at Northend and Mrs. Granville’s at
Chelsey I think too low for me.... I want you to read ‘Sir Charles
Grandison,’ it is not formed on your plan of banishing delicacy.
I am afraid it carrys it too far on t’other side, and is too fine
spun, but there are fine things and fine characters in it, and I
don’t know how it is, but his tediousness gives one an eagerness to
go on; there is a love-sick madness that I think extremely fine and
touching, but if you have not read it I must not forestall. I think
I will own to you, the great fault of my friend’s writings, there
is too much of everything. I really laughed at your nursery of
‘Clarissas,’ but I hope you did not think of me as the old nurse,
there was nobody there while I stayed!”
[Page heading: “SIR CHARLES GRANDISON”]
Mr. Richardson had just completed his novel of Sir Charles Grandison.
The Clarissas is an allusion to Miss Botham and Miss Carter, then with
Mrs. Montagu.
This same month Mrs. Montagu was again very unwell. West urged her to
go to London, but Mr. Montagu, who loved the retirement at Sandleford,
was unwilling to leave it, and she says--
“Tho’ I am told I may go to town, I know it would not be agreeable
where I ought to please, and I can hardly think it right to be
in such haste to quit the place where I live most in the manner
I ought to do, where only I am useful. I relieve the distresses
and animate the industry of a few, and have given all my hours to
the two girls under my care, whose welfare, whose eternal welfare
perhaps, depends on what they shall now learn.”
Mr. Hooke and Mr. Botham were both at Sandleford. In Mr. Hooke’s
conversation Mrs. Montagu found much enjoyment; as West put it, “He
(Hooke) is a very worthy man, and has in him the greatest compass of
entertainments of any one I know, from nonsense (as Lord Bath calls
it), to sense, and beyond sense to Metaphysics.”
[Page heading: “THE TRIUMPHS OF THE GOUT”]
On December 20 Mrs. West writes to present her Christmas wishes,
and Mr. West’s, to the Montagus, as “Tubby” (Mr. West), as was his
uneuphonious family nickname, had the gout in both hands. Mrs. Montagu
writes to him--
“The 27th of December, 1753.
“And what, my dear Cousin, are both hands prisoners of the gout!
such innocent hands too! Hands that never open’d to receive or give
a bribe, that never dipped into the guilt of the South Sea fraud,
of Charitable Corporations, or pilfer’d lottery tickets, clean even
from perquisite in office, and the most modest means by which the
Miser’s palm wooes and sollicits gain. So far have your hands been
from grasping at other’s gold, they have not held fast your own
with a tenacious grip, but open’d liberally at the petitions of the
poor, for the productions of Art, or to feast your friends at the
genial board. Most of all do I resent the fate of the writing hand,
which was first dedicated to the Muses, then with maturer judgment
consecrated to the Nymphs of Solyma, and shall it be led captive
by the cruel gout? Why did you sing the triumphs[63] of the dire
goddess? Oh, why could you not describe them unfelt, as Poets often
do the softer pains and gentler woes of Venus and her Son?”
[63] West wrote a poem entitled “The Triumphs of the Gout.”
[Year: 1754]
[Page heading: SCHOOLGIRLS’ BILL]
The first amusing paper I have of 1754 is a school bill for the two
younger Miss Bothams, Molly and Kitty. I am sorry that several of the
items are torn away, but it is curious as to things then required, and
also for the extraordinarily bad spelling and wording of the preceptor
entrusted with their care. It is addressed to--
“The Revd. Docʳ Botham,
“These.”
“SIR,
“According to your desire by the honour of your Last, I send you
the Bill of the two Miss’s Botham, your daughters, to ye first of
this month, altho’ wee had spoak of it before the Holydays I had
quite forgot it, and was very easy on that account. I hope, Sir,
that you’r satisfied of us, if so I shall alwise thry, as well as
my wife, to do all wee can to improve your daughters in everything,
especially in their Morals and manners. I was very sorry of your
last indisposition, and hope you’r much better, it is the sincere
wish of
“Sir,
“Your most humble
and obedient Servant,
“E. SAGE ROBERTS.
“Kensington, the 20th January, 1754.
“P.S.--My wife with her compliments to you joyns with me in compts.
of the Saison, wishing you health, prosperity and all you can wish
yourself for many years.”
“_The two Miss’s Botham’s Bill._
£ _s._ _d._
“To Board from the 9th of August, 1753, to
the 1st January, 1754, at £25 per year,
maketh 19 16 0
To a Seat at Church 0 8 6
To copy Books, pens, pencils, Ink, paper, &c. 0 7 0
To the Dancing Master 4 10
To sundry things furnished, viz.--
To a chest of Draws 1 5 0
To silver spoons, knife and Fork. 1 1 0
To a tea chest 0 (torn off)
To a Spelling book, 1 Grammar 0 3 -
To two Hats and two Bonets 0 15 0
To three pair of Shoes 0 (torn)
To Gloves, 6 pairs 0 (torn)
To tea and suger 0 (torn)
To Thread, Tape and pins, needles, worsted,
laces, &c. 0 13 -
To Hair cutting, Pomatum Powder (torn)
To Pocket Money 0 10 9
To Pots and Mugs, &c. 0 1 6
To a percel recd. by the Coach 0 0 2
To Soap, Oatmeal for to wash, &c. 0 2 6
----------
Total 30 15 0”
[Page heading: MR. PELHAM’S DEATH]
In the beginning of March in this year Mr. Pelham, the Premier, died
suddenly, and there was a General Election. Mr. Pelham’s brother, the
Duke of Newcastle, was appointed first Lord of the Treasury; Mr. Legge,
Mr. Botham’s uncle, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Sir George Lyttelton,
Cofferer. Mr. Montagu proceeded to Hinchinbrooke early in April to
canvass, and his wife writes to him on the 11th--
“I hope you had a pleasant journey, and arrived without fatigue.
You are proceeding quietly and well at Huntingdon, while many are
hustling with infinite animosity in other Boroughs. The votes are
eleven hundred paid a piece at Bury as I am informed.... Morris is
very busy with the Canterbury Voters, he does not like them so well
as law Clients.”
Morris was canvassing for his elder brother Matthew, of Horton.
Mr. Montagu writes on April 16 to say, “Yesterday our Election came on,
and was, I believe, one of the most quiet and peaceable that ever was.”
[Page heading: AN ELECTION]
In her next letter to her husband she says--
“I have had a letter to-day from my brother Robinson, informing me
that he is chosen along with Creed; Mr. Best declined the Poll. My
brother has carried his Election without expence.... I cannot take
leave of you without expressing my pride and satisfaction in seeing
you again enter the House of Commons, where you have behaved with
such steadiness and integrity. I have a joy and pride whenever I
reflect on any part of your moral character. May your virtues meet
with the happiness they deserve!”
[Page heading: “TOM” LYTTELTON]
Bower writes to Mrs. Montagu on April 16 from Oakhampton, where he had
gone with Sir George Lyttelton for his election, in fervid Italian.
He was disgusted at the orgy of the election, and says that at the
election dinner given by the mayor and magistrates in their robes to
Sir George Lyttelton, they sat down at 3 o’clock p.m., and none rose
to leave till two in the morning! “e tutti, o quasi tutti partirono
cordialmente ubbriachi” (“and all, _nearly_ all, parted thoroughly
drunk”). He continues, “The cavaliers then went from house to house
to kiss the ladies, as was customary, and ask for the votes of their
husbands.” After fervid speeches made to the “celeste imagine della
Madonna del Monte e della Strada del Monte” (the celestial image of
the Madonna of the Mount and the Madonna of Hill Street), meaning Mrs.
Montagu, his pen is taken up by Lyttelton, who says, “The Italian
language affords such lofty expressions, as the poverty of ours will
not come up to, and therefore the Madonna must be content with my
telling her that the good Father with all his Devotion does not honour
her more than I do....” At the end of his letter he says, “I hear from
my wife that my Boy has been with you: a thousand thanks for your
goodness to him.” This is the first mention of Thomas, afterwards 2nd
Baron Lyttelton, then only ten years old. Lyttelton had early besought
the interest and influence of Mrs. Montagu for his son and daughter by
his first marriage. Both became truly attached to her, would that her
influence had prevailed on “Tom” later in life.
At this period Mrs. Donnellan was very ill, and Mrs. Montagu did
her best to nurse her. Lady Sandwich came to town to inoculate her
daughter, Lady Mary. Miss Mary Pitt had been to see Mrs. Montagu, and
“she assures me Mr. Pitt is in good health, but has had another attack
of gout in his hand, owing, ’tis imagined, to his being blooded for a
sore throat.”
Mr. Montagu at this period sustained the heavy loss of his faithful
agent, the second Mr. Carter, who died at Theakstone, and whose loss
necessitated his immediate journey to the north to attend to his own
and Mr. Rogers’ affairs, all of which had been confided to Mr. Carter’s
care. Taking Mr. Botham as his temporary secretary and companion, they
started off northward by post-chaises, a most expensive process, as Mr.
Montagu called it. On June 13 Mrs. Montagu writes--
“I am sorry Mrs. Carter (the grandmother), has set her heart so
much on having her granddaughter with her, she is of the proper age
to receive instruction and take impressions; a few years passed
innocently will not leave her as amiable a subject as she is now,
her mind will be less flexible.... Mr. Pitt drank tea with me this
afternoon; he has recovered his health entirely, if one may judge
by his looks. He tells me he has built a very good house at Bath
for £1200. He mention’d to me his intention of going on Saturday to
Wickham to propose the place at Chelsea to Mr. West, the offer will
certainly be an agreeable one.”
This place was that of the paymaster to Chelsea College. In the next
letter to Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Montagu says--
“The place is call’d a thousand pounds a year, it is in the gift
of Mr. Pitt, and was given with grace that few know how to put
into any action ... they have excellent lodgings annexed to the
place.... Mr. Pitt dined with them on Saturday; I imagine he was
very happy, but he so well deserved to be so. It is a fine thing to
act the part of Providence and bless the good. Miss Carter was sent
for by her old grandmother, last week she left me.”
Writing to her husband on June 15, Mrs. Montagu states she shall be
glad to hear as soon as Mr. Montagu thinks he will return, “that I may
disfurnish Hayes, which I shall quit as a man does a homely but a quiet
wife, with some little regret, but not much tender sorrow; it is not a
beautiful place, but it is quiet, and when one steps out of the bustle
of Town, appears on that account amiable.” She adds that her sister’s
health is greatly improved, and her temper less petulant, on account of
having taken to a milk and vegetable diet.
On July 9 Mrs. Montagu mentions--
“My brother Robinson came to town last night; he dined here to-day,
and we are all going to Vauxhall, where Mr. Tyers has had the ruins
of Palmyra painted in the manner of the scenes so as to deceive the
eye and appear buildings.”
Her sister Sarah and brother Charles were with her. She concludes with
an affectionate appeal to her husband not to apply himself too much to
business at Newcastle, but to take exercise for his health’s sake.
[Page heading: MR. WEST’S APPOINTMENT]
[Page heading: ELIZABETH CANNING]
In another letter undated, but about this period, as it mentions West’s
thanks to Mr. Montagu for his congratulations on his appointment to
Chelsea Hospital, allusion is made to Elizabeth Canning, whose curious
story of having been kidnapped[64] and ill-treated had convulsed
London opinion.
“The town is in great agitation about Elizabeth Canning; she is
condemn’d to Transportation, but her guilt is so far from appearing
certain, that the Sheriffs refuse to conduct her among the other
felons. All the Aldermen but Sir Crispe Gascoigne[65] petition in
her behalf, all the great officers of the State almost, interpose
for her, and the Archbishop of Canterbury also desires that she may
have a decent person of her own sex to attend her over, and then
to board in a private family. Some fear there will be a rising of
the Mob in her favour; in general all seem to agree that the matter
is entirely doubtful. As to Sir Crispe Gascoigne he dare not stir
without being guarded.... I wish the whole affair was brought to
light, there is great iniquity somewhere.”
[64] _Vide_ vol. ix., Smollett, “History of England,” p. 231.
[65] Then Lord Mayor of London.
On July 19, writing from Hayes, she says--
“Miss Mary Pitt, youngest sister of Mr. Pitt, is come to stay a few
days with me, she is a very sensible, modest, pretty sort of young
woman, and as Mr. Pitt seem’d to take every civility shown to her
as a favour, I thought this mark of respect to her one manner of
returning my obligations to him.”
Mr. Montagu and Mr. Botham proceeded to Newcastle to regulate Mr.
Rogers’ affairs, which, as before mentioned, required attention, owing
to the death of the head agent, Mr. Carter.
In consequence probably of worry, Mr. Montagu returned from the north
at the end of July with a fever, “which,” as his wife writes to Sarah,
“bleeding and wormwood draughts have taken off,” and as soon as he was
fit he was to go with her to Hayes to pack up her books. Miss Anstey
was staying with them, and was to accompany them to Sandleford. Mention
is made of a portrait of herself which Mrs. Montagu was going to send
Mrs. Scott: “Mr. Cambridge call’d on me the other day, he spoke much
in your praise. I told him I hoped he would call on you at Bath, he
promised he would.” This was Richard Owen Cambridge,[66] a friend of
Dr. Johnson, who wrote the “Scribbleriad.”
[66] Mr. Cambridge died in 1802.
Writing to West from Sandleford of her neighbours at Hayes, she regrets
the society of Mrs. Herring and the Archbishop,[67] and desires her
regards to them. He answers--
“I made your compliments to the Archbishop and Mrs. Herring, who
dined with us the very day I received your letter. He is very well
and as amiable and polite as ever. Dick[68] has been very dilligent
and very successful in partridge shooting, and t’other day sent the
prime fruits of his labours, a landrail, as a present to his Grace
of Canterbury.”
[67] Thomas Herring, born 1671, died 1757. Archbishop of Canterbury.
[68] Young West.
[Page heading: BRIGHTHELMSTONE]
At the beginning of September, through the influence of West, the
Bishop of London gave the living of Ealing to Mr. Botham. Botham was at
Brighthelmstone with his two boys for sea-bathing, as they were not in
health. The joy of Mrs. Montagu was great at this preferment, as the
bishop permitted Mr. Botham to continue to hold Albury as well, placing
a curate in the living he did not occupy.
[Page heading: “PRECIEUSES RIDICULES”]
Writing again to West, Mrs. Montagu says--
“Dr. Mangey kept a curate at Ealing as he did not reside there, but
undoubtedly Mr. Botham will discharge the duties of the living
he resides at without assistance; the Bishop of London required
Mr. Botham’s residence: as the girls and boys are growing up and
must soon live with him, they will be better placed at Ealing
in a good neighbourhood than at Albury. They will learn nothing
there but eating and drinking plentifully of Lord Aylesford, and
Mr. Godschall’s house is generally full of poetic Misses, who are
addressing each other by the names of Parthenia, Araminta, etc.,
with now and then a little epistle to Strephon or Damon. I was
uneasy whenever they were at home, for fear they should enter into
the _precieuse_ character of Mrs. Godschall.”
This style of conversation is taken off in Molière’s “Precieuses
Ridicules.”
West’s mother, Lady Langham was now paying her son a visit. Mrs.
Montagu writes--
“I think the vast territories of imagination could not afford any
view so pleasing as the meeting of such a son and such a mother;
the pictures not only pleased my mind, but warm’d my heart ... that
you may at Lady Langham’s age be as well able to take a journey,
and your son as well deserve, and as joyfully receive such a visit
is my sincerest and most earnest wish ... another pleasure attends
you all, and which your benevolence and not your pride will feel,
that of setting an example of those various charities, of parent,
child, husband and wife, which make the happiness of domestic life;
and there is surely more honour in filling well _the circle mark’d
of Heaven_ in these spheres of relation, than in running the wild
career of Ambition in its most shining track. Indeed there is no
part of a conduct that so certainly deserves our approbation as an
acquittance of family regards. Actions of a public nature often are
inspired by vanity, domestic behaviour has not popular applause
for its object, tho’ with the sober judgment, as Mr. Pope says of
silence, ‘_its very want of voice makes it a kind of fame_.’”
She then proceeds to thank West eloquently for Botham’s presentation to
_Kingston_ (this must be a mistake for Ealing), and ends with desiring
some paper hangings “she and Mrs. Isted had laboriously adorned” to be
taken down with care at her house at Hayes, but leaves the rest of the
hangings to the landlord. “I presume some retail grocer, haberdasher
of small wares, or perhaps a tallow chandler, will shortly be in
possession of my Castle at Hayes.”
[Page heading: MR. HATELEY]
At Sandleford were staying young Mr. Hateley, an artist, and Miss
Anstey. The latter being in treaty for a house in London, accepted Mr.
Montagu’s escort thither, and Mr. Hateley wishing to accompany them
a portion of the way, mounted a horse, which flung him at the first
start off and grievously cut and bruised him. The doctor was summoned
after the departure of Mr. Montagu and Miss Anstey, who “blooded him,
and he was ordered to take no food but balm tea lest he should have a
fever.... The Harvest Home Supper last night was very jolly, the guests
had as good appetite as those who meet to eat Turtle,” writes Mrs.
Montagu to her husband on September 23.
Miss Anstey, having lost her parents, and Trumpington having become
her brother’s property, had determined to live in London. She took
Mr. Montagu to help her in choosing a residence in Queen Street, a
new-built house for £800. Miss Anstey executed several commissions for
Mrs. Montagu, amongst which she mentions, “I have sent several prints
of Nun’s habits, some one of which I hope may become the beautiful
Eloise, and I shall very much rejoice to hear she has taken the Veil.”
Mention is made in a previous letter of Mrs. Montagu’s of Hateley
painting a picture of Eloise, but who sat for it I cannot say. Hateley
recovered from his accident. A new post-chaise had been ordered for
the Montagus, and Mr. Montagu found it “nothing showy or brilliant,”
but his wife assures him, “I shall find no fault with the plainness of
the post-chaise, neatness being all that is aimed at.”
[Page heading: LILLINGSTON DAYRELL]
West, writing on October 8 from Wickham, says--
“I have the honour to agree with my dearest and most excellent
cousin in looking upon writing letters as one of the evils of
Human Life, and for that reason I have always declined engaging
in a correspondence of that kind with anybody but her, tho’ I was
once invited to it by the great Mr. Pope.... I am now turning
my thoughts towards Chelsea, where I hope to be settled for the
whole winter by the beginning of next month. My Mother and Mrs.
Ives[69] go from hence to my brother’s[70] house in the country,
where they will remain a week or ten days, and from there return to
Lillingston.[71] Mr. and Mrs. Dayrell were prevented by the death
of two of his Aunts from making us a visit at Wickham, by which
accident and the absence of my sister Molly, my Mother lost the
opportunity of exhibiting the pleasing picture of a Hen gathering
with a careful and maternal tenderness all her chickens at once
under her wings, but she will have them by turns.”
[69] Mrs. Ives appears to be Lady Langham’s sister.
[70] Temple West.
[71] Lillingston Dayrell in Bucks.
From this it would appear that Mrs. Dayrell was a daughter of Lady
Langham’s. The Dayrells have owned Lillingston Dayrell for some eight
hundred years!
Mrs. Medows writes from Chute on October 16 to Mrs. Montagu--
“I am impatient to wait on you; all the horses and all the Maids
have been taken up with Wey Hill Fair,[72] now I hope to hire a
couple of cart-horses: I dare not venture with a common postboy and
horses, because the postboys are not used to a four-wheeled chaise,
nor the Road I must go.... I wish you joy of a pleasure for life at
least, the good you have done to Mr. Botham and his family.... I am
pleased you have hired the wood, now one may walk in the bowling
green without coveting what is your neighbour’s. I hope hiring is
a step to purchasing; laying field to field is a natural thought
and not a blameable one, when no injustice is meant. I have often
thought what a pretty place Sandleford would be if it was bounded
by the little river, Newbury Wash, and Greenham Heath.”
This wood was on the east side of Sandleford, and was eventually
purchased, and Sandleford at this moment is bounded exactly as Mrs.
Medows wished.
[72] On October 10 and five following days.
“A Buck, we are told, is come to Grateley, his name is Mitchell, he
has laid out a £1000 in furnishing it completely, altho’ he could
not be sure of having it more than a year. He intends to keep Stags
in the paddocks, and turn them out on the Downs, which will give
him fine chases. He says the Drawing room is a good drinking room.”
[Page heading: BATH EASTON]
Sarah Scott and Lady Bab Montagu had taken a house at Bath Easton for
use in the summer, and desiring plants for the garden there, Mrs.
Montagu sends on November 6 to them a vast number of pinks, roses and
honeysuckles, together with a home-cured ham. In the accompanying
letter she mentions Ealing being
“two hundred pounds a year, his house a very pretty one, a
good garden with a great deal of wall fruit, and there is a
neighbourhood of genteel people, who have all shown him great
civility.... Mr. Hateley is still with us, he has made a very
pretty Landskip (_sic_) with Eloisa, and her figure is pretty,
her face amiably triste. He has done my portrait so like, and got
a good likeness, and with a spirit in the countenance and attitude
that is very uncommon.”
[Page heading: “HISTORY OF BATH”]
To this Sarah writes on November 17, to thank her for the plants and
to say she and Lady Barbara had returned to Bath for the winter, Bath
Easton being too near the water for them. She says--
“Have I sent you word of a subscription making for Nash? I believe
it began since I wrote last. It is entitled a subscription for a
‘History of Bath and Tunbridge for these last 40 years,’ by Richard
Nashe, Esqre., with an Apology for the Author’s life. The whole
money, two guineas, is to be paid down at once, for he does not
pretend any book is to come out. Some have subscribed 10 guineas,
many five, and a great many hundred pounds are already subscribed.
It is to be kept open for life, and people give to him who will
not part with a guinea to relieve the greatest real and unmerited
distress imaginable. The pretence is that he has but little more
than £200 a year, which is not supposed true, but if it was, surely
it is full equal to his merits, whether one considers them as moral
or entertaining. To such ladies as have secret histories belonging
to them, he hints that he knows every one’s private life and shall
publish it. This place grows so full of subscriptions that no
person of moderate fortune will long be able to come to it. The
people of the rooms are endeavouring to obtain a subscription of
half a guinea each man, and a crown each woman for the season. As
yet it has not been complied with, but they require it with such
insolence, that I make no doubt it will be complied with. I shall
be glad to hear you are safely settled in Hill Street. I assure you
the picture[73] you were so good as to give me is a great ornament
to a pretty room, and people are so civil to me as to see the
likeness, which I take well of them; as it is placed near the fire
it may grow warmer, which is all that can improve it.”
[73] A portrait of Mr. Montagu.
“Beau” Nash had reigned a despotic Master of the Ceremonies over Bath
for fifty years, living in a most expensive style, mainly supported
by his success at the gaming tables. The Act of Parliament against
gambling put an end to his chief means of obtaining money. The
Corporation, however, settled a pension of 120 guineas on him for his
services. He was eighty-one years old at this period, having been born
in 1673. His rules for general behaviour and manners are most amusing,
but are too long to insert.
[Illustration:
_T. Rowlandson, pxt._]
THE KING’S BATH, AT BATH.]
[Page heading: MR. PITT’S ENGAGEMENT]
At this time Mr. Pitt became engaged to Lady Hester Grenville, daughter
of Mr. Richard Grenville and his wife, Lady Temple, and sister of
Viscount Cobham. She was a cousin of West’s and Sir George Lyttelton’s.
On November 5 Mrs. Montagu writes to West--
“MY DEAR COUSIN,
“Since the days that Cupid set Hercules to the distaff, he has
not had a nobler conquest than over the elevated soul of Mr.
Pitt. I congratulate you on the affinity, and I hope he will be
happy: his long acquaintance with the lady makes the hazard much
less than where people marry without knowing the disposition of
the person they choose. I believe Lady Hester Grenville is very
good-humoured, which is the principal article in the happiness of
the Marriage State. Beauty soon grows familiar to the lover, wit
may be pernicious, and many brilliant qualities troublesome; but a
companion of gentle disposition softens cares and lightens sorrows.
The sober matches made on reflection, are often happier than those
made by sudden and violent passion, and I hope this will prove of
this kind; and there is an authority in the character of Mr. Pitt,
that will secure him the deference and obedience of his wife;
proud of him abroad, she will be humble to him at home; and having
said so much, I consign them over to Hymen, who, I hope, will join
their hands in the most auspicious hour. I was prevented writing to
you by Sunday’s post, Dr. Pococke having stayed with us on Saturday
night, and the first Sunday of the month I always go to Newbury
Church;[74] the length of the service made me too late to write. I
am glad Mr. Cambridge has been with you at Wickham.... We were in
Wiltshire last week to visit Mrs. Medows.”
She ends with expressing a wish to exchange the country for London, but
is determined not to say a word to Mr. Montagu, whose health had been
recently restored by country air.
[74] St. Nicholas, Newbury. They generally attended Newtown church,
as it was nearer.
[Page heading: REV. W. WARBURTON]
[Page heading: THOMAS HEARNE]
In her next letter to West, of November 14, she says--
“As the Virtues and Graces as well as Cupid and Hymen will assist
at Mr. Pitt’s nuptials, I think he could not choose a better place
for their celebration than Wickham, their capital seat. I wish them
many happy years together, and God bless them with health and every
good.... I hope while you are at Croydon the good Archbishop will
animate you to defy that foul fiend my Lord Bolingbroke; I believe
I shall take some of Ward’s sneezing powder to clear my head of
the impieties and impurities of his book. I am not satisfied with
Mr. Warburton’s[75] answer, the levity shocks me, the indecency
displeases me, the _grossièreté_ disgusts me. I love to see the
doctrine of Christianity defended by the spirit of Christianity.
When absurdity is mix’d with impiety, it ceases to be a jest. I can
laugh at his Lordship’s cavils at Mr. Locke, his envy to Plato and
all the old Philosophers, but I could with great seriousness apply
to him the words of his friend and Poet to the Dunces--
“‘’Tis yours a Bacon and a Locke to blame,
A Newton’s genius or a Milton’s flame.
But oh! with one, immortal one dispense
The source of Newton’s light or Bacon’s sense.’
But I must do his Lordship the justice to say that what he wants in
faith he makes up in confidence, for after having assured you it
is absurd to affirm God is just or good, he declared he is willing
to trust the being whose attributes he cannot know, to dispose of
him in another world, not at all doubting that the Supreme Being
will be good to him, without goodness, and just to him without
justice! He laughs at the faith of Abraham, and I should do so
too, if Abraham had disputed God’s veracity, and then trusted to
His promises. I never read such a mass of inconsistencies and
contradictions, such a vain ostentation of learning, and if I
durst, I would say it, all that can show ‘the trifling head, or
the corrupted heart.’ I think I may venture to say trifling, for
whatever does not relate to the argument is so, and to teize the
gentle reader with all the miserable sophisms that perplex’d the
world 2000 years ago, is barbarous. I wanted to apply to him the
Epigram on Hearne[76] the antiquarian--
“‘Fye on thee! quoth Time to Thomas Hearne,
Whatever I forget, you learn....’
I thank his Lordship, though, for making me once more look into Mr.
Locke and Doctor Clarke,[77] in the veneration of whom I believe I
shall live and dye.”
[75] Rev. William Warburton, born 1698, died 1779. Chaplain to the
King; Bishop of Gloucester; author of various works.
[76] Thomas Hearne, born 1678, died 1735; antiquarian and author.
[77] Samuel Clarke, D.D., born 1675, died 1729; celebrated
theologian and natural philosopher.
[Page heading: MR. PITT’S MARRIAGE]
[Page heading: THE HONEYMOON]
The return letter from West is so interesting that I give it _in
extenso_--
“Croydon, November 18, 1754.
“MY DEAR COUSIN,
“Your admirable letter found me at the Archiepiscopal Palace at
Croydon, where Mrs. West, Dick and I had been ever since Wednesday;
and it was lucky that it found me there, as I had by that means
an opportunity of showing the Archbishop, whom you very properly
style good, your most ingenious and judicious Reflections of Lord
Bolingbroke’s pompous Rhetorical and inconsistent Declamations with
which his Grace (who, by the bye agrees entirely with you in the
censure you there pass’d upon Mr. W(arburton)’s way of answering
him,) was so pleas’d that he desired me to give him a copy of the
whole paragraph, promising that if he show’d it to anybody he
would, however, cautiously conceal the name of the author. After
this I need not tell you how much we both said in praise of you;
I shall only add that I, this morning, received his commands to
present his respects to you, and to tell you in his name that if
you allow’d yourself the liberty of saying fine things of him,
he would be even with you. These are his own words, grounded on
a piece of information I had given him of the great honour and
esteem you had for him. We quitted Wickham, as I told you, on
Wednesday last, that we might throw no obstacle in the way of that
amorous impatience which Mr. Pitt had in all his notes express’d
of bringing Lady Hester to our sweet and hospitable Habitation,
as he call’d it; but to our great surprise, and to the no small
mortification of Mrs. West in particular, who was afraid that all
the good things, with which she had fill’d her larder, would be
spoil’d by their delay--the happy Bridegroom and his Bride did not
arrive till Saturday, on which morning they were married[78] by Dr.
Ayscough[79] with the Archbishop’s License. They came down alone,
and have continued alone ever since, and, I imagine, will continue
during their stay at Wickham, in that Paradisaical Solitude, tho’
by the quantity of provisions which Mr. Campion[80] brought with
him, and more which he has since sent for from Croydon, we conclude
he expected some visitants from Town, as Lord Temple, etc.,[81]
but having heard of no such visitants being expected, I suppose
that all this profusion was owing to Mr. Campion’s solicitude to
testify in his own way his respects to his new Lady, and make his
compliments on this joyous occasion, in the polite, that is, in the
French Phraseology: this is all the intelligence I can at present
give you of this important affair, for we have had no communication
by messages, either to or from Mr. Pitt, whom we were unwilling to
disturb, or interrupt the free course of those pleasures, which
for a time at least, possess the whole mind, and are most relished
when most private; for this reason I cannot yet acquaint you when
we shall leave Wickham, but I believe it will be about the middle
of this week, and I suppose we shall not be able to go to Chelsea
before the latter end of the next, or the beginning of the week
after, and by that time I am still in hopes you will come to Hill
Street, and by giving me the pleasure of seeing you there in good
health, compleat the happy change which you observe is already
begun in the once gloomy month of November. I do often, my dear
Cousin, look back with pleasure and thankfulness on many incidents
of my past Life, and compare them with my present situation, so
much changed for the better in a thousand instances, such as
Health, fortune and Friendship, among which there is none that has
given me more happiness than yours, and which therefore I hope
will continue, till it is lost where only it can be lost, in the
brighter and warmer radiance of an unchangeable and everlasting
Society, where I hope to have it continued to me through all
eternity. I am going to take the air with the good and amiable
Archbishop, and therefore must conclude.
“Adieu, my dear, dear Cousin, and assure yourself that all that
period I shall continue
“Ever most affectionately Yours, etc.,
“GIL. WEST.
“Mrs. West and Mrs. Herring desire their compliments to Mrs.
Montagu and Miss Anstey.”
[78] Married November 16, 1754, by special license, in Argyll
Street.
[79] Rev. Francis Ayscough, D.D., married Anne Lyttelton, Sir
George’s sister.
[80] The chef.
[81] Richard, Earl Temple, brother of Lady Hester.
[Illustration:
_W. Hoare R A Pinx._ _Emery Walker Ph. Sc._
_Philip, 4th Earl of Chesterfield._]
[Page heading: “GOSSIP” JOAN]
I give a portion of the reply to the foregoing letter--
“Hill Street, November 23, 1754.
“MY DEAREST COUSIN,
“From country Joan I am, according to my ambitious views, turned
into ‘Gossip’ Joan, and by no supernatural metamorphosing power,
but merely by the help of so ordinary a vehicle as a post-chaise,
which wrought this happy change between the hours of 7 in the
morning and 5 in the afternoon; the subject, no doubt was well
prepared that would so easily receive the alteration. In my town
character I made 15 visits last night: I should not so suddenly
have assumed my great Hoop if I had not desired to pay the earliest
respect to Lady Hester Pitt. I came to town on Wednesday night,
and was too weary to write to you. I proposed doing it on Thursday
evening, but my brother Robinson hinder’d me by making a long
visit. Yesterday morning was divided amongst Milliners, Mantua
makers, Mercers and such as deal in the small wares of vanity.”
[Page heading: MR. HOOKE]
The year ends with a letter from Mr. Nathaniel Hooke--
“Cookham, December 22, 1754.
“MADAM,
“If it were not for a certain text of Scripture, I should be very
impatient for the time to come when I must be in London for some
days. The idea of Hill Street and what is to be seen and heard
there, is very lively and pressing. But alas! What says St. John
the Divine? _Little children keep yourselves from Idols._ If you
can satisfy my conscience in this point I shall be much obliged
to you, and I beg you will study it thoroughly, and let me have
your Resolution by a line, directed to be left at Mr. Watson’s in
Cavendish Street. ’Tis uncertain just now _when_ I shall move, but
I think it will be some time this week. Till then I am not your
religious worshipper, but Madam,
“Your most obliged and most obedient
and most humble Servant,
“N. HOOKE.
“Give me leave to add best compliments to Mr. Montagu.”