1761--DEATH OF ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN--CORRESPONDENCE WITH LORD
BATH--CORONATION OF GEORGE III.--IN LONDON, AT SANDLEFORD, AND AT
TUNBRIDGE WELLS.
[Year: 1761]
Matthew Robinson, Mrs. Montagu’s eldest brother, who had been member
for the borough of Canterbury, did not propose to offer himself for
re-election to the new parliament, but presented the Canterbury
address to the new king at Court. He was clad in such a peculiar and
uncourtierlike garb that his sister writes to her husband at Newcastle--
“I am glad he is gone into the country, but he has made a most
astonishing appearance at court with the Canterbury address. Morris
says he hears of nothing else. I wish the Beefeaters had not let
him pass the door. Lord Harry Beauclerc on the buzz his appearance
occasioned, desired the people to be quiet, for that he had never
seen the gentleman so well dressed before.”
[Page heading: ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN ILL]
Mr. Montagu, having attended the Durham election in favour of Sir
Thomas Clavering, was preparing to go to Huntingdon for his own
re-election. In Mrs. Montagu’s next letter she says--
“I told you in my last that Admiral Boscawen was ill of a fever,
I hope he is out of danger. The noble admiral does not fight so
well with a fever as he does with the French; he will not lye in
bed, where he would soonest subdue it. Poor Mrs. Boscawen is very
anxious and unhappy about the Admiral, and indeed the loss to her
and her children would be as great as possible.”
In this letter she remarks upon having heard from Mrs. William
Robinson, her sister-in-law, from Lisbon dated November 12: “they
are all well, and going on to Madrid.” “They” were the Rev. William
Robinson, his wife, and her brother, Mr. Richardson, who, being in bad
health, was ordered abroad, and was going to Italy. On December 20,
Admiral Boscawen is reported as out of danger, but on the 27th Mrs.
Montagu writes--
“His fever still hangs upon him, his strength is quite subdued; any
sudden attack, any degree more of fever, and my dear Friend loses a
good husband, her children a fond father, their situation in life
will suffer a grievous alteration, and the publick will be deprived
of a man who serves it with zeal and ability and is always more
tender of the honour of his country than of his own person.”
The admiral had a relapse, and Mrs. Montagu, with her husband’s
permission, flew to see her friend, but, to avoid alarming the admiral,
slept at Mr. Botham’s at Albury. She, however, returned to London, as
the admiral could not bear his wife out of his sight, and begrudged any
friend taking her away from him for an instant. In this same letter she
mentions that old Mr. Wortley Montagu was very ill.
Dr. Monsey, who himself was very unwell, wrote on January 9 to tell
Mrs. Montagu he was sure the admiral would not recover; he begs her to
remember it is God’s will, and “to try and guard Mrs. Boscawen’s mind
and let money and the world be thrown into the Coal Hole.”
[Page heading: DEATH OF ADMIRAL BOSCAWEN]
The admiral expired on January 10 at 7 a.m. He died of a putrid fever,
and before death sent for his sister, Mrs. Frederick, to desire her
to take his wife and children to London the moment he was dead. Mrs.
Montagu went at once to her friend to endeavour to comfort her. Mr.
Montagu, with his characteristic kindness, begged Mrs. Boscawen to go
to Hill Street, but she remained at the Admiralty. Mrs. Montagu writes
of her on January 17--
“I thank God her mind is very calm and settled, she endeavours all
she can to bring herself to submit to this dire misfortune; I know
time must be her best comforter, so that I oppose her lamentations
rarely and gently, but when they continue long, set before her the
merit of her five children, the want they will have of her, and the
comfort she may derive from them.... Mr. Boscawen has left all his
fortune, except a purchase he made in Cornwall, to Mrs. Boscawen at
her entire disposition, the land in Cornwall he has left her only
for life, and then to his eldest son. This estate cost but £10,000,
and so is a small part of his fortune, so that the children are
entirely dependent on her. I hear old Mr. Wortley can last but a
very short time. It is supposed Lady Mary will come to England.”
[Page heading: DEATH OF OLD MR. WORTLEY MONTAGU]
Writing to her husband, still at Newcastle, at the end of January, Mrs.
Montagu says--
“I believe it will be agreeable to you to hear that Lord Sandwich
called on me this morning to desire me to write you word that
he hopes that the second week in February you will be ready for
Huntingdon; his Lordship says he will give you only two days’
trouble, one to canvass, another to be elected.... Mr. Wortley
Montagu dyed last night, the disposition of his effects not known
as yet, by next post you shall hear.”
In her next letter she says--
“I have had a full account of Mr. Wortley’s will, it runs
thus:--‘To his son £1000 per annum rentcharge,’ with an order it
should not be liable to his debts, which by-the-bye is nonsense.
The Leicestershire estate, we know to our sorrow is his. If the
present wife[313] dyes and he has legitimate issue, that issue is
to have the Wortley estate. In case he has not such issue, then
the whole of his personal and real estate is to go to Lady Bute’s
second son, he taking the noble name of Wortley. Two thousand
pounds apiece indeed to each of Lady Bute’s younger children! The
old gentleman’s wealth is reckoned immense.”
[313] Caroline Feroe, _née_ Dormer.
In another letter his estate is stated to be £800,000 in money, and
£17,000 per annum in land, mines, etc.!
Mr. Montagu writes in reply to this--
“I am extremely sorry that Mr. Wortley has made such a will as you
mention. I think he has been unworthy of being a Father. I cannot
pretend to say but his son gave him too good reason to take care
he should not waste and consume his estate, it was mine and the
opinion of others that, as the phrase is, he would have tyed him
up, but if he had done it in the literal sense he would have been
less cruel to him; this poor man was not without very good parts,
he was greatly altered; if he had done kindly by him, it was not
impossible that he might have been reclaimed and have yet made
some figure in life. What is now to become of him I don’t know.
I suppose he is not to come into Parliament again, and if so I
cannot see what he can do but leave his native country, and live in
perpetual banishment abroad. I cannot but greatly commiserate this
poor man, and reflect with horror on his cruel unrelenting parent.”
On February 15 Mr. Montagu writes from Hinchingbrooke, as he spells it--
“MY DEAREST,
“We got here on Friday night. Our canvassing the town is put off
to Tuesday. Lord Hinching[314] is here, who is much grown and
every way improved. My Lord has made considerable alterations
to the house, and by the addition of two or three rooms is very
convenient, and he says without much expense.... Calling at Barnet
j heard poor Wortley’s stock upon his farme was the day before sold
by auction, and fetched a thousand pounds, which j fear will be
devour’d by the creditors.”
[314] Viscount Hinchinbrook, afterwards 5th Earl of Sandwich; born
1742–3, died 1814.
[Page heading: “MONTAGU MINERVA!”]
Soon after this Mr. Montagu joined his wife in Hill Street. A folio
letter from James Stuart[315] (Athenian Stuart) ends the month of
February. In it he represents himself as an English horse--a hunter
dragging Greek treasures to Mrs. Montagu, whom he addresses in verse
as--
“Fairest and best! hail Montagu Minerva!
Smile on my labours. Say that my rich freightage
Amply deserved the Price and Pains it cost.
So that the Muses thy companions dear,
The Graces and the Virtues all approve
My bold Emprise:
And end at once and recompense my toil.”
[315] James Stuart, born 1713, died 1788; author of “Antiquities of
Athens.”
[Page heading: VOLTAIRE’S TANCRED]
Lord Bath writes March 4, 1761--
“MADAM,
“I am sorry that I cannot wait on you this evening, being
engaged to go to Lady Strafford’s,[316] and afterwards to Lady
Darlington’s[317] to play at cards; but on Saturday I will have
the honour to call on you and stay the evening with you, if you
are not otherwise engaged, and your feverish disorder will allow
you to come down stairs. I have sent for your amusement Voltaire’s
Tancred, which has many fine lines in it, but the speeches are too
long, as they generally are in French Plays. When I have the honour
of waiting on you I will bring with me Emin’s letter.
“I am, Madᵐᵉ,
“Yours most truly,
“B.”
[316] Lady Strafford, Anne, second daughter of the 2nd Duke of
Argyll.
[317] Lady Darlington was a cousin of Lord Bath’s; her mother was a
Pulteney.
[Page heading: MACPHERSON’S “FINGAL”]
To this Mrs. Montagu replies--
“MY LORD,
“I return the Tragedy with many thanks. The character your Lordship
gave of it kept up my hopes and my spirits through the long tedious
speeches with which it opens, and upon the whole it appears to
me to be one of the best of Voltaire’s Tragedies, as it is, what
few of his are, interesting. Pompous declamation season’d with
Moral reflections is surely far from the perfection of dramatick
writing, tho’ in a nation too much polish’d and refin’d, it is
prefer’d to the natural sallies of passion in our Shakespear,
as fops love essences better than the flowers from whence they
are extracted. I find in this Tragedy many petty larcenies from
Corneille. The character of Aménaide is in part an imitation of the
Sister of Horatius, but the Roman name supports the _fierté_ of her
character, born in any other city I should call her a termagant,
there I consider her as a She Roman, the female of the Lion. The
fair Amenaide is too much an _esprit fort_ in regard to her duties
to please me. She does not follow Virtue as by law establish’d, but
despises forms and follows sentiment, a dangerous guide. Design’d
by Nature to act but a second part, it is a woman’s duty to obey
rules, she is not to make or redress them. I must confess that
Aménaide is noble and heroick, and a proper mistress for a Knight
Errant, whose motto is ‘l’amour et l’honneur.’ I have seen many
poems form’d on the manners of Chivalry, but I never saw them
before in Drama. They admit of the bombast in honour and love,
which the French and Spanish Theater affect, and will furnish those
brilliant sentiments they so much admire, but which indeed come
better from any Muse but the pathetick Melpomène.
“I shall be very glad of the honour of your Lordship’s company on
Saturday evening. I was to have gone to the play that night, but
if my fever should have left me by that time, I have a cough which
would be louder than Mrs. Prichard.[318] I have taken the liberty
to enclose Mr. Macpherson’s proposals, and if your Lordship designs
to subscribe to the work, and have not already done so, I should
be very glad to have the honour of your name on my list. I have
read the first canto,[319] which far exceeded my expectation. The
various incidents recited take off that sameness of character which
appeared in the detached pieces, and which were their greatest
fault. The original Ersh is to be seen at Mr. Millar’s. I have also
enclosed a letter from Edinburgh which gives an account of these
poems. By this long letter I have taken some revenge upon your
Lordship for not coming here last night, and now I am in perfect
charity, mix’d with some compassion for the trouble I have given
you.
“My Lord,
“Your Lordship’s
Most obliged and obedient Hᵇˡᵉ Serᵛᵗ,
“E.M.”
[318] Celebrated actress.
[319] This must be “Fingal.”
[Page heading: LORD BATH’S LETTER TO MRS. CARTER]
At this period Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Carter went to stay with Lord Bath
at Ives Place.[320] Dr. Monsey was to have accompanied them, but he was
suffering with acute pain in his back, for which Dr. Gataker gave him a
plaister, which he said would pull his head to his back.
[320] His country house near Maidenhead.
Lord Bath writes to Mrs. Montagu the following:--
“MADAM,
“I am going to entrust you with a most prodigious secret; and in
order to engage you the better to keep it, must desire you to be a
joynt agent with me in conducting it, and carrying it on, and yet
it is not every woman neither that can keep that very important
_secret of joynt agency_, but you, I am very sure, will be true to
me when I tell you what it is. You must know, Madam, that I have
a great desire of making a small present to Mrs. Carter, to make
her fine, when she comes to Tunbridge, and I must beg of you to
take the trouble of buying the silk or Damask, or what you please,
and in order to engage her to have no difficulty or scruples in
accepting it, I will send with it the following letter:--
“‘_To Mrs. Carter._
“‘MADAM,
“‘I have sent you a trifling present which I desire you will
accept, and that you may have no difficulty in doing it I will tell
you the plain truth. The first thing is this--I have found in my
Library some books, which tho’ they may be very good ones, can be
of no use to me, as they are in Greek,[321] and possibly they may
be of service to you. The next thing is that I have two pounds of
very bad tea, which I cannot so much as take myself, nor offer to
anybody else, unless it be to you: the last thing is this: I found
in the drawer of an old India Cabinet a piece of silk with this
wrote in a paper upon it: _Enough for a Mantua and petty coat._
Now, Madam, as I neither wear a mantua nor pettycoats, I do not
know what to do with it, unless you will accept of it, which you
may very readily do, since you may perceive that it lays you under
no manner of obligation to your, etc.
“‘BATH.’
“But after all I have said, if you think, Madam, giving you the
two enclosed Bank bills of 20 pounds each to send privately to her
without letting her know or guess from whom they come, may be of
more real use and service to her, you may do it as you think fit,
and I can venture to say of the Bank Bills just what I have done of
the Greek books, that they are of little use to me, and possibly
may be of great service to her, and more in that I hope than any
other.
“I am, Madam,
“Your most obedient and very
humble servant,
“BATH.
“Piccadilly, April 2, 1761.
“P.S.--I am afraid you will be puzzled at first to know what all
this nonsensical stuff can mean, but you may remember that when you
were at Ives Place, I mentioned something of this kind to you.”
[321] This is an affectation, as he constantly uses Greek phrases in
Greek character in his later letters.
[Page heading: GOING TO WELLWYN]
Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Carter proposed a visit to Dr. Young at Welwyn,
and on April 9 he writes as follows--
“DEAR MADAM,
“Your letter, etc., lay me under great obligations, but the
greatest lies in the kind promise you make me that I shall kiss
the hands of two fair Pilgrims at Wellwyn. I hope they are too
much Protestants to think there is anything sacred in the shrine
you speak of. I have too many sins beside, to pretend that I am a
Saint. Was I a Saint and could work miracles I would reduce you
two ladys to the common level of your sex being jealous for the
credit of my own; which has hitherto presum’d to boast an usurp’d
superiority in the realms of genius and the letter’d world. For
you, Madam, I shall say nothing, for who can say enough? Miss
Carter has my high esteem for showing us in so masterly a manner
that Christianity has a foil in one of the brightest jewels of
Pagan Wisdom, a jewel which you will allow she has set in gold.
Might not such an honour from a fair hand, make even an Epictetus
proud without being blamed for it? Nor let Miss Carter’s amiable
modesty become blameable, by taking offence at the truth, but stand
the shock of applause, which she has brought upon herself; for tho’
it pains her, it does credit to the publick, and she should support
it patiently, as her Stoical Hero did his broken leg. I rejoice
that you are recovered; I too, Madam, have been very ill of late,
and stand in no small need of a cordial: hasten therefore your
favour, which the sooner it is, will be the kinder to, dear Madam,
“Your most obedient
and obliged, humble servant,
“E. YOUNG.”
On April 28 Lord Bath writes to Mrs. Montagu--
“MADAM,
“I would sooner have answer’d your letter, and sent you back the
enclosed Dialogue, but that I went out to take the air in my
chaize. You may depend upon my secrecy, but should it ever be
published, it will be known to be yours, because nobody can write
like it. I will endeavour to wait on you when you return from Dr.
Young’s, unless I go to Ives Place for a day or two.
“I am, with the greatest regard and truth,
“Your most humble and obedient servant,
“BATH.”
[Page heading: ANOTHER DIALOGUE OF THE DEAD]
[Page heading: BERENICE _V._ CLEOPATRA]
[Page heading: THE “WORLD WELL LOST!”]
This is the dialogue which I believe has not yet been published:--
“BERENICE AND CLEOPATRA.”
_Berenice._ The similitudes and dissimilitudes of our fortune
have long made me wish to converse with you, if the charming, the
victorious Cleopatra by her lover prefer’d to glory, to empire, to
life, will deign to hold converse with the forsaken, the abandon’d,
the discarded Berenice.
_Cleopatra._ The scorns of Octavius, the bite of the aspic, the
waters of Lethe have so subdued my female vanity, that I will own
to you I greatly suspect my greater success with my lover did not
arise so much from my charms as in my skill of management of them.
_Berenice._ I can scarce understand you. Beauty and love I thought
to be the greatest attractions. In the first you must have excell’d
me, but in the second you certainly could not: I had beauty, youth,
regal dignity, and an elevated mind. I was distinguished by many
qualities and accomplishments which were so dedicated to my Lover,
that of all I had been and all I could be, I was, I would be, only
_l’amante_ of Titus. I thought the next person in merit and dignity
to Titus himself was the woman who ador’d him, and I was more proud
of the homage I paid him, than of all I had receiv’d from lovers
or subjects. But you, Cleopatra, had loved Cesar before Anthony,
and other passions besides the gentle one of love seemed still
to have your heart. Yet for you Anthony despised the dangers of
war, the competition of a rival in Empire, the motives of military
glory, and the resentment of a Senate and people not yet taught
to submit to or flatter the passions of a master. Over these you
triumph’d; but I was sacrificed to the low murmurs of the people,
and the cautious counsels of gray-headed Statesmen. Was it that
Minerva desired to triumph over Venus in the noblest and gentlest
heart that ever was contain’d in the breast of mortal? Tell me,
Cleopatra, for 1700 years have not made me forget my love and my
grief?
_Cleopatra._ I have often with attention listen’d to your story;
and your looks, on which still remain the sadness of a lover’s
farewell, move my compassion. I wish I could have assisted you with
my counsels when Titus was meditating your departure. I would have
taught you those arts by which I enslaved the Soul of Anthony, and
brought Ambition and the Roman Eagles to lye at my feet.
_Berenice._ Your arts would have been of little service to me, I
had no occasion to counterfeit love. From Titus’s perfection one
learn’d to love in reality beyond whatever fiction pretended; no
feigned complaisance could imitate my sympathy; if he sigh’d I
wept, if he was grave I grew melancholy, if he sicken’d I dyed. My
heart echoed his praises, it beat for his glory, it rejoiced in his
fortunes, it trembled at his dangers.
_Cleopatra._ Indeed, Berenice, you talk more like a Shepherdess
than a great Queen. You might perhaps in the simplicity of pastoral
life have engaged some humble Swain, but there was too much of
nature and too little of art in your conduct, to captivate a
man used to flattery, to pleasures, to variety. I find you was
but the mirror of Titus, you gave him back his own image, while
I presented every hour a new Cleopatra to Anthony. I was gay,
voluptuous, haughty, gracious, fond and indifferent by turns; if
he frown’d on me, I smiled on Dollabella; if he grew thoughtful, I
turn’d the Banquet to a Riot. I dash’d the soberness of counsels
by the vivacity of mirth, and gilded over his disgrace by show
and magnificence; if his reason began to return, I subdued it by
fondness, or disturb’d it by jealousy. Thus did I preserve my
conquest, establish my fame, and put Anthony first in the list of
“all the mighty names by love undone.”
Had I only wept when honour and Octavia call’d him home I might
have been the burthen of a love ballad, or subject of a tender
Elegy, who now am the glory of our sex, and the great instance of
beauty’s power. Do not you wish you had used the same managements?
_Berenice._ I might have used them had I loved the same man:
Cleopatra, the coquette was a proper mistress for the Reveller
Anthony; but the god-like Titus, the delight as well as Master of
Mankind, left no part of the heart unengaged and at liberty to
dissemble. What had not yielded to his wisdom, submitted to his
witt, was subdued by his magnanimity, or won by his gentleness;
when affection does not vary, behaviour cannot change; and methinks
Anthony should have quitted you from distrust of your love, and
Titus have retain’d me from confidence in mine. After what you have
told me, I am more than ever surprised at your fate and my own.
_Cleopatra._ If you want this explain’d ask Eneas, Theseus, Jason,
and the infinite multitude of faithless lovers, but if my authority
will pass, believe me Anthony was preserved by his doubt of my
love, and Titus was lost by his confidence in yours. Do not look so
concern’d. From the era of your disaster to this very day you will
find every faithful and fond Berenice discarded, while the gay,
vain, and capricious fair one is to her Anthony a Cleopatra and the
“world well lost.”
From the following letter of Dr. Young’s to Mrs. Montagu it would
appear that she had sent this dialogue for him to read.
“DEAR MADAM,
“I hope you will allow that a curiosity is better than a good
thing. I send you a paper which may be called a curiosity, as it is
printed, but not for the publick, only for your ease in perusing it.
“I much thank you for the bright specimen of genius you was so kind
as to send me. I admire it as much as you. I hope you are recover’d
of the Indysposition you mention’d in your Last, and that you, the
cloud remov’d, will continue to shine on,
“Dear Madam,
“Your most obedient
and Humble Servᵗ,
“E. YOUNG.”
“May 26, 1761.”
[Page heading: LIKENESS TO FREDERICK THE GREAT]
Emin, from “Standgate Creek, on board of the ship _Northumberland_,”
writes on May 5 to Mrs. Montagu, addressing her thus--
“To the wisdom of Europe, sister to the great King of Prussia,
excellent Mrs. Montagu.”
Not only did he think Mrs. Montagu equal in cleverness to Frederick the
Great, but he considered her forehead and eyes like his, to the great
indignation of Lord Bath and Dr. Monsey, who pronounced it impossible
she should resemble so bloodthirsty a character.
Mrs. Carter took leave of Mrs. Montagu on May 18, and that very evening
Mrs. Montagu writes to her--
“You left London only this morning, and I am writing to you
to-night; does it not seem unreasonable? I hope not, as you must
know there are habits which it is hard to break, and alas! I was
in the habit of conversing with you every day. I feel like a
traveller, who by the chearfull light of the Sun has pleasantly
pursued his day’s journey, but seeing it below the horizon, enjoys
and would fain prolong the twilight, which tho’ it has not the
warmth and lustre of the noon-day, yet is a kind interposition
between it and the gloom of the night.”
She dates her letter from Ealing, where she had gone to the Botham’s
for the night, “imagining I should hear your tones better from the
nightingale than in the din and chatter of London.” So much did Mrs.
Carter value Mrs. Montagu’s letters that she always noted the day and
year of their reception of them, which is a great help to an editor in
compiling, as many of Mrs. Montagu’s letters are undated. In the end of
this letter she mentions that she is returning to London next day to
spend the evening with Mrs. Boscawen, who was to leave the Admiralty
that day for her new house.
“She will be too apt to reflect on the change of her condition upon
such an occasion, and the less time she has to dwell on the subject
the better. Alas, how few people are there so happily situated that
they can intrepidly look on their condition! Mr. Melmoth[322] made
me a visit this evening. I exhorted him to give his leisure hours
to the publick, and hope he will do it, as his health is now much
improved.”
[322] William Melmoth, born 1710, died 1799. English scholar;
translated the “Letters of Pliny,” etc., etc.
[Page heading: LORD BATH’S HOUSE IN PICCADILLY]
A most curious anonymous letter to Lord Bath concerning his house in
Piccadilly, dated June 5, 1761, is next in order. The handwriting is
large and bold.
“MY LORD,
“A zeal for the glory of the Nation and of the town, also of your
Lordship, induces me to recommend to you to modernize your house
in Piccadilly, at least externally, by facing it with stone or
Stucco, as brick has an ignoble appearance, and is considered by
foreigners only fit for a _Maison bourgeoise_; a Portico with a
_Rampe_,[323] as at the Hotels of Prince Eugene and Swartzenburg
at Vienna, unites Conveniency, Elegance, and Grandeur, as chairs
and coaches can go up the _Rampe_ and under the Portico, whereas
a _Perron_[324] or open steps are always inconvenient, and often
dangerous in snowy, wet, and frosty weather. I hope that your
Lordship will give a Proof and monument of your Taste, Spirit,
and Generosity in architecture, contributing thereby to the
embellishment of the Metropolis. A House of Distinction sho’d be
always _insulated_ without any Building contiguous thereto, which
insulation has many advantages.
“I have the Honour to be, with Respect,
“ETC.
“June 5, 1761.”
[323] Means a rising gradient.
[324] A flight of steps.
[Page heading: THE BRITISH MUSEUM]
The British Museum, containing the library and collection of Sir Hans
Sloane, the Cottonian and Harleian MSS., etc., had been established in
Montagu House, bought of the Earl of Halifax, and opened in 1759. The
following letter from Mr. Charles Morton, the curator, will show the
conditions under which the Museum was then shown. The Earl of Halifax,
who had owned Montagu House, was a cousin of Mr. Montagu’s.
“_To Mrs. Montagu._
“MADAM,
“I am extremely sorry not to have received the Honour of your
Message before eleven o’clock last night, being detained abroad by
Business till that Time. I flatter myself, however, that the affair
you mention will not have suffered by my absence; for on fridays
and mondays the Museum is open in the afternoon only, at the Hours
of four and six, calculated to accommodate for a few months persons
of a different class, and on Saturdays the Museum is shut up. I
have therefore secured places for Mrs. Montagu and her company for
Tuesday sennight, at one o’clock, and promise myself the Pleasure
to send the Tickets on Wednesday next, unless the Time I have
engaged should be inconvenient to you; in which latter case, I beg
the Honour of a note to-morrow some time before noon.
“Madam, I remain, with great respect,
“Your most obedient
and most humble Servant,
“CHAS. MORTON.
“Montagu House, June 7, 1761.”
[Page heading: A COUNTRY GENTLEWOMAN]
[Page heading: GESNER’S “MORT D’ABEL”]
From Sandleford, on June 23, Mrs. Montagu writes to Mrs. Carter--
“DEAR MADAM,
“I told you in my last that I was going to take a flight into
Berkshire; and here I have been ever since Friday evening,
leading a Pastoral life in the finest weather I ever saw. Tho’
the most sage Horace says we change our climate without changing
our disposition, I must be of another opinion, for by only the
difference of latitude and longitude between Hill Street and
Sandleford I am become one of the most reasonable, quiet, good,
kind of country gentlewoman that ever was. In the days when misses
employ’d their crimping and wimpling irons upon cheese-cakes and
tarts, not on flounces and furbelows, and matrons used no rouge,
but a little cochineal to give a fine colour to a dried neat’s-foot
tongue, they could not be further from the temper and qualities and
conditions of a fine lady than your humble servant at this present
writing. My health is much improved by the country air; I saunter
all day, and when Phœbus sets in the material world, he rises in
the Intellectual; then I sit down to read what he has inspired,
and I find the amusements of the day here prepare me well for my
evening’s lecture....
“The mention of poetry puts me in mind to tell you I am very well
satisfied with the share of praise you give to Cowley.[325] He had
a rich vein of thought, but being too ostentatious of it, we are
disgusted at the proud display of his treasures, as at the pomp
of a rich man, when it goes beyond the bounds modesty and a sound
judgment should set to it. I agree with you that his love verses
are insufferable. I think you and I who have never been in love,
could describe it better were we ask’d, _what is it like?_ I think
some of his verses, like Anacreon, very pretty, and the verses by
the god of love in honour of Anacreon are very pretty tho’ a little
too long. I think you was too temperate in your commendation of ‘La
Mort D’Abel.’[326] I was infinitely delighted with it as a work
of genius. On your recommendation I lent it to my Lord Lyttelton,
who sent it back with great approbation. But to be sincere in
spite of you both, some silly prejudices against the Author and
the language the poem was originally written in, a little damped
my expectations, and the beginning, in which he imitates Milton,
with all the faintness of reflected beams, make me advance very
soberly. But what a feast is the Patriarchal dinner! How sweetly
innocent their manners! Eve’s horror at the first storm, her
surprize at Adam’s fastening up the mouth of the cave, concern
at the first sight of death, which is finely supposed to seize a
dove, because in that animal only could the grief of a surviving
friend be shown, with ten thousand other circumstances in hers and
Adam’s narration, all so natural and yet so new that I must call
Mr. Gesner a Poet. A Poet should create, but he should not make
monsters. I think our Author has not the sublime, but his genius
suits his subject. What a noble piety! what a purity of heart in
Abel! and how finely is his character contrasted with Cain’s.
Abel’s are virtues of disposition and temper in a great degree,
and so are Cain’s vices, which rightly imagined in a state of life
where example and discipline could not have so much influence as
in a larger society and more mix’d life. Milton’s and Mr. Gesner’s
pastoral scenes are so ennobled and refined by Religion, that the
Shepherds and Shepherdesses who worship the wanton Pan and drunken
Silenus, make a mean figure when compared to them. I agree with
you in liking Mr. Gesner’s Pastorals extreamly, but let him still
keep to the more than golden age of the Poets. I would fain propose
to him to take the story of Joseph next. He has a fine genius for
Drama! The last three books of Abel make a noble tragedy. Did you
not drop a tear at the lamentation of Cain’s children over Abel’s
body? _Il ne se reveillera plus! Il ne se reveillera plus!_ How
simple! how natural! how affecting! What a witchcraft is there in
words! repeat, _il est mort_, it is nothing, but the simplicity
of children who had not a name for death and the words at once
signifying the circumstance is very touching.... I have taken a
house at Tunbridge from the 3rd of July. I hope my dear friend will
be ready to come to me. I shall send the post-chaize to you as soon
as I am at Tunbridge.
“I am, my dear Madam,
“With most sincere and tender affection,
“Yours,
“E. MONTAGU.”
[325] Abraham Cowley, born 1618, died 1667; poet.
[326] By Salomon Gesner, born 1730, died 1788. “Tod Abels.”
[Page heading: GOING TO TUNBRIDGE]
[Page heading: CHARACTER OF LORD BATH]
Writing from Sandleford on June 26 to Mrs. Scott, Mrs. Montagu mentions
that she is going to Tunbridge
“for 6 or 7 weeks perhaps, and the rest of the summer I shall pass
at Sandleford, except my excursion to Bath Easton. Mrs. Carter is
to come to Tunbridge to me as soon as I get thither, and, I hope,
stay with me the whole season. I was so fortunate as to enjoy her
company much longer in town this year than usual, but that only
makes me wish the more to have her again. She was not in the house
with me in town, preferring the quiet of a lodging to herself, and
indeed it would not be any delight to Mr. Montagu to have her in
the house; tho’ he says she would be a good sort of woman _if she
was not so pious_.[327] My Lord Bath told me he was to go to Bath
on Wednesday, the day we dined with him....
“I shall have Mrs. Boscawen for my neighbour at Tunbridge; she is
to be at Sir Sydney Smythe’s, only three miles from the Wells.
Lady Frances Williams is in the deepest affliction for Lady
Coningsbye.[328] To show the last respect to her, Lady Frances
staid in the house with the dead body in spite of all her friends
could do; she did not leave Lady Coningsbye’s house till last
Saturday; she has been so singularly unfortunate that, had she
not the strongest piety and the strongest reason to support her,
she must sink under the repeated strokes of affliction.... I
suppose you have read Dr. Hawkesworth’s[329] ‘Oriental Tales,’ it
is not written with so much spirit as the Oriental tales in ‘the
Adventurer’ which were by him, but there are some fine things in
it.... I have heard my Lord Bath speak with great regard for you
and Lady Bab Montagu. I believe we shall call on him on Monday,
on our way to London. We were asked to dine or lye there in our
journey down, and at our return. He has recovered his health and
spirits and is the most delightfull companion imaginable. I think
he has great good qualities, and I do not perceive the least of
that covetousness which was attributed to him while his wife lived;
he lives nobly, entertains generously, and I know many acts of
generosity he has done, and I have known them from the report and
acknowledgements of the persons obliged, for by his behaviour to
such of them as I have seen at his house you would think he had
received favours from them, which nobly enhances the benefit. He
seems to have the strongest sense of Religion, and on all occasions
to show it without the ostentation of one who wants to be praised
for piety, nor does he ever in the gayest of his conversation
forget the respect due to every moral duty. It would give one
pain to discover any faults in one who has such extraordinary
perfections and endowments, and I think his Lordship has outlived
the errors which the hustling of a mighty Spirit may in youth
have led him: as to his consort, she was, in Milton’s phrase, _a
cleaving mischief in his way to virtue_.
“I am glad Lord Bath is to be at Tunbridge. Mrs. Carter is a great
favourite, and I hope we shall have a good deal of his company.”
She winds up her letter with high commendation of Gesner’s “Death of
Abel” mentioned before.
[327] Mr. Montagu, though a most moral man and a Church attendant,
objected to religious conversation.
[328] Her sister.
[329] John Hawkesworth, LL D., essayist and novelist, died 1773.
[Page heading: BLIND MAN’S BUFF]
Dr. Young now writes--
“DEAR MADAM,
“You and I are playing blind man’s buff; we both fancy we are
catching something, and we are both mistaken. You say you have sent
me two somethings, and I have not received so much as one, and you
expected one from me, which is not yet come to your hand, which
will kiss your hand this week, and if you are at the trouble of
reading it over you will find a sufficient excuse for my delay. By
what you say in your kind letter, you give me a very keen appetite
for both the books which you promise. I have heard nothing yet of
the time of my going to Kew: when I am there I shall make it my
endeavour to enjoy as much of you as I can. I have been in very
great pain with my rheumatism for some time, but now, I bless God,
I hope the worst is over. May health and peace keep company with
that benevolence and genius which are already with you.
“I am, dear Madam,
“Your much obliged
and most obedient humble Servt.,
“E. YOUNG.
“Mrs. Hallows[330] sends her best respects.
“Wellwyn, the 2nd July, ’61.”
[330] Mrs. Hallows was Dr. Young’s lady housekeeper.
Dr. Young’s allusion to Kew was the fact that he had recently been
appointed Clerk of the Closet to the Princess Dowager of Wales.
[Page heading: THE FUTURE QUEEN]
On July 7 Mrs. Montagu started for Tunbridge Wells, and on the
following Monday sent her post-chaise to fetch Mrs. Carter, and Lord
Bath arrived from London on the same day. Mr. Montagu, who was going to
Sandleford for a while, mentions in a letter of July 11 to his wife that
“there was a great appearance of the privy council when the King
declar’d his intention of demanding the Princess of Mecklenburgh
in marriage, a request that can never be denied. The family is
ancient, and the blood high, but I suppose the Dukedom not very
rich, but this may be helped with subsidies, etc., but this is
not much to be grudged if by making our young Monarch happy it
contributes to that of the Nation, tho’ Princes are under a
disadvantage from which their subjects are free, of marrying those
whom they have never seen or convers’d with, still I hope there is
reason to be believed that this alliance, as it was of the young
Monarch’s choosing and not of the imposing of a Father, and as
money, etc., is out of the case, that care has been taken by those
employ’d to give a true information both of the perfections of the
mind and body of this Princess, and he will be happy.”
Mr. Montagu adds that the pictures at Newbold Verdon were to be sold
for Mr. Edward Wortley-Montagu’s debts, but that a list of them had
been sent to him by Mr. E. Wortley-Montagu, who desired to know which
he would accept of as a present. Mr. Montagu had marked his brother’s
portrait (Mr. James Montagu), and asks his wife to say if there were
any she wished for. Very probably the picture by Sir Peter Lely of the
first Earl of Sandwich, Mr. Montagu’s grandfather, which I possess,
came from there.
Lord Bath conveyed Mrs. Montagu and Mrs. Carter “to Mr.
Pratt’s[331] place, call’d Bayham Abbey, which I believe you once
saw with Mr. Pitt. The ruins of the Abbey are very noble. Tho’ the
Gothick buildings have not in their time of utmost perfection the
beauty of the Græcian; time seems to have a greater triumph in
the destruction of strength than of grace.... I have just now the
pleasure of hearing Pondicherry[332] is taken. I hope this will
depress the spirits of the French.... Lord Bath and Lord Lyttelton
and Mrs. Carter and Doctor Smythe and many others desire their
compliments.”
[331] Afterwards Lord Camden.
[332] Pondicherry in the East Indies was taken on January 15, 1761.
On July 20 Dr. Stillingfleet writes from Stanlake, Berks, the seat of
his friend, Richard Neville Aldworth, expressing his regret that he
cannot accept Mrs. Montagu’s kind invitation to Tunbridge Wells, as
his friend, Mr. Aldworth, had made him promise to spend a summer with
him at Stanlake. “This friend has had his constitution broken so by
the gout, that he is become a valetudinarian, and therefore I can the
less think of leaving him. He is ordered by his Physician to drink the
Sunning Hill Waters, and we are going there as soon as he is able.” Mr.
Aldworth was an ancestor of Lord Braybrooke’s.
[Page heading: MR. RICHARDSON’S DEATH]
Mr. Richardson, the author of “Clarissa Harlowe,” etc., died on July
4, to the great grief of Dr. Young, who was a bosom friend of his.
Mrs. Montagu bade Dr. Young come to Tunbridge to cheer his spirits. He
writes--
“DEAR MADAM,
“On your very kind invitation I have inquired if it is in my
power to accept of it, but I am not yet satisfied in that point.
Probabilities will not excuse me if her R. H. should go to Kew. I
should be very happy to be with you. I have so much to say to you
that at present I shall say nothing. You will hear further of me
in a little while. I beg my humble service to Mrs. Carter. May the
Waters continue to be as serviceable to you as I would be if it was
in my power.
“I am, dear Madam,
“Your obliged
and most obedient humble Servt.,
“E. YOUNG.
“July 21, 1761.”
[Page heading: “COOLING STANZAS!”]
On July 30 Dr. Young writes that he is obliged to refuse Mrs. Montagu’s
kind invitation “as he had a friend with him he could not leave,”
and as “her Royal Highness sent me word she would send for me when
she wanted me; for these reasons I deny myself the great pleasure of
waiting on you. I have ordered some Stanzas to be sent to you; they are
of a cooling nature, and may qualify your waters.”
In this year (1761) a complete collection of the doctor’s works was
printed.
[Page heading: UPON THE FUTURE QUEEN]
On the 8th of July George III. had announced his intention of
demanding in marriage the Princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz;
negotiations were immediately commenced. Mrs. Montagu writes from
Tunbridge Wells to her husband thus--
“We are all disappointed here at hearing our new Queen is fair; the
first report was that by a lively bloom she would cast a shade
over the white complexions of our royal family. The sight of our
brilliant Court, the salutations of our navy on her arrival, the
opulent appearance of our towns, and the greatness of our capital
city will astonish her. I hope her mind is more proportioned
to her lot in marriage than such a situation is to her present
circumstances. A noble mind will fill a great situation, and enjoy
it with pleasure and gratitude, without the swellings of insolence,
but such a change is dangerous where there is a mediocrity of sense
and virtue. I heartily wish she may be worthy of our young King,
be pleasing in the domestick scene, and great in the publick; his
good nature will impart to her a share of power and a degree of
confidence, and I wish for the publick she may never abuse the
one, nor misapply the other. There seems not to be a very good
choice of ladies about her, there is not one who is quite fit to
teach her even the forms of her publick conduct, none at all equal
to advise her private, ignorant as she must be of the behaviour
that will be expected of her, she should have had some woman of
quality of remarkable discretion, character, and politeness, whom
high birth and great situation had approached as nearly as a
subject can to the station of a Queen. Lady Bute would have been
the properest person, but I suppose she might out of delicacy
avoid putting herself about the Queen’s person, as thinking it
might look like watching her, and indeed so happy as Lady Bute
is in her circumstances, the slavery of personal attendance is
more than anything but great ambition could pay her for. I think,
however, they have chosen the ladies[333] of the bedchamber; her
Majesty must consult Lady Bute upon everything.... Lord Bath always
inquires after you and sends his compliments. Lord Lyttelton is
gone on a party of pleasure with Mr. Selwyn.[334] This place is
pretty full of I know not who. Sir Edward Dering and his family
and the Lambarts breakfasted at Tunbridge, and go back again.
“I am, my Dearest,
“With the greatest gratitude
and affection, your most faithful wife,
“E. M.”
[333] The Duchess of Ancaster and Duchess of Hamilton were sent to
escort Queen Charlotte to England.
[334] George Selwyn, celebrated wit; born 1719, died 1791.
[Page heading: A LETTER OF ADVICE]
[Page heading: LES BELLES LETTRES]
[Page heading: THE FEAR OF GOD]
Mrs. Montagu’s letter of advice to Mr. Thomas Lyttelton, who had now
left Eton and gone to Christ Church, Oxford, though undated, may be
placed here.
“Tunbridge, 28 (July?).
“DEAR SIR,
“I have often check’d my inclination to write to you while you were
at Eton for fear of calling you off from your school exercises;
but as you are now in a situation, where there is a vacancy of
business and pleasure, I do not feel the same scruples, may write
you long letters, and expect full answers to them. However, I will
be so far reasonable, that if you send me a card, to signify that
you are engaged for the week, or month, to Cicero or Livy, it will
be a more valid excuse to me than if, on inviting you to dinner,
you told me you were engaged to a beauty or a Duchess. My love
for you, my hope of you, my wishes for you, and my expectations
from you, unite in giving me a respect for your time, and a deep
concern for your employment of it. The morning of life, like the
morning of the day, should be dedicated to business. On the proper
use of that ‘sweet hour of prime’ will depend the glory of your
noon of life, and serenity of the evening. Give it, therefore, dear
Mr. Lyttelton, to the strenuous exertion and labour of the mind,
before the indolence of the meridian hour, or the unabated fervour
of the exhausted day renders you unfit for severe application.
I hope you will not (like many young men who have been reckoned
good scholars at Eton and Westminster) take leave of it there,
and fall into the study of _les belles lettres_, as we call our
modern books. I suppose from the same courtesy the weakest part
of the rational species is styled the fair sex, though it can
boast of few perfect beauties, and perhaps the utmost grace and
dignity of the human form is never found in it. As you have got a
key to the sacred shades of Parnassus, do not lose your time in
sauntering in the homely orchards or diminutive pleasure gardens
of the latter times. If the ancient inhabitants of Parnassus were
to look down from their immortal bowers on our labyrinths, whose
greatest boast is a fanciful intricacy, our narrow paths where
genius cannot take his bounding steps, and all the pert ornaments
in our parterres of wit, they would call them the modern’s folly;
a name the wise farmer often gives to some spot from whence the
Squire has banished the golden harvest, to trim it up for pleasure
with paltry ornaments and quaint conceits. I should be sorry to see
you quit Thucydides for Voltaire, Livy for Vertot, Xenophon for the
bragging Memoirs of French Marshals, and the universal Tully and
deep Tacitus for speculative politicians, modern orators, and the
dreamers in Universities or convents. I will own that in Natural
Philosophy and some of the lesser branches of learning the Moderns
excel; but it would not be right for a person of your situation
to strike into any private paths of Science. The study of History
will best fit you for active life. From history you will acquire a
knowledge of mankind, and a true judgment in politics; in moral, as
well as physical enquiries, we should have recourse to experiments.
As to the particular study of eloquence, I need hardly exhort you
to do it; for eloquence is not only the most beautiful of all the
daughters of wisdom, but has also the best dowry; and we may say
of her, as Solomon did of her Mother, riches and honours are in
her right hand. Elevation of sentiment and dignity of language
are necessary to make an orator; modern life and modern language
will hardly inspire you with either. I look upon Virtue as the
muse of Eloquence, she inspired the phillippics of the Grecian
and Roman Orator, her voice awakened Rome, slumbering in the
snares of Catiline. Public spirit will teach the art of public
speaking better than the rules of rhetoric, but above all things,
the character of the orator gives persuasion, grace, and dignity
to the Oration. Integrity of Manners gives the best testimony of
sincerity of speech. If you form your conduct upon the sacred
book which gives rules far more perfect than human wisdom could
contrive, you will be an honour to religion, a support to your
country, and a blessing to your family. It may seem strange that
I have last mentioned what should be first regarded. The Bible
alone will make a good man; human learning without the fear of God,
which is the beginning of Wisdom and the knowledge of Him, which is
understanding, will produce but a poor inconsistent character; but
duties are enlarged and multiplied by the power and circumstances
with which God has intrusted us, and in which He has placed us.
Your talents and situation will fit you for public trusts; it is a
duty in you to qualify yourself for them, to give your virtue every
strength, and then to employ it in the service of your country in
its most important interests, true religion, and good government.
I hope you will excuse my having said so much, that has the air
of advice to one who wants it so little, but young people are apt
to be prodigal of time because they think they have so many years
before them; but if life be long, the season for improvement is
short.
“I hope Mrs. Fortescue[335] liked the Indian paper; it is new
and uncommon, and I thought much prettier than any I could get
at a moderate price. I beg my respects to her and my dear Miss
Lyttelton.[336] I hear there will be a turnpike road between Oxford
and Newbury, and I hope you will frequently make use of it. I shall
leave Tunbridge on Monday. I have enjoyed perfect health here, and
the society of some of my best friends, so you may believe I have
passed the season very happily, but a happy life seems always a
short one. Mrs. Carter was so good as to give me her company in
my house. My Lord Lyttelton and my Lord Bath were often with us;
having had their characters continually before me, you will not
wonder I should think great acquirements as well as great talents
necessary to make all possible perfection. I am sure you will be
pleased to hear that my Lord Bath greatly approves and admires that
part of my Lord Lyttelton’s history which is already printed. I
believe there is not any one living whose approbation would give
Lord Lyttelton so much pleasure; talents and virtues and extensive
knowledge all in the highest degree join to make him a perfect
judge, and his great reputation gives him a decisive authority;
your Father is proud of his praise as a critick, and pleased with
it on motives of friendship, which touch his heart more nearly than
any where vanity has a part, tho’ he is an author and a poet. His
Lordship’s Muse met him in the shades of Penshurst, and with love
or flattery prompted two charming pieces, one to Mrs. Carter, and
one to my Lord Bath. Mrs. Carter, Dr. Monsey and Mr. Montagu desire
their compliments to you.
“I am, dear Sir,
“Your most sincere and affectionate friend
and obedient humble Servant,
“E. MONTAGU.”
[335] Mr. Lyttelton’s grandmother.
[336] His sister.
[Page heading: A BLOOM-COLOURED COAT]
Dr. Monsey, who had recovered from a severe illness, had joined the
party at Tunbridge, and had appeared in a new bloom-coloured coat, to
the amusement of the Montagu circle, who chaffed him upon it.
On August 22 Mr. Charles Morton wrote to Mrs. Montagu the following:--
“MADAM,
“As I conceive the following article which I have just received in
a letter from Paris, to relate to the Countess of Pomfret,[337]
I thought it might be agreeable to you to acquaint Her Ladyship
therewith.
“‘Monsʳ Bejot, who, since the death of the Abbé Sallier, has care
of the manuscripts in the King’s Library, is a most worthy and
obliging gentleman; he has promised me to have copies drawn of the
curious Cuts in the beautiful Manuscript of Froissard’s Chronicle,
for an English lady, a great friend to Oxford.’ This letter is
dated Paris, August 1st; the writer is the Butler who travels with
Mr. Howard, nephew to the Duke of Norfolk. I am much obliged to you
for the Highland Poems; and have the honour to remain, Madam,
“Your most obliged and most humble servant,
“CHARLES MORTON.
“Museum, August 22, 1761.”
[337] Lady Pomfret, widow of the 1st Earl Pomfret, had in 1755
presented the University of Oxford with a portion of the Arundel
marbles which had been purchased by her husband’s father. She was
the daughter of the second and last Baron Jeffreys, of Wem. She had
been Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Caroline.
[Illustration: DR. EDWARD YOUNG.]
[Page heading: DR. YOUNG]
Mrs. Montagu quitted Tunbridge Wells on August 30. On September 2 she
wrote to Mrs. Carter--
“I found on my table a poem on ‘Resignation’[338] by Dr. Young;
he sent me a copy for you which I will send by the Deal coach....
You will be pleased I think with what he says of Voltaire, you
know we exhorted him to attack a character whose authority is so
pernicious. In vain do Moralists attack the shadowy forms of Vice
while the living Temples of it are revered and admired.”
[338] “Resignation” was written with a view of consolation for Mrs.
Boscawen on her husband’s death.
Dr. Young writes on September 2--
“Dear MADAM,
“I was in too much haste and ordered a thing to be sent to you
(which I suppose you have received) before I had read it myself. On
reading it, I find my distance from the Press has occasioned many
errors; so that in some parts I have had the impudence to present
you with perfect nonsense.
“Page 18, Stanza 2nd, should be thus (viz.)--
“‘Earth, a cast Mistress _then_ disgusts, etc.’
“Page 34: It should be thus (viz.)--
“‘Receive the triple prize, etc.’
“Pray pardon this trouble from, dear Madam,
“Your much obliged and most obedient
“H. Servant,
“E. YOUNG.
“P.S.--I know not how to direct the enclosed, excuse my insolence
in desiring you to do it for me.”
[Page heading: LORD BATH’S PORTRAIT]
[Illustration:
_Sir J. Reynolds P.R.A. Pinx._ _Emery Walker Ph.Sc._
_William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath_]
Lord Bath was having his picture (now in the National Portrait Gallery)
painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds for Mrs. Montagu. He left London for
Ives Place, and writes--
“I shall be in town again in a few days, but not till after the
Queen’s arrival, for I have had the opportunity of making my
excuses, in the proper place, for not attending the marriage
ceremony. You will judge of the likeness of the Picture best, when
I am not present, if it could speak, it would tell you, what I can
scarce venture to do. How much I love and am, etc.”
[Page heading: THE CORONATION]
Mrs. Montagu went to London for the coronation, which took place
September 22, leaving Mr. Montagu at Sandleford. She writes to him--
“I have not got any cold or mischief from the coronation, at half
an hour after four I got into the coach, went by Fulham to Lambeth,
from whence I crossed the water in a boat which landed me at the
cofferer’s office, where I was to see the Show. I had a perfect
view of the procession to and from Westminster to the Abbey, and
I must say it rather exceeded my expectation. The ladies made a
glorious appearance; whenever there was any beauty of countenance
or shape or air they were all heightened by the dress. Lady Talbot
was a fine figure. The Queen, being very little, did not appear to
advantage. The King had all the impressions of decent satisfaction
and good-natured joy in his face; looked about him with great
complacency, and tried to make himself as visible as he could to
the mob, but the canopy carried over his Majesty’s head and the
persons who carried his train made him not so conspicuous. His
behaviour at the Abbey pleased much. It was perfectly dark before
the Procession returned from the Abbey, so we lost the second view.
I got into a barge which I hired for 7_s._ 6_d._, and got to the
coach which waited at Yorke buildings. Mr. Botham and his daughters
are just gone. Lord Lyttelton was near fainting away just as the
procession set out from the Hall, and was obliged to sit down
and take drops till a chair could be got to carry him home. Lady
Albemarle fainted presently after. Lord Grantham was ill, but able
to go thro’ the ceremony.
“The early hour the Peers and Peeresses are forced to rise at and
the weight of their robes and all the whole affair is fatiguing,
but they make a good figure, for there is something very majestick
in the dress.
“I believe my Lord Bath will come down to us about Wednesday or
perhaps Tuesday. I shall be at Sandleford on Monday.”
[Page heading: HIS MAJESTY’S BEHAVIOUR]
In another letter describing the coronation to Mrs. Carter, Mrs.
Montagu says--
“It is impossible to say enough of the behaviour of the King.
During the procession his countenance expressed a benevolent joy
in the vast concourse of people and their loud acclamations, but
with not the least air of pride or insolent exultation. In the
religious offices his Majesty behaved with the greatest reverence
and deepest attention; he pronounced with earnest solemnity his
engagements to his people, and when he was to receive the Sacrament
he pulled off his crown. How happy that in the day of the greatest
worldly pomp and adorned with the ensigns of regal power he should
remember his duty to the King of Kings. The Archbishop pleased
much in the Coronation Service. I am indeed grieved at the heart
for Mrs. Chapone:[339] all calamities are light in comparison of
the loss of what one loves, uniquement; after that dear object
is lost the glories of the golden day are for ever overcast, and
there is no tranquillity under the silent moon, the soft and quiet
pleasures are over, business may employ and diversions amuse the
mind, but the _soul’s calm sunshine and the heartfelt joy_ can
never be regained. Mrs. Chapone has great virtues, and if she has
the Martyr’s sufferings will have the martyr’s reward.”
[339] _Née_ Hester Mulso, a friend of Mr. S. Richardson’s, and
authoress of “Letters on the Improvement of the Mind”; born 1727,
died 1801.
[Page heading: LADY POMFRET]
The following letter is from Lady Pomfret:--
“Richmond Hill, October 4, 1761.
“DEAR MADAM,
“The reason you give for my being deprived of the pleasure of a
visit from you before you left London doubles the mortification.
I was in hope Tunbridge had established your Health. The return
of my fever (which has left me but a few daies) was the cause
that I made no attempt to wait on you, the week you stayed after
the Coronation, and when I did found you had been gone the day
before; but soon after, Froissart and your letter informed me that
your goodness to me subsisted, in all the bustle of magnificence
and oppression of sickness, since you found time to read my old
Chronicle with my Lord Lyttelton, to whom, and to you, I know not
how to express my gratitude enough, but I really feel a great deal.
“Your criticism delights me, as it was always my opinion that such
words as you mention ought to be changed for more intelligible
ones, and that it might be done, with propriety, without altering
the idiom, but I was so charged not to deviate from the old
language that, till I had such authorities as you and my Lord
Lyttelton, I did not dare to follow my own judgment, but shall now
with alacrity go about it, being very happy in your approbation
of the rest of the book, which I hope will be finish’d before the
meeting of the Parliament, and that I shall have the assistance of
such friends for the perfecting of it. Your partiality to me, dear
Madam, is very flattering; but let Mrs. Montagu know that if I ever
was or am proud of my discerning faculty ’tis because I see her in
her true light; of brightness with modesty, Reason without Vanity,
and a thorough knowledge of this and the next world as far as is
permitted to mortals; this I might have heard, but I glory that I
see it. I need not add what must be the consequence; that
“I am, Madam,
“Your sincere admirer: and
“Most faithful Humᵉ servᵗ,
“J. POMFRET.
“Lady Sophia Carteret and Mrs. Shelley beg
your acceptance of their best respects.”
Lady Pomfret died on December 16, 1761, at Marlborough, Wilts.
[Page heading: LORD LYTTELTON’S LETTER]
On October 5 Lord Lyttelton writes to Mrs. Montagu from Hagley a long
letter, an extract of which I give--
“Tom proposes to give a ball to some young people of the
neighbourhood on this day sennight, which will add to our number
and our jollity. He desires me to tell you that if you were within
twenty miles of our Ball-room he would invite you to it among the
handsome _young_ women; which you may notify to the cynic Monsey,
when he talks to you next of the _horrid gulph of forty_, and bid
him hold his fool’s tongue. I believe you fib about your age and
make yourself at least ten years older than you are, to be nearer
to Lord Bath. I hope you have been, and are still as happy with
him at Sandleford as your heart can desire. You will not think it
a compliment to either of you when I say, that I would be glad
to exchange all the mirth of our ball for the dullest of your
evenings; but I will add in great truth, that I would give up the
finest day in Hagley Park for a rainy one in your company. I had
a letter last post from the Dean,[340] in which he says, ‘Your
Lordship must not be surprised if you hear in a post or two of Mr.
Secretary Pitt’s and Lord Temple’s being out of their employments.
Unless something extraordinary happens, this event will certainly
take place in a few days. I have this intelligence not from common
report, but from the best authority. The reason given for their
resignation is the opposition made in the Cabinet to Mr. Pitt’s
proposal of sending a fleet immediately to intercept the Spanish
Flota daily expected home, and likewise to attack their men-of-war
wherever they are to be found, but your Lordship knows there are
other causes of discontent.’ If this should be true, I imagine Lord
Egremont[341] will be Secretary of State and Lord Hardwick[342]
Privy Seal. Mr. James Grenville will probably lay down with his
brother, which will make a vacancy at the Cofferer’s Office, one
of the few I might take if there was an inclination to bring me
into employment. I wish much to know Lord Bath’s opinion of Pitt’s
advice. To me it seems to be that of a man who (in a political
sense) _fears neither God nor man_. It certainly must be founded
upon a supposition that a war with Spain is inevitable, which I
should hope is not true; and even in that case I think England
ought to be very cautious not to appear the aggressor, which this
conduct would make her. But I had rather hear his Lordship’s
judgment upon this question than give my own.”
[340] Charles Lyttelton, Dean of Carlisle.
[341] Charles, 2nd Earl of Egremont, born 1710, died 1763.
[342] Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwick, born 1690, died 1764.
[Page heading: LORD BATH’S JOURNEY]
[Page heading: THE POSITION OF MINISTERS]
Lord Bath had left Sandleford before this letter arrived there.
On October 8 he writes--
“I can never sufficiently, Madam, acknowledge my great obligations
to you and to Mr. Montagu for the honours I received at Sandleford.
Six more agreeable days I never passed in my whole Life, but when
one has been excessively happy we always pay most severely for the
change, when forced to quit it. This made the Doctor’s[343] journey
and mine most excessively stupid and melancholy. He was seized with
such a soporifick Torpor (as if a deluge of rain was hanging in
the clouds), and yet we had not a drop the whole way, and I was so
wretchedly miserable, that all I could say to him was, ‘Doctor, I
passed over this same ground yesterday from coming from Padworth
much more cheerfully and happily than I do now, but one comfort
is that we are allowed the liberty of hoping for a renewal of the
same happiness some other time.’ When we got to Reading, where we
stopped for 10 or 12 minutes (without getting out of our chaize),
our landlady seeing we looked melancholy, endeavoured to comfort
us by telling us a piece of good news, that an express was just
arrived with an account of a complete victory obtained by the King
of Prussia over the Russians. On this we speculated and ruminated
for some time, when we met Mr. Cambridge, who assured us it was all
a lye, but that another event had occurred which would surprize us
extremely, and then told us Mr. Pitt[344] had quitted the seals;
this astonished the Doctor more than it did me, who had received
some hint of it before, but we both agreed it was a very unlucky
time for adventuring on such rough measures, so near the Meeting
of Parliament, and before anything was fixed for the obtaining of
peace, or preparing for a further prosecution of the War; in short,
we ended in wishing all Ministers at the Devil, rather than that
their disagreements and dissentions amongst one another should
bring any difficulties or dishonour on the best man in the world,
the master of all of them.... I will make this reflection upon all
human happiness, that the state and duration of it is extremely
uncertain. A minister may be a very great and think himself a very
happy man one day, and nothing at all the very next. Just so was
I, Madam, happy beyond measure a few days ago, and now forced at a
terrible distance to be assuring you that I am, with all possible
respect,
“Your Ladyship’s most humble
and most obedient Servant,
“BATH.”
[343] Dr. Monsey.
[344] Mr. Pitt resigned the Seals on October 5, 1761.
Lord Lyttelton writes on October 14 to Mrs. Montagu--
“Since my last, Mr. Pitt has brought his bark into a happy port. A
Barony for his wife and a pension of £3000 a year for three lives
are agreeable circumstances in a retreat, which delivers him from
the difficulty of carrying on the War, or making the Peace, and
keeps all his laurels green and unfading on his brow. No Minister
in this country has ever known so well the times and seasons of
going in and coming out with advantage to himself. I hope there
will be new gold boxes sent to him by the cities and Boroughs to
express their sense of his noble and _disinterested_ conduct, and
to assure him that their lives and fortunes are all at his service.
In effect, I hear that all over this country since first we had the
news of his resigning the Seals, the cry of the people in Taverns
and Alehouses is, ‘No Pitt, no King.’ However, I imagine that as
he has condescended to accept of this mark of royal favour, he will
be so good as to allow the King to remain on the throne.”
[Page heading: AN ACT OF HUMILITY]
On the same day as this last letter Dr. Monsey writes from St. James’s
to Mrs. Montagu. This paragraph is interesting--
“But here’s a Rout about giving a patriot 3_s._ 6_d._ for his past
services either for speaking to the purpose, or holding his tongue
for a very good one. Why, he might have been Governor-General of
all North America with a pension of £5000. This was confidently
said at the ‘Mount’ Coffee House as offered by the King, and was
told by Manby as coming from P----, _no joke indeed_, no more than
he has advertised seven good horses, ‘_late Mr. Pitt’s_,’ to be
sold. There’s an act of humility for you.”
Miss Mary Pitt, Mr. Pitt’s sister, writes to Mrs. Montagu--
“DEAR MADAM,
“Tho’ I suppose you know all that has happened since last Monday,
I cannot forbear talking to you upon what the King has been so
very gracious as to do for my family, in granting a pension of
three thousand pounds a year to Mr. Pitt for three lives, and as he
knows that he feels a repugnancy to having his name upon the Irish
pensions, his is upon the American Duties, and the Peerage which
his Majesty has also done him the honour to bestow upon his family
is given to Lady Hester,[345] who is made Baroness of Chatham,
by which means he is left still at liberty to be an Alderman; as
to all the rest, which you may know, I will do _comme si vous ne
saviez pas_. My Lord Egremont received the Seals of Secretary of
State yesterday, my Lord Temple gave up his seals yesterday, and I
was informed last night that my Lord Hardwick was to be Privy Seal,
which I do not doubt, tho’ it is not declared. Mr. George Grenville
is not to be Speaker, that he may have the management of the House
of Commons. My Lord Temple is very angry with him, and I believe
very much disappointed; at the same time I am assured that my Lord
Bristol writes in the strongest manner everything that can give
satisfaction to the present Ministry with regard to the intentions
of the Spanish Court, and those despatches are said to have come
Wednesday last.... I heard a few days ago from Paris that the Duc
de Nivernois[346] had got a passport for my nephew.” This was for
Mr. Tom Pitt.
[345] Lady Hester’s patent made out on December 4, 1761.
[346] French ambassador and writer.
At this period Dr. Gregory lost his wife, and was in great despair; she
was a daughter of William, Lord Forbes.
[Page heading: WIDOWS’ WEEDS]
At the end of October Mrs. Montagu set out on a short visit to her
sister, Mrs. Scott, and Lady Bab Montagu at Bath Easton. Dr. Monsey was
then at Bath, whither later Mrs. Montagu also repaired. Bath society
was enthusiastic upon the subject of Mr. Pitt and a political letter
he wrote at this period. From a letter written from Bath to Mrs.
Carter about a Mrs. Talbot, a reduced lady, who was an applicant for
a lady’s-maid situation, we learn that £10 per annum were regarded as
adequate wages for such an attendant. I subjoin a curious paragraph as
to a widow’s dress--
“The fashionable dress for a widow is a gown with two broad plaits
in the back, a short cuff which comes a little below the elbow,
round double ruffles very shallow. The dress weed is made of silk
made on purpose, undress crape, a black silk long apron, black
handkerchief, black hood, and a plain sort of night-cap. Either
a night-gown or sack may be worn with a short train, no flounce
or ornament of any sort, and if a sack scanty, and only two broad
plaits. Many women of condition who are not young, wear merely a
common crape sack, the younger sort wear the dress that denotes
their widowhood, and in a country town I should suppose the full
form must be observed. I imagine your enquiry is for poor Mrs.
Primrose.”
[Page heading: A CALL FOR POETRY]
On November 17 Mrs. Montagu writes from Hill Street to Mrs. Carter--
“MY DEAR FRIEND,
“I had this day the pleasure of receiving my dear Friend’s most
charming ode. I, alas! am like Monsr. Jourdain, I speak nothing
but prose, but I believe my heart feels with all the enthusiasm
of poetry.... My Lord Bath is vastly happy that you are to be in
town the 1st of January. My Lord Lyttelton is better, but his fever
is not quite gone.... I think you should print the verses my Lord
Lyttelton addressed to you from Penshurst. Pray write some more
odes, and let your seamstresses do your plain work, and the Clerk
transcribe your verses.”
This year an edition of Mrs. Carter’s various works was printed. When
Mrs. Carter was in London she lodged with Mrs. Norman in Clarges
Street. Mrs. Montagu having ascertained that she could have her
lodgings there from the 1st of January, adds--
“You do not deign to mention Fingal, etc., but that I could pardon,
for Poet Ossian has been dead full many a day, but there is a head
on which laurels now grow, and it bears more than Parnassian bays,
even wreaths of sacred Virtue, and this head is apt to ake, and
then my heart akes for sympathy. Poor Lady Pomfret by weary stages
reached Marlborough, from thence she yesterday morning quitted
the weary journey of human life and passed with resignation to a
better. I am angry with Dr. James for sending her in so hopeless
a state from her quiet home to the noise and inconvenience of
Inns.... I think Mr. Rivington must be bewitched. I will send the
books as you direct. I had a quadrille table last night; and last
week the Bard Macpherson and many others of the tuneful train and
we had the feast of shells and drank out of a nautilus to the
immortal memory of Ossian. The Nautilus, you know, is a perfect
sailor as the other is a poet by nature. I am a little mortified
that you had not a word to fling at Ossian. Take a modern Poet
Laureate and put out his eyes and see whether he will sing as
sweetly, tho’ he sings darkling.”
[Page heading: THE _BAS-BLEUS_ AND SHELLS]
The _bas-bleus_ from this time constantly celebrated, amongst their
_intimates_, the feast of shells mentioned in Ossian by drinking out of
them on any particular occasion.
Lord Bath’s portrait, not satisfying Mrs. Montagu, had been returned to
Mr. Reynolds for amendment, and Lord Bath writes--
“MADAM,
“I will sitt to Mr. Reynolds either Wenesday or Saturday next,
whichever is most convenient to him, and shall be glad to meet
Mr. Tristram Shandy (as you call him) or Mr. Sterne (as I must
call him) there, but where it is to be you do not mention. If the
alteration can be made in a quarter of an hour, it is scarce worth
taking the Picture out of your house, but if it is to be altered at
Mr. Reynolds’ I will be there on either of the days mentioned. Last
night I slept extreamely well and the better since I went from Mrs.
Vesey’s, happy in seeing you look so charmingly and well....
“3 a clock, Dec. 26th, 1761.”
[Page heading: LAURENCE STERNE]
Lord Bath had remarkably penetrating and brilliant eyes, and one of the
faults found with the picture was in the representation of this feature.
The next letter from Lord Bath runs--
“How cruel was it, before I got out of bed, to receive a letter
forbidding me coming to you this night! but I hope nothing will
prevent me from having that happiness to-morrow. On Wenesday about
one of the Clock, I will most certainly be at Mr. Reynolds’ to mend
my sickly looks, and to sitt down in my chair, as I should do;
instead of being half standing, which criticism of Mr. Sterne’s I
think perfectly right; as for my looks, I fear they will not be
much mended by any Physick of Mr. Reynolds. He has made an old man
look as if he was in pain, which an old man generally is, and so
far he is right.”
Mrs. Montagu took Mr. Sterne to the sittings so that he might amuse
Lord Bath with his _bons mots_! Surely this would form a pretty and
historical picture if any artist would paint it.
On the publication of her poems, to which Mrs. Carter looked forward in
a nervous frame of mind, Mrs. Montagu says--
“I am sorry for your tremors and trepidations, but they are mere
nervous disorders, and the manuscript must be printed, so my dear
Urania, away with your lamentations, sit down, revise, correct,
augment, print, and publish. I am sure you will have a pleasure in
communicating the pious, virtuous sentiments that breathe in all
your verses. My inferior Soul will feel a joy in your producing
such proofs of genius to the world.... The very best of your
poetical productions have never been published, they may indeed
have been seen by a few in manuscripts, but the finest things on
sheets are soon lost--
‘Foliis tantum ne carmina manda;
Ne turbata volent rapidis ludibria Ventis.’
Print them and bind them fast I beg you.”
Writing to her brother, William Robinson, then at Rome, at this period,
Mrs. Montagu congratulates him on the prospect of a son or daughter--
“I desire to have all the share I can in the little one, shall
be happy to be accepted as a godmother, and thank you for being
so obliging as to intend it my name if it is a girl; it will not
disgrace her if she should be a toast, for I once knew a Miss Betty
Robinson that set up for one; if it is not disagreeable to you I
should be glad if it was christened Elizabeth Montagu, which will
be also a compliment to my husband. I envy you, my dear brother,
the pleasure of seeing at your leisure the Queen of Cities,
Imperial Rome.”
[Page heading: STERNE GOES ABROAD]
[Page heading: STERNE’S “MEMORANDUMS”]
The Rev. Laurence Sterne had been in bad health for some time; he had
just completed his fifth and sixth volumes of “Tristram Shandy,” and
with permission from the Archbishop of York for absence for a year or
more, he left Coxwould for the South of France, leaving the following
paper with Mrs. Montagu, who, it will be remembered, was his cousin by
marriage.
“December 28, 1761.
“Memorandums left with Mrs. Montagu in case I should
die abroad.
“L. STERNE.
“My sermons in a trunk at my friend Mr. Hall’s, St. John’s Street,
2 Vols. to be picked out of them.--N.B. There are enough for 3
Vols.--
“My Letters in my bureau at Coxwould and a bundle in a trunk with
my sermons.--
“Note. The large piles of letters in the garrets at York, to be
sifted over, in search for some either of Wit, or Humour--or what
is better than both--of Humanity and good Nature--these will
make a couple of Volumes _more_, and as not one of ’em was ever
wrote, like Pope’s or Voiture’s, to be printed, they are more
likely to be read--if there wants ought to serve the completion
of a 3rd volume--the Political Romance I wrote, which was never
publish’d--may be added to the fag end of the volumes.... Tho’ I
have 2 reasons why I wish it may not be wanted--first an undeserved
compliment to one, whom I have since found to be a very corrupt
man--I knew him weak and ignorant--but thought him honest. The
other reason is I have hung up Dr. Topham in the romance in a
ridiculous light--which upon my soul I now doubt whether he
deserves it--so let the Romance go to sleep not by itself--for
’twil have company.
“My _Conscio ad Clinum_ in Latin which I made for Fountayne, to
preach before the University to enable him to take his Doctor’s
Degree--you will find 2 copies of it, with my sermons--
“--He got Honour by it--What got I?--Nothing in my lifetime, then
let me not (I charge you Mrs. Sterne) be robbed of it after my
death. That long pathetic letter to him of the hard measure I have
received--I charge you, to let it be printed--’Tis equitable you
should derive that good from my sufferings at least.
“I have made my will--but I leave all I have to you and my
Lydia--you will not Quarrel about it--but I advise you to sell
my estate, which will bring 1800 pds. (or more after the year),
and what you can raise from my Works--and the sale of the last
copyright of the 5th and 6th Vols. of Tristram--and the produce
of this last work, all of which I have left (except 50 pds. in
my bookseller Becket’s hands, and which Mr. Garrick will receive
and lay out in stocks for me)--all these I would advise you to
collect--together with the sale of my library, &c., &c.--and
lay it out in Government Securities--If my Lydia should marry--I
charge you,--I charge you over again (that you may remember it the
more)--That upon no Delusive prospect, or promise from any one, you
leave yourself DEPENDENT; reserve enough for your comfort--or let
her wait your Death. I leave this in the hands of our Cosin Mrs.
Montagu--not because she is our cosin--but because I am sure she
has a good heart.
“We shall meet again.
“--Memᵈᵘᵐ. Whenever I die--’tis most probable, I shall have about
£200 due to me from my living--If Lydia should dye before you;
Leave my Sister something worthy of your self--in case you do not
think it meet to purchase an annuity for your greater comfort; if
you chuse that--do it in God’s name--
“--The pictures of the Mountebank and his Macaroni--is in a Lady’s
hands, who upon seeing ’em most cavaliery declared she would never
part with them--and from an excess of civility--or rather weakness
I could not summon up severity to demand them.
“--If I dye, her Name, &c., is inclosed in a billet seal’d up and
given with this--and then you must demand them--If refused--you
have nothing to do but send a 2d. message importing--’tis not for
her Interest to keep them.
“LAURENCE STERNE.
“Memorandums left by Mr. Sterne in
Mrs. Montagu’s hands before he
left England.”
[Page heading: TWO TEARDROPS]
Two teardrops are on this paper, which indicate Sterne’s emotional
temperament.
[Illustration:
_Sir J. Reynolds, pinx._ _E. Fisher. sc._
_Laurence Sterne._
Walker & Cockerell, ph. sc.]
[Page heading: FINIS]
And now, patient reader, I, the Editress of this literary mosaic of
my great-great-aunt’s letters and those of her friends, take leave
of you. If life and eyesight are vouchsafed to me, I hope to write
the remainder of her life some day, for she lived till 1800. Each
year added to her enormous circle of clever acquaintance, British and
foreign. The letters of Garrick and his wife, later ones of Sterne and
Dr. Johnson, Mrs. Vesey, Edmund Burke, Hannah More, and a host of other
notabilities, belong to a different period. As it is, the compilation
of this work has occupied me five years. One whole winter was devoted
to arranging the correspondence in chronological order, as very few of
the letters are dated.
APPENDICES.
“LONG” SIR THOMAS ROBINSON.
Sir Thomas was the eldest of the seven sons of William Robinson, of
Rokeby, Yorkshire, by his wife, _née_ Anne Walters. He was born and
baptized at Rokeby in 1700. After his school-days he made the grand
tour, as was the fashion of the day, and then entered the Army. At the
death of his father in 1719, he succeeded to the family estates in
Yorkshire. At the General Election of 1727 he became M.P. for Morpeth.
On October 25, 1728, he was married at Belfreys, in Yorkshire, to
Elizabeth, widow of Nicholas, Lord Lechmere, and daughter of Charles
Howard, 3rd Earl of Carlisle. Between the years 1725 and 1730 he
rebuilt the house at Rokeby, removed the church which stood behind
the house and rebuilt it in another spot, he added a stone wall all
round the park, made a bridge over the Greta river, and erected an
obelisk to his mother’s memory in 1730. All these acts were recorded
on two stone piers at the Greta entrance of the park. He planted
many trees at Rokeby. He designed the west wing of Castle Howard for
his brother-in-law, Lord Carlisle. In 1731 he was made a Baronet
of England, with remainder to his brothers. His nickname of “Long”
Sir Thomas Robinson was given to him from his great height, and to
distinguish him from another Sir Thomas Robinson, a diplomat of note,
afterwards created Lord Grantham. These two men were the reverse
of each other in appearance, “Long” Sir Thomas being exceptionally
tall, and the other very short and fat. One of Lady Townshend’s _bon
mots_ about the two was, “Why one should be preferred to the other I
can’t imagine, there is but little difference, the one is as broad
as the other is long;” and Lord Chesterfield, on being told “Long”
Sir Thomas was reported to be “dying by inches,” said, then it
would be some time before he was dead. On April 10, 1739, his wife,
to whom he was tenderly attached, died at Bath, and was taken to
Rokeby and buried under the new church he had erected. A monument was
erected to her there. In accordance with Sir Thomas’s will, though he
himself was buried at Merton Abbey, Surrey, a cenotaph was placed in
Poets’ Corner, Westminster Abbey, to his and his wife’s memory, with
medallion portraits of her and himself, and bearing the following
inscription:--“To perpetuate his grateful sense of the pleasure he had
in the conversation of an accomplished woman, a sincere friend, and an
agreeable companion.” They had no children, so the English baronetcy
went to his next brother, William.
Sir Thomas was greatly given to hospitality; too much so for his
income. On October 22, 1741, he gave a great ball, as Horace Walpole
relates, “to a little girl of the Duke of Richmond’s; there are already
200 invited, from miss in a bib and apron to my Lord Chancellor in bib
and mace.” The ball began at 8 p.m., and ended at 4 a.m. A few days
after Horace Walpole writes, “There were a 197 persons at Sir Thomas’s,
and yet it was so well conducted that nobody felt a crowd. He had taken
off all his doors, and so separated the old and the young that neither
were inconvenienced by the other. The ball began at 8; each man danced
one minuet with his partner, and then began country dances. There
were four-and-twenty couple, divided into twelve and twelve; each set
danced two dances, and then retired into another room, while the other
set took their two, and so alternately.... We danced till 4, then had
tea and coffee and came home.” A month later he writes about a second
ball. What with his numerous entertainments and his building at Rokeby
and elsewhere, he became impoverished, and accepted the Governorship
of Barbadoes in January, 1742, from which he was recalled in 1747.
In Barbadoes he married his second wife, a widow named Salmon, _née_
Booth. She had a considerable fortune, but on her husband’s return
to England, she refused to accompany him, preferring Barbadoes. Sir
Thomas was intimate with Lord Chesterfield, who made an epigram on him,
beginning--
“Unlike my subject will I make my song,
It shall be witty, and it shan’t be long.”
He must have been a bore, for Sir John Hawkins says of him, “Sir Thomas
Robinson was a man of the world, or rather of the town, and a great
pest to persons of high rank or in office. He was very troublesome
to the Earl of Burlington, and when in his visits to him he was told
his lordship had gone out, would desire to be admitted to look at a
clock, or play with a monkey that was kept in the hall, in hopes of
being sent for to the Earl. This he had so frequently done that all
the household were tired of him. At length it was concerted amongst
the servants that he should receive a summary answer to his usual
questions; and accordingly, at his next coming the porter, as soon as
he had opened the gate, and without waiting for what he had to say,
dismissed him with these words, ‘Sir, his lordship is gone out, the
clock stands, and the monkey is dead!’” The Duchess of Portland used to
name him to Mrs. Montagu as “your inimitable cousin!”
Appearing in Paris one day at a dinner in his hunting suit of green
and gold, and booted and spurred, a French abbé asked who he was, and,
on being told his name, and looking at his attire, inquired if he was
Robinson Crusoe. His house at Whitehall he sold to Lord Lincoln, and
he afterwards lived at Prospect Place, Chelsea. He bought the gardens
once belonging to Lord Ranelagh, and, with other shareholders, erected
the Rotunda in 1741–42. This place of amusement lasted for quite forty
years; the site of it is in the gardens of Chelsea Hospital.
At the Coronation of George III. Sir Thomas, probably from his great
height and majestic presence, was chosen to represent the mock Duke of
Normandy and Acquitaine, the kings of England still pretending to own
those provinces.
In 1769 he sold the estate of Rokeby, Yorks, to John Saurey Morritt,
the father of Sir Walter Scott’s friend. The Rokeby estate had been in
the possession of the Robinsons 160 years. On March 3, 1777, Sir Thomas
Robinson died at his house in Prospect Place, Chelsea, at the age of
seventy-six.
SANDLEFORD PRIORY, BERKS.
Sandleford Priory was founded for Austin Canons by Geoffrey, 4th Count
of Perche, and his wife, Matilda of Saxony, grand-daughter of Henry
II. of England, and niece of King Richard Cœur de Lion, and King John,
before the year 1205. The town and manor of Newbury, in Berkshire, were
bestowed on the first Count of Perche, who accompanied the Conqueror
to England. The Priory was dedicated to the Virgin Mary and St. John
the Baptist. A dispute arising between the Prior and Richard Beauchamp,
Bishop of Salisbury and Dean of Windsor about 1480, the religious
forsook the house, and King Edward IV. allowed the Priory to be annexed
to the Chapel of St. George’s, Windsor. In the Ayscough Register, folio
50, will be found an account of irregular and scandalous behaviour
of the Prior of that period, which probably was the cause of the
disruption. The Priory now formed a parcel of the properties of the
Dean and Canons of Windsor, and it is stated by the commissioners of
Henry VIII. (_vide_ c. 3, Henry VIII.) to be worth £10 annually.
In the reign of James I. Sandleford was declared to be a separate
parish from Newbury, and not subject to tithes which had hitherto
been paid to the Rector of Newbury. After this a commutation was made
that the lessee of the house paid £8 a year to the Rector of Newbury,
and for that sum had a pew in perpetuity. It is stated that after
this award the chapel of the Priory was allowed to fall into decay.
This chapel was separate from the house, and continued to be so till
1781–2, when Mrs. Montagu employed Wyatt to build her an octagonal
drawing-room with ante-chambers, which united the house and the chapel.
Long previous to this it was used as a bedroom or bedrooms, and in the
Montagu manuscripts Hannah More and others are described as sleeping
in the chapel bedroom when the rest of the house was occupied. At the
beginning of the eighteenth century the lessees of Sandleford were the
Pitt Rivers of Strathfieldsaye, and they were succeeded by the Montagu
family as early as 1730, or perhaps earlier. At any rate, at that
date Mr. Edward Montagu was resident there, and as his mother, _née_
Sarah Rogers, lived with him (as is shown by a letter of 1733 which I
possess), it is possible Mr. Charles Montagu had been lessee before
his son. He died in 1721. At what period the chapel was dismantled
I have no record, but it may have been done by order of the Dean
and Canons of Windsor before their letting it as a residence. Elias
Ashmole, the great antiquarian, who died in 1692, describes the chapel
as he saw it, and says, “Upon the first ascent of steps towards the
high altar lyes a freestone tomb of a knight in mail, cross-legged,
with a deep shield on his left arm, and seeming to draw his sword,
his feet resting on a dragon. Written on the west wall is a Latin
inscription.” In a paper belonging to my uncle, the last Baron Rokeby,
it is stated the inscription was “written on the north wall of the
chapel, but more anciently on the west wall.”
This was the inscription:--
“Lancea, crux, clavi
Spine, mors quam tolleravi,
Demonstrant qua vi
Miserorum Crimmia lavi
In Cruce sum prote qui peccas
Desine pro me desine, do Veniam
Die culpam, Corrige Vitam.”
As to the monument, it has been stated to have been that of the
founder, Geoffrey, Count of Perche; but as he died in France at the
siege of Acre, it is more likely to have been his son Thomas, Earl of
Perche, who died at the battle of Lincoln in 1217; or else it is quite
possible that it might be one of the Earls Marshal of Pembroke, as
at the death of Thomas, Earl de Perche, his uncle William, Bishop of
Chalons, seems to have claimed the property and sold it to William,
2nd Earl Marshal. Anyhow, not a trace of this monument is now to be
found. And it would be very interesting to ascertain if it was removed
to the Temple church, where the other Earls Marshal of Pembroke are
buried and a very similar monument exists; but this is only my surmise.
Behind the chapel, when Mrs. Montagu made her alterations in house
and garden in 1780 to 1782 with the designs of Wyatt and “Capability
Browne,” a number of skulls and bones were found, and, with the
characteristic irreverence of the eighteenth century, were buried in
what is now called “Monkey Lane,” near Newbury. The present library was
originally the refectory. In 1836 Edward, 5th Baron Rokeby, parted with
the lease of Sandleford to Mr. William Chatteris, who eventually, in
1875, enfranchised the property from the Dean and Canons of Windsor,
and, dying a widower and without issue, he left Sandleford to his
second wife’s nephew Mr. Alpin Macgregor. Mrs. Chatteris was the
second daughter of Admiral Sir Thomas Hardy, the friend of Nelson.
Mrs. Myers, who has a lease of Sandleford now, will not use the chapel
as a dining-room. Hannah More, writing in 1784, whilst staying at
Sandleford, says, “There is an irregular beauty and greatness in the
new buildings, and in the cathedral aisles which open to the great
Gothic window (alluding to the east end of the chapel, still all
glass), which is exceedingly agreeable to the imagination. It is solemn
without being sad, and Gothic without being gloomy.”
DENTON HALL, NEAR NEWCASTLE-ON-TYNE, NORTHUMBERLAND.
The history of Denton Hall dates from the ancient Britons, and a
burial-place of theirs, with an urn and bones, was found near the
Roman wall within a quarter of a mile from the hall. It subsequently
became the site of a Roman camp, which was occupied by a garrison of
Hadrian’s soldiers, and a wall was built to keep out the Picts and
Scots. Of the Roman relics there still exist an altar dedicated to
Jupiter, and several carved stones, and in Mrs. Montagu’s time many
Roman coins and objects were discovered. In No. 7, Vol. 2, of the
_Proceedings of Antiquaries of Newcastle-on-Tyne_, 1885, Mr. W. Aubone
Hoyle, then living with his brother at the hall, writes, “A little to
the south-west stood a chapel, of which a baptismal font remains and
a few sculptured stones; adjoining these was a burial-ground, which
is now included in the garden. An incised slab, with a memorial cross
and sword, was found here some years ago, as well as some large stone
coffins; and a cist of ancient British times, containing a funeral urn.
The chapel was removed shortly after the Reformation. The earliest
record we have of the occupants is of a family of the name of Denton,
in the tenth century, who continued to hold lands here and in the
neighbourhood, and also at Newcastle.”
The Widdringtons seem to have succeeded the Dentons, and Mr. Hoyle
continues, “The manor of Denton, saving these rents paid to the
Widdringtons, had been, in 1380, granted to the Prior and Convent of
Tynemouth, and was used by them as a country residence or grange.
Tradition relates that they had an underground passage leading from
Denton to their residence at Benwell Tower. The present building
was probably erected by them at the beginning of the sixteenth
century--1503 being the date of erection. The Roman wall skirting its
grounds appears to have supplied the materials, as most of the stones
are of the Roman type. The roof was formed of flags fastened with pins
made of sheep bones. These have gradually been done away with until
only a few courses remain, and the flags have been replaced by tiles.
At the Dissolution in 1539, the Widdringtons lost their interest in
Denton, and the Erringtons appear.”
The Erringtons being Jacobites, Mr. Hoyle continues, “Their loyalty to
the Stuarts cost them their estates, which now passed to a family of
Rogers, related to the Earl of Sandwich.” As has been shown in this
book, Mr. Edward Montagu, at the death of his cousin, Mr. Rogers,
became owner, to quote his wife’s words, “of Denton; Mr. Montagu has
half the estate by descent, a share by testamentary disposition,
and a part by purchase.” At the death of Mrs. Montagu in 1800, the
estate passed into the possession of her nephew and adopted son,
Matthew Montagu, afterwards 4th Baron Rokeby, who let the hall to
Mr. Richard Hoyle, and his descendants occupied the house till 1889.
Henry, 6th Baron Rokeby, dying in 1883, left the estate of Denton
to his grandson, Lord Henry Paulet, now 16th Marquis of Winchester,
who in 1886 sold the whole estate. The hall was bought by Mr. John
Henderson, of Allendale, who resold it to Mr. William Andrew I’Anson,
the present owner. The Denton ghost, called “Old Silky” by the miners,
one of the most authentic on record, is a beneficent spirit, for
she is said on various occasions to have warned the miners against
coal-damp. A song about her is still sung, I am told, in Newcastle, but
hitherto I have failed to obtain it, or to discover who “Silky” was. A
further account of her can be read in Ingram’s “Haunted Homes,” under
“Denton Hall.”
INDEX.
_The figures in italics refer to the notes only._
A
Abbas, Shah, ii. 99
Abel, ii. 245
Achard, Mr., tutor, afterwards secretary to Duke of Portland, i. 44,
48, 61, 90, 158, 185
Adam, ii. 245
_Adventurer, the_, ii. 25
_Advertiser, the_, ii. 123
Æsop’s _Fables_, i. 73
Aix-la-Chapelle, Peace of, i. 259
Albemarle, George Keppel, 15th Earl of, ii. 220
Albemarle, Lady, ii. 259
Aldworth, Richard Neville, ii. 250
Alexander, William, ii. 98, 108
Alexander, Mrs. W. (_née_ Monsey), ii. 98
Allen, Lady, i. 267, 268; ii. 121
Allison, A., _i. 179_
Alnwick Castle, ii. 166
Alstone, Mr. and Mrs., i. 286
Ameen, Joseph. _See_ Emin, Joseph
Amelia, Princess (daughter of George II.), ii. 152, 213, 214
Amesbury, i. 249
Amherst, General, ii. _134_, 140, 154
Amyand, Mr., i. 167; ii. 163
Ancaster, Duchess of, ii. 252
Ancaster, Peregrine, 3rd Duke of, i. 279
Ancram, Lady, i. 269
Andover, Mary, Lady (Mrs. Botham’s intimate friend and patroness),
i. 55, 95, 102, 115, 144, 194; ii. 19;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 230, 231
Andover, William, Lord, i. _55_, _144_, 224, 230
Anne, Queen, _i. 245_
Anson, Admiral Lord, i. 107, 268; ii. 89, 154;
captures a Spanish treasure-ship, i. 186;
_A Voyage round the World_, i. 259
Anson, Lady, i. 268, 269; ii. 142
Anstey, Christopher, _New Bath Guide_, i. 19, _256_; ii. 87
Anstey, Miss, i. 256, 259, 270, 275; ii. 54, 56, 70, 82;
works a panel of Mrs. Montagu’s feather screen, i. 268;
her death, ii. 87;
letters from Mrs. Montagu to, i. 19, 281; ii. 18, 77;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 23
Apreece, Mr. and Mrs., i. 286
Archdeacon, Dominick, ii. 129
Archdeacon, Mrs. D. (Mary Creagh), ii. 129
Archdeacon, William, ii. 160
Arezzo, Collection of, ii. 15
Argyll, John, 2nd Duke of, and Duke of Greenwich, i. 117; ii. 38, 233
Argyll, Duchess of (Elizabeth Gunning), i. 270, 287, 288
Argyll, Archibald Campbell, 3rd Duke of, ii. 165, 167, 195
Argyll, John, 5th Duke of, _i. 270_
Arran, Earl of, ii. 155
Arran, Elizabeth, Countess of, ii. 155
Ascham, Miss, i. 286
Ashe, Miss, called by Walpole, the “Pollard Ashe,” i. 287, 288
Askew, Dr., ii. 128, 144
Athole, Duncan de Atholia, Earl of, i. 1
Athole, John Murray, 3rd Duke of, ii. 168
Atkinson, Mr., farm bailiff at Sandleford, i. 145; ii. 147
Atterbury, Bishop, _i. 194_
Audley, Dr., i. 129
Audley, Mr. (Hinchinbroke House), i. 270
Augusta, Princess (daughter of George II.), i. 53
Austin, Sir Robert, i. 27
Austria, Emperor of, ii. 146
Aveiro, Duke of, ii. 180
Aylesbury, Lord, i. 233
Aylesford, Countess of, _i. 269_
Aylesford, Heneage, 1st Earl of, _i. 39_
Aylesford, Heneage, 2nd Earl of, i. 41, _55_, 144; ii. 19, 55
Aylmer, Lord, ii. 15
Ayscough, D.D., Rev. Francis, ii. 40, 63
Ayscough, Mrs. (_née_ Lyttelton), ii. 63
B
Baden, Prince of, i. 286
Bagshot Heath, ii. 74
Balchen, Admiral Sir John, ii. 92
Balmerino, Lord, _i. 231_
Baltimore, Lord, ii. 70
Banbury, Charles Knollys, 3rd Earl of, i. 22
Banks, Miss, ii. 45
Barbarini, i. 92
Bareil, M. de, _ii. 158_
Barrington, Dowager Lady, i. 269
Barrington, 2nd Viscount, ii. 185
Barrow, Rev. Dr. Isaac, Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, ii. 91
Barrows, Mrs., i. 241
Barry, Spranger, Irish actor, i. 279
_Bas bleus_, the, ii. 98;
and shells, ii. 268
Basildon, Lady Fane’s grottoes at, i. 245
Bateman, Lord, ii. 95
Bateman, Richard, ii. 192
Bath, i. 36–41, 254;
“Coffee House” at, i. 255
Bath, William Pulteney, 1st Earl of, i. 102; ii. _11_, _29_, 47, 145,
155, 185, 193, 204, 219, 223, 225, 241, 246, 250, 252, 262, 267;
his wife’s death, ii. 152;
_Letter to Two Great Men_, ii. 178;
“Patriot and Philosopher,” ii. 179;
his character, ii. 189, 247;
“is fall’n desperately in love with Mrs. Montagu,” ii. 200, 201,
212;
on green tea and snuff, ii. 207;
and Mrs. Carter, ii. 235, 236;
on Mrs. Montagu’s _Dialogues of the Dead_, ii. 237;
Reynolds’ portrait of, ii. 258, 268, 269;
letters from Mrs. Montagu to, ii. 220, 222, 233;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 222, 224, 226, 233, 237, 263, 268,
269
Bath, Countess of (Anna Maria Gumley), a “screw,” ii. 29;
death of, ii. 152, 189
Bath, Thomas, 1st Marquis of, i. 17
Bath, Elizabeth, Marchioness of (_née_ Bentinck), i. 17
Bathing tubs, i. 89
Bathurst, Lady Selina, i. 139
Bathurst, Lord, i. 280
Bathurst, Mr. (Lady Selina’s son), i. 167
Bayham Abbey, ii. 250
Beau, description of a, i. 133
Beauchamp, Richard, Bishop of Salisbury, i. 151
Beauclerc, Lord Aubrey, i. 80
Beauclerc, Lord Harry, ii. 228
Beauclerk, Lord and Lady Vere, i. 269
Beaufort, Cardinal, i. 247
Beaufort, 4th Duke of, i. 39, 41, 42
Beaulieu, i. 248
Beaulieu, Edward Hussey, Earl of, i. 201
_Beauties of England and Wales_, _ii. 14_
Beckford, Alderman, ii. 127, 128, 153, 220
Bede, Venerable, _History of the British Nation_, etc., ii. 138
Bedford, Duchess of, i. 63, 269
Bedford, John, 4th Duke of, i. _63_, 216, 218, 219, 248, 266
Bejot, Monsieur, ii. 257
Bell and Sons, George, publishers, ii. 174
Bellardine, Harry, Governor of Hurst Castle, i. 248
Bellegarde, Marquis de, i. 286
Belle-Isle, Duc de, French Marshal, i. 197
Benson, Dr., Bishop of Gloucester, i. 234
Bentinck, Lord Edward Charles, i. 178
Bentinck, Lady Elizabeth (afterwards Marchioness of Bath), i. 17, 150
Bentinck, Lady Frances, i. 69, 100, 146
Bentinck, Lord George, i. 46, 48, 98
Bentinck, Lady Harriet, ii. 197
Bentinck, Lady Isabella, i. 23
Bentinck, Lady Margaret, i. 33
Bentley, Richard, ii. 23, 24
Berenger, Moses, i. 284
Berenger, R., “the little Marquis,” _History and Art of Horsemanship_,
i. 283, 284; ii. 1, 24, 226
Berenice, ii. 238
Berkeley, Elizabeth (afterwards Lady Noel Somerset), i. 42
Berkeley, George, Bishop of Cloyne, ii. 15, 25, 26
Berkeley, Mrs. George, ii. 25, 26
Berkeley, James Symes, of Stoke Gifford, _i. 42_
Berkeley, Lord, i. 167; ii. 95
Berkshire, 4th Earl of, i. 39, 41, 224
Berkshire, Lady (Catherine Grahame), i. 39, 66, 224
Berkshire, Tom, 6th Earl of, i. 39
Bernard, Dr., head master of Eton, ii. 150
Best, Mrs. T. (Caroline Scott), i. 86, 103, 121, 184
Best, Thomas, i. 121, 184; ii. 50
Bevern, Prince of, ii. 114
Bevis Mount, Lord Peterbrough’s place, i. 22
Bewdley, Sir George, ii. 78
_Biographia Britannica_, ii. 18
Birch, Rev. Thomas, _Life of Archbishop Tillotson_, ii. 20
Blackett, Sir Walter, ii. 138, 201, 202
Bland, _Military Discipline_, ii. 100
Blooding, panacea of, i. 33, 83, 98, 100, 135
“Blue Stockings,” first allusion to, ii. 98
Boccacio, _Decameron_, i. 61
Boileau, Nicholas Despreaux, i. 154, 282
Bolingbroke, Lady, ii. 116
Bolingbroke, Lord, i. 89, 280;
_Dissertations upon Partys_, i. 176;
_The Idea of a Patriot King_, i. 265;
_An Occasional Letter_, i. 281;
“that foul fiend,” ii. 61;
his “pompous Rhetorical and inconsistent Declamations,” ii. 63;
his marriage, ii. 116;
Voltaire _v._, ii. 163
Bolton, Duchess of (Lavinia Fenton, _alias_ “Polly Peacham”), ii. 37
Bolton, 3rd Duke of, i. 248; ii. 37
Bonus, Mr., picture cleaner, ii. 172
Boscawen, Admiral the Hon. Edward, i. 277; ii. 81, 83, 84, 123, 151,
155, 156, 170, 190;
captures two French men-of-war, ii. 74;
blockades Louisburg, ii. 76;
the Martinico ships, ii. 90;
recalled, ii. 111, 116;
Mrs. Montagu’s opinion of, ii. 118;
receives a fresh commission, ii. 118, 121;
“had saved North America,” ii. 134;
captures Louisburg, ii. 140;
the thanks of Parliament, ii. 154;
defeats French off Cape Lagos, ii. 167;
his illness and death, ii. 228–230;
his letter to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 95
Boscawen, Mrs. Edward (Frances Glanville), i. 277; ii. 69, 74, 81, 83,
170, 196, 217, 229, 230, 242, 247, 257;
Mrs. Montagu’s letters to, i. 278; ii. 20, 40, 52, 70, 88, 118;
her letter to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 133
Boswell’s _Life of Johnson_, ii. 161, 174
Boteler, Sir Philip, ii. 227
Botham, Rev. John, i. 55, 265, 278; ii. 43, 46, 73, 88, 129, 241, 259;
a legacy, i. 84;
his “sermonical lullaby,” i. 96;
rector of Yoxall, Staff., and chaplain to Lord Aylesford, i. 144;
wishes for a King’s chaplaincy, i. 180, 181;
the Albury living, i. 230;
“such a Johnny,” i. 231;
farming his glebe, i. 235;
his appeal for further preferment, ii. 2, 3;
inoculation of his children, ii. 17;
his wife’s last illness and death, ii. 26–29;
a school-girls’ bill, ii. 48;
in the North with Edward Montagu, ii. 51, 53;
appointed to Ealing, ii. 54, 55, 58;
his letter to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 76
Botham, Mrs. John (Lydia Lumley), i. 3, 55, 95, 143, 152, 194, 224,
265, 268; ii. 4;
an opportune legacy, i. 84;
her character, i. 180, 181;
excessive melancholy of, i. 230;
Mrs. Montagu’s advice, i. 233;
curious remedies, i. 235;
her state of health, ii. 11, 19, 20;
her five children inoculated, ii. 16;
illness and death of, ii. 26–29;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 84, 228
Botham, Miss, ii. 29, 33, 37, 46, 185
Botham, Miss Kitty, ii. 47, 48
Botham, Miss Molly, ii. 47, 48
Bower, Archibald (_History of the Popes_), ii. 11, 15, 16, 19, 35, 42,
70, 72, 90, 178;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 50, 81, 94
Bower, Mrs. A., ii. 16
Bowes, George, of Streatlam Castle, and Gibside, Durham, i. 234, 290;
ii. 36, 138, 201, 203
Braganza, Catherine, wife of Charles II., i. 111
Braganza, Duke of, ii. 158
Branson, Mr., i. 241
Braybrooke, Lord, ii. 250
Breadalbane, Lord, ii. 165, 168
Bridport, 1st Viscount, _i. 278_; ii. 135
Bridport, Maria, Viscountess (_née_ West), i. 278; ii. 10, 22, 30, 32,
40, 57, 86, 87, 92, 115, 135
Bridgewater, Dowager Duchess of, ii. 95, 191
Bridgewater, Scroop, 1st Duke of, ii. 191
Bristol, George William, 2nd Earl of, i. 234; ii. 266
Bristol, Viscount, _i. 265_
British Museum, established at Montagu House, Harleian MSS. in, i. 8,
83; ii. 243;
Cottonian MSS. in, ii. 243
Broadley’s Bath Collection, _i. 255_
Brocchi, Carlo (Farinelli), i. 16
Brockman, James, of Beachborough, i. 15, 76, 108, 225,; ii. 13, 15
Brockman, Miss, i. 147
Bromedge, Mr., i. 294
Brown, Lieut.-General George, i. 222; ii. 142
Brown, D.D., John, _Essays on Lord Shaftesbury’s Characteristics_,
ii. 18
Bruce, Lord, i. 250
“Brusher” Mills, the New Forest snake-catcher, ii. 151
Brydges, Sir Egerton, _Biography_, ii. 93
Brydges, Mary, Lady (_née_ Robinson), _ii. 93_
Buchan, Earl of, i. 33
Buckley, Mr., i. 125, 202, 234
Bullstrode, i. 13, 49
Bunyan, John, _Pilgrim’s Progress_, i. 73
Burgess, Dr., ii. 77
Burgundy, Louis, Duke of, the Dauphin, i. 291, 295
Burlington, Richard, 3rd Earl of, i. 191; ii. 145
Burlington, Lady, ii. 145, 146
Burke, Edmund, ii. _100_, 101, 108, 144;
_Vindication of Natural Society_, ii. 156;
_Sublime and Beautiful_, ii. 159;
Lady Bab Montagu and, ii. 163;
and the Madrid Consulship, ii. 170;
his letters to Mrs. Montagu, ii. 169, 173
Burke, Mrs. (_née_ Nugent), ii. 171
Burnet, Bishop, _History of the Reformation_, i. 101
Bute, John Stuart, 3rd Earl of, i. 237; ii. 84, 97, 214, 226
Bute, Mary, Countess of (_née_ Montagu), i. 51, 237, 244; ii. 44, 197,
_214_, 217, 252
Butler, Lady Emily, ii. 155
Byng, Admiral John, ii. 88–93, 97, 102
C
Cadaval, Duc de, _ii. 180_
Cadogan, Lord, ii. 83
Caffarelli, Gaetano Majoriano, Italian singer, i. 27
Cain, ii. 245
Caledon, 1st Earl of, ii. 98, 108
Calves Pluck water, ii. 163
Cambridge, Richard Owen, ii. 263;
_Scribbleriad_, ii. 54, 61
Cambridge University, i. 256, 257
Camden, Pratt, 1st Earl, Lord Chancellor, and Lord President of the
Council, ii. 217
Camelford, Thomas Pitt, Junr., 1st Lord, ii. 150, 153
Campbell, General, i. 267
Campion, Pitt’s _chef_, ii. 64
Canning, Elizabeth, ii. 53
Canterbury Cathedral, ii. 12, 14
Canterbury Races, i. 9, 17, 31
Cape Lagos, naval battle of, ii. 167
Cardigan, Lady, i. 267; ii. 217, 218
Carlisle, Bishop of, ii. 96
Carlisle, 7th Earl of, i. 104, 209
Carlisle, surrendered to the rebels, i. 218
Carnarvon, 6th Earl of, ii. 38
Caroline, Princess, wife of Christian VII. of Denmark, i. 256
Caroline, Queen, _i. 255_
Carr, Lord Robert, i. 167
Carte, Rev. Thomas, _History_, i. 194
Carter, Edward, agent to Lord Aylesbury, afterwards to Edward Montagu,
i. 130, 139, 233, 234, 289, 291; ii. 51
Carter, Hannah, _Memoirs of her Life_, ii. 189
Carter, Miss, ii. 29, 33, 37, 38, 46, 51, 52
Carter, Mr., “Old Trusty,” Edward Montagu’s steward and agent, i. 107,
118, 141–143, 147, 166, 182, 184;
death of, i. 233
Carter, Mrs. (wife of above), ii. 51
Carter, Mrs. Elizabeth, the Greek scholar, i. 111; ii. 235, 236, 246,
248, 250, 251, 255, 256;
an edition of her _Works_, ii. 267;
Mrs. Montagu’s letters to, ii. 130, 138, 159, 160, 162, 163, 182,
183, 207, 241, 244, 257, 259, 266, 267, 269
Carter, D.D., Rev. Nicholas, ii. 130.
Carter, William, i. 130, 182
Carteret, John, 2nd Baron (afterwards Earl Granville), Secretary of
State, i. 102, 135, 179, 187
Carteret, Lady (Lady Sophie Fermor), i. 179, 181
Carteret, Lady Sophia, ii. 261
Carthagena, naval battle of, i. 79
Cathcart, 9th Lord, ii. 101, 168
Catherine of Braganza, wife of Charles II., i. 111
Cattle disease, i. 196, 219
Cesar, Miss, i. 46
Chalmers, Anne (Mrs. James Gregory), i. 179
Chalmers, Dr., of Ripon, i. 213
Chandler, Mrs., i. 265
Chandos, 1st Duke of (the “Princely Duke”), i. 273
Chandos, 2nd Duke of, ii. 22, 23
Chandos, 3rd Duke of, ii. 22
Chandos, Duchess of (_née_ Wells), formerly Mrs. Jefferies, ii. 22, 23
Chandos, Dowager Duchess of (_née_ Van Hatten), i. 281;
her letters to Mrs. Montagu, i. 273, 274
Chapone, Mrs. (Hester Mulso), _Letters on the Improvement of the
Mind_, ii. 260
Charlemagne, i. 59
Charles II., i. _80_, 111; ii. 211
Charles XII. of Sweden, ii. 181
Charlotte, Queen, ii. 249, 251, 252, 258–260
Charters, Mr., ii. 166
Chateauneuf, Mdlle. de, i. 44
Chatham, Baroness of. _See_ Pitt, Lady Hester
Chatham, William Pitt, 1st Earl of. _See_ Pitt, William
Chaucer, Geoffrey, i. 155, 199
Chaucer, Thomas (son of above), i. 198
Cheer, Mr., ii. 42
Chenevix, Mrs., her famous _bric-à-brac_ shop, i. 187, 294
Chesilden, Dr. William, i. 196; ii. 4
Chester, Mrs., ii. 42
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of (_Letters_), i. 198,
238, 253, 262; ii. 87, 113, 121, 181, 207, 223
Chinese rooms, Mrs. Montagu’s, ii. 8
Christian VII. of Denmark, _i. 256_
Chudleigh, Miss, maid-of-honour (afterwards Duchess of Kingston),
i. 265
Churchill, Arabella, _i. 156_
Churchill, General Charles, commonly called “old Charles Churchill,”
i. 156
Cibber, Colley (_Apology for his Life_), i. 91, 200, 242
Cibber, Theophilus, i. 242
Cibber, Mrs. Theophilus (Anna Maria Arne), i. 242;
as “Cordelia,” i. 253
Cistercians, _i. 248_
Clare, Earls of, _i. 204_
Clarendon, Lord, _History of the Rebellion_, ii. 157
Clarke, D.D., Samuel, i. 61; ii. 62
Clarke, William, of Merivale Abbey, i. 2
Clarke, Dr. W., i. 88, 91
Clavering, Sir James, i. 144, 147
Clavering, Sir Thomas, i. 290; ii. 37, 138, 139, 202, 203, 223, 228
Clayton, Robert, Bishop of Killala, afterwards of Clogher, i. 85; ii.
21, 124, _163_
Clayton, Mrs. Robert, i. 25, 85, 93, 129; ii. 27, 163, 164
Clayton, Sir William, _ii. 163_
Clegg, Jenny, i. 139
Cleopatra, ii. 238
Cleveland, Mr., ii. 134
Clifton, Sir Robert, ii. 135
Cobham, Viscount, ii. 60
Cobham, Sir Richard Temple, Baron, i. 102, _189_
Cobham, Lady, ii. 1, _41_, 71, 77, 86
Cock, Sarah (Mrs. John Rogers), i. 111
Cocoa Tree Coffee-house, ii. 217
Coke, Lady Mary, ii. 38
Coke, Lord, ii. 38;
_on Lyttelton_, ii. 226
“Cold Loaf” = a picnic, ii. 12
Colebrooke, Sir James, ii. 202
Collet, Sir James, i. 2
Collingwood, Mrs., i. 48
Colman, the Elder, George, _The Jealous Wife_, ii. 226.
Colman, Mrs. George (_née_ Gumley), ii. 227
Concini, Signor, ii. 83
Coningsby, Earl of, ii. _115_, 140, 141
Coningsby, Lady, ii. 247
Conway, Lord, _i. 265_
Conway, Miss Jenny, i. 265
Conway, General Seymour Henry, ii. 114, 120, 156, 158
Cooke, Lord, i. 235
Cookham, ii. 41, 42
Coombe Bank, i. 267
Cope, Sir John, Commander-in-Chief for Scotland, i. 206, 210–212
Cornbury, Lord, i. 101, 104
Cornwallis, Colonel, ii. 114
Cotes, Dr., i. _95_, 158, 160, 162; ii. 34
Cotes, Mrs., i. 95, 98, 163–166, 181, 224, 271
Cottington, Mr. and Mrs., i. 52
Cottonian MSS., ii. 243
Courayer, LL.D., Peter Francis le (“the little Père”), i. 124, 126,
154, 201, 232, 241–244, 247, 294;
his letter to Mrs. Montagu, i. 250
Courtenay, Lady, ii. 19
Courtenay, Sir William, afterwards 1st Viscount, ii. 19
Courteney, Mr., i. 240
Coventry, Countess of (Maria Gunning), i. 270, 287, 288; ii. 172
Coventry, Earl of, _i. 270_; ii. 18
Cowley, Abraham, ii. 244
Cowper, Henrietta, Countess, i. 19; ii. 158
Cowper, William, 2nd Earl, i. 19
Cowper, William, poet, i. 268
Cradock, William, i. 151
Cranwell, Mrs., i. 240
Cranworth, 1st Baron, ii. 98
Craon, Princesse de, i. 284
Crashaw, Richard, poet, i. 283
Crawford, John, 17th Earl of, and 7th Earl of Lindsey, i. 41
Creagh, Mary (Mrs. D. Archdeacon), ii. 129
Creed, Mr., ii. 50
Crewe, Lady (Dorothy Forster), i. 188
Crewe of Stene, Nathaniel, Baron, i. 188, 190; ii. 155
Croker, John Wilson, _Boswell’s Life of Johnson_, ii. 146, 147
Croker, Mr., Mrs. Donnellan’s Six Clerk and Manager, ii. 21
Cromartie, Lord, i. 232
Cromwell, Oliver, i. 270
Crosby, Mrs., Mrs. Montagu’s housekeeper, ii. 146, 147
Cruickshank, Dr., ii. 99
Culham Court, Berks., ii. 105