Chapter I: Front Matter

A Lady of the Last Century

_Photogravure from the painting by Wm. Hogarth_]

A Lady of the Last
Century

BY
JOHN DORAN, LL. D.

PUBLISHED BY
FRANCIS A. NICCOLLS & CO.
BOSTON

_ÉDITION DE LUXE._

_Limited to One Thousand Copies._

No. ....

TO
Andreas J. G. Holtz, Esq.
(TWYFORD ABBEY)
THIS “BIT OF MOSAIC” IS DEDICATED, WITH SENTIMENTS
OF THE MOST SINCERE ESTEEM AND
CORDIAL REGARD.

Preface

In the year 1809, Mr. Matthew Montagu published the first two of four volumes of letters of his aunt, Elizabeth Montagu. He was not only her nephew, he was also her adopted son and her executor. On the 5th of December in that year, the celebrated statesman, William Windham, was reading those volumes, “in the evening, up-stairs;” and he subsequently recorded the following judgment of them in his diary: “I think very highly of them. One of their chief merits is _series juncturaque_. Nothing can be more easy and natural than the manner in which the thoughts rise one out of the other, even where the thoughts may appear rather forced, nor is the expression ever hard or laboured. I see but little to object to in the thoughts themselves, but nothing can be more natural or graceful than the manner in which they are put together. The flow of her style is not less natural, because it is fully charged with shining particles, and sparkles as it flows.”

In 1813, Mr. Matthew Montagu published two more volumes of his aunt’s correspondence. The press generally received them with pleasant testimony of approval. It not only endorsed the judgment of the eminent statesman quoted above, but it especially pointed out that the letters were genuine and authentic, which could not be said of a similar collection of letters then challenging the censure of the town. Mrs. Montagu’s letters were read with great avidity, and readers for the most part came to the same conclusion as the statesman and the critics.

The last letter in the series is addressed to Mrs. Elizabeth Carter. The date is September, 1761. The writer lived nearly forty years after that date. During that time, she maintained a lively correspondence; her letters were copied and circulated. After her death, a few, with fragments of others, found their way into various periodicals. The correspondence which Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu kept up with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robinson, wife of the Rev. William Robinson, and a few other friends, between 1761 and the close of the last century, was long in the possession of the late Mr. Richard Bentley, who purchased them at a sale of autographs. These form the chief portion of the present volume.

In a note to the letters published by Mr. Montagu, the editor states that they are “intended to convey in them the biography of the writer, which the editor thinks he could not so well exemplify by any remarks of his own as by the letters themselves.” Mr. Montagu gave to his aunt’s readers every word of every epistle, from the salutation to the signature.

From the letters now printed for the first time there have only been omitted vain repetitions, formal compliments, and the nothings that may have once been somethings, but which are now mere dust and ashes, from which little of value is to be sifted. There have been retained all that could further “convey the biography of the writer,” with addition of such anecdotal illustration from the printed letters and from contemporary records as might serve to show more completely the character and surroundings of a Lady of the Last Century.

Contents

PAGE

CHAPTER I.

Birth and Parentage of Mrs. Montagu—Long Tom Robinson—Dr.
Conyers Middleton—Early Training of Mrs. Montagu—Funeral
at York Cathedral—Mrs. Makin—Her System of Female
Education—School at Tottenham High Cross—Early Habits of Mrs.
Montagu—The Duchess of Portland—Mary-le-Bone Gardens—“La
Petite Fidget” at Bath, at Tunbridge Wells—Lord Noel
Somerset—Bath Life in 1740—Lord Lyttelton—Scarlet Beaux and
Country Polyphemuses—Modern Marriages—Garrick’s Richard the
Third—Offers of Marriage to Miss Robinson 1

CHAPTER II.

Edward Montagu—Wedding Tour—Allerthorpe—Pursuits There—Lord
Dupplin—Character of Mrs. Montagu’s Neighbours—Unwelcome
Visitor—Habits of Mind—Lite in London—Birth of a Son—Little
“Punch”—Death of Her Son—Visits Tunbridge Wells—Doctor
Young and Colley Cibber There—The Vicar of Tunbridge—The
Rebellion of 1745—Death of Mrs. Montagu’s Mother—Wilton—Death
of Her Brother—Mode of Life at Bath—Mrs. Gilbert West—Mrs.
Montagu’s Tastes—Love of Books—Her Analysis of Clarissa
Harlowe—Mrs. Pilkington—Lady Sandwich—Miss Chudleigh at the
Masquerade—Letter to Mr. Montagu 23

CHAPTER III.

Visits London—George Lewis Scott—Marries Mrs. Montagu’s
Sister—Their Separation—Death a Friend—Lady Hester
Pitt—The Refugee, Bower—Lady Townshend’s Ball—Lady
Essex—“Bluestockings”—Mr. Benjamin Stillingfleet—Rumours of
War—Life in the Country—Mrs. Elizabeth Carter—Mr. Montagu
Succeeds to a Rich Inheritance—Dangerous Mistake—Doctor
Monsey—Doctor Johnson—Mrs. Ogle’s Benefit—Mrs. Montagu’s
Character of Burke—Writes a Criticism and Misses a
Ball—Dissipations and Diversions—Two Old Lovers—Mrs.
Montagu as an Authoress—“Dialogues of the Dead”—French in
the Shades—Female Education—Longing after Rest—Accession
of George the Third—House in Hill Street—Furniture in
Fashion—Mrs. Montagu a Political Economist—Anecdote of an
Old Scotch Woman—“The Penitents”—Warburton—His Treatment of
Shakespeare—William Robinson—His Life of Inaction—Sir Charles
Williams—Hammond’s “Elegies” 42

CHAPTER IV.

Anecdote of the Young King—Lord Anson—Retirement of Mr.
Speaker Onslow—Death of Beau Nash—Mr. Pitt—His Character—Lord
Bute—Marriage of the King—Portrait of Queen Charlotte—Lord
Hardwicke Reads an Account of Her in Public—Preparations
for the Coronation—Arrival of the Queen—Doctor Young’s
New Poem—London on the Night of the Coronation—Duke of
Ancaster—Lady Hardwicke—Regret at Mr. Pitt’s Resignation—His
Reception in the City—Speech in the Commons—George
Grenville—_Bon Mot_ of Lady Townshend—“Millennium Hall”—Kitty
Hunter—“The School for Lovers”—Change of Costume—Lord Clive at
Bath 64