Chapter I (2)

Mrs. Montagu had for some time been expecting Miss Carter, the young daughter of Mr. Montagu’s faithful agent, to stay with her. She says--

“My little disciple[44] is very good, and takes to me wondrous well. I expect the eldest Miss Botham next week, you may suppose it was some denial not to choose the second, but I thought the other my duty rather, and the eldest would have been much grieved to be passed over.”

[44] Miss Carter.

Writing to Mr. Montagu (who had gone to Sandleford on business, and to cure a bad cold) on May 3, his wife describes a Rout she had given. “I had rather more than an hundred visitants last night, but the apartment held them with ease, and the highest compliments were paid to the house and elegance of the apartments.”

[Page heading: “A PERFECT WOMAN”]

Gilbert West from Wickham, on May 23, gives the following account of Mr. Pitt, whose health had been causing much anxiety to his friends--

“Had I answered your letter last night I should have given you a good account of Mr. Pitt, who was yesterday in better spirits than I have seen him in since he came hither, but I find by inquiring after him this morning that he has had a bad, that is, a sleepless night, which has such effect on his spirits that I am afraid we shall see him in a very different condition to-day. This has happened to him every other night since Friday last, so I am persuaded there is something intermitting in his case, of which neither the Physicians nor himself seem to be aware. I think he ought to go to town to consult with them, but to this he has so great an aversion that I question if he will comply with our request. Sir George Lyttelton, who saw him on one of his bad days, Saturday last, promised to come hither to-day, and his voice added to ours may possibly prevail....

“Mr. Pitt express’d a due sense of your goodness in inquiring so particularly after him, and that you may know how high you stand in his opinion, I must inform you that in a conversation with Molly he pronounced you the most _perfect woman_ he ever met with.”

[Page heading: MR. PITT’S INSOMNIA]

Mr. Pitt was recommended by his doctors to go to Tunbridge Wells to drink the waters. Accompanied by Mr. West, Mrs. West, and Miss West, he set off on May 26. West, writing to Mrs. Montagu, says--

“Tunbridge Wells, May 27, 1753.

“MY DEAREST COUSIN! MY BEST AND MOST VALUABLE
FRIEND!

“Your kind letter which I received on coming from Chapel is the most agreeable thing I have met with at Tunbridge, where we arrived last night about 7, after only stopping at Sen’nocks, and dining at Tunbridge Town. It came very seasonably to relieve my spirits which were much sunk by the extreme dejection which appears to-day in Mr. Pitt, from a night passed entirely without sleep, notwithstanding all the precautions which were taken within doors to make it still and quiet, and the accidental tranquillity arising from the present emptiness and desolation of this place, to which no other invalids, except ourselves are yet arrived, or even expected to arrive as yet. He began to drink the waters to-day, but as they are sometimes very slow in their operations, I much fear both he and those friends who cannot help sympathizing with him, will suffer a great deal before the wished-for effect will take place, for this _Insomnium_ his Physicians have prescribed Opiates, a medicine which, in this case, though they may procure a temporary ease, yet often after recoil upon the spirits. He seems inclined to take Musk, and intends to talk with Molly about it. I think his Physicians have been to blame in giving all their attention to the disorder in his bowels, and not sufficiently regarding the Distemperature of his spirits, a Disease much more to be apprehended than the other; while he continues under this Oppression, I am afraid it will be impossible for me to leave him, as he fancies me of the greatest use to him as a friend, and a comforter, but I hope in God he will soon find some alteration for the better, of which I shall be glad to give you the earliest information. In the meantime I beg you will take care of your health, and as the most effectual means of establishing it, I most earnestly desire you will follow Mr. Montagu’s exhortations to repair forthwith to Tunbridge, as by so doing you will not only contribute to the regaining your own health, but to the comfort and felicity of some here who love you.... Kitty, Molly and Mr. Pitt desire their affectionate compliments. Molly begs you will communicate this account of Mr. Pitt to Sir G(eorge) L(yttelton).”

[Page heading: RENT OF LODGINGS]

In West’s next letter, of May 30, he says--

“I think Mr. Pitt is somewhat better, tho’ his spirits are too low to allow him to think so, and his nights are still sleepless without the aid of Opiates. I write this from the ‘Stone House’ to which we were driven by the noisy situation of our house at the foot of Mount Sion. How many pleasing ideas our present habitation recalls I leave you to judge, though there needs no such artificial helps to make you ever present to my memory.... Mr. Pitt is lodged in your room, and I in that which was Mr. Montagu’s dressing-room on the ground floor.”

The Montagus and Wests together had rented the “Stone House” the year before this. On May 31 West writes to say he is leaving Mr. William Lyttelton with Mr. Pitt, and will return to Wickham on Saturday, and dine with Mrs. Montagu at Hayes _en route_. He adds, “Mr. Pitt feels a little gout in his foot, which we hope will increase so as to be an effectual Remedy for all his disorders.”

On June 6, West, who had been commissioned to find a house for Mrs. Montagu, looks at the last two left on Mount Ephraim, a Mr. Spooner’s and a Mr. Sele’s; he decided on the latter, orders the chimney to be made higher, and a _hovel_ put on it to stop smoking, and to order the owners to lie in the beds to air them!

“The price he told me was 4 guineas a week, or thirty-five guineas for the whole season, that is till Michaelmas, or a week or two over; for this price you are to have stabling for eight horses, and a coach house for two carriages.... Mrs. West will be obliged to you if you will bring her jewels with you.”

Mrs. Montagu arrived at Tunbridge on June 11, and on the 13th writes to her husband, then in London, to say

“my cough is much abated, and my appetite increased: the asses’ milk sits well on my stomach.... I have a constant invitation to dinner at the ‘White House’; Mr. Pitt is too ill to dine abroad, and the Wests cannot leave him, so as often as I am disposed for company, I dine there; the rest of my time passes in taking air and exercise, and now and then the relief of a book.”

[Page heading: CANVASSING]

On account of the Jew Bill and other unpopular measures coming before Parliament, a General Election was anticipated, and Lord Sandwich was already arranging for it by canvassing his constituents, and those at Huntingdon, and summoned Mr. Montagu to meet him at Hinchinbrooke the second week in August. Previous to this he spent a few days with his wife at Tunbridge hence proceeding to Yorkshire for his annual estate business. Old Mr. Robinson accompanied his friend, Sir Edward Dering, to canvass for him in Kent, and his daughter says, “My Father would have made a good counterpart to Sir Edward Dering; if _bon mots_ could carry a county, I know few that would care to contend with them.”

Previous to going to Tunbridge, Mrs. Montagu placed her two young charges, Miss Carter and Miss Botham, in a boarding-school. She writes to her sister Sarah--

“Mr. Montagu thought Miss Carter’s dancing would be better improved if she went to School, and he is as desirous she should be a fine dancer as if she was to be a Maid of Honour. I was the more willing in regard to Miss Botham going, for my cousin is of such a ‘diversian’ temper, as Cotes used to express it, that I feared she would not be easily restrained in a place of this sort; she is a fine girl, but so lively and so idle, she requires infinite care. With great capacity of learning she has prodigious desire to be idle, and thinks it quite hard not to take her share of all the diversions she hears of. On being asked how she liked London she said very well, but should do so much better if she was to go to Ranelagh every night! I have left them at a very good school, but an expensive one; however, they are only to stay there till the 15th of August, for then the school breaks up, and if I do not leave this place sooner, they must come. I believe no gouvernante ever took half the pains I have done with these children, explaining to them everything they read, and talking to them on all points of behaviour.”

[Page heading: PENSHURST]

On July 4, in a letter to Mr. Montagu, who was at Theakstone, his wife writes--

“All the family at the ‘Stone House’ and myself in their train went yesterday to Penshurst; we spent a good deal of time in viewing the pictures. I was most pleased with the portraits, as I know not any family that for Arts and Arms, greatness of courage and nobility of mind have excelled the Sydney Race. Beauty too, has been remarkable in it.”

And on July 8--

“It has been much the turn of the Society I am in to go out in parties to see places, and last post day we settled upon an expedition of this sort with such precipitation, I had not opportunity to write without keeping the company waiting. We went to see an old seat of a Mr. Brown’s; it is well situated, was built by Inigo Jones, has some fine portraits.... We went from this venerable seat to a place called New Vauxhall, where Mr. Pitt had provided us a good dinner; the view from it is romantic; we staid there till the cool of the evening, and then returned home. We drank tea yesterday in the most beautiful rural scene that can be imagined, which Mr. Pitt had discovered in his morning’s ride about half a mile from hence; he ordered a tent to be pitched, tea to be prepared, and his French horn to breathe music like the unseen genius of the wood: the company dined with me, and we set out, number 8.... Sir George Lyttelton and Mr. Bower are come to spend a few days with Mr. Pitt.”

To this her husband replies, “I very much approve of the excursions you make, and think the more the better, as they both entertain the mind and give exercise to the body.” He adds, the epidemic then raging amongst cattle in England had not been so severe on his northern property as in other parts of the country.

[Page heading: TRINITY COLLEGE LIBRARY]

Mr. Pitt went to Hastings for two days, and on his return, Mr. West made a tour to Canterbury, Dover, etc., which lasted five days. Dr. Smith,[45] Mr. Montagu’s old friend, was then at Tunbridge, and Mrs. Montagu says--

“We fell into discourse upon some embellishments and ornaments to be added to the fine Library at Trinity College. There are to be 26 Bustos put up, 13 in memory of the ancients, 13 of modern, these are to be cast in plaister of Paris: but Mrs. Middleton talks of a fine Marble Busto of Dr. Middleton to be done by Roubilliac,[46] which I think very proper, as he was so eminent, there should be a public memorial of him, and as he was long Librarian it is proper it should be in that place: there are likewise to be 48 portraits of considerable persons that have been of the College.”

[45] Dr. Robert Smith, then Master of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Founded “Smith’s Prizes.”

[46] Louis François Roubilliac, born 1695, died 1762. Eminent
sculptor.

To this Mr. Montagu replies--

“I am very well pleased with what Dr. Smith is doing at Trinity College. I hope he has not lay’d aside the noble design he had form’d of having a Statue[47] of the great Newton. Such men as he and Dr. Middleton should be represented in something more durable than plaister of Paris, and I honour Mrs. Middleton for her intention.”

[47] In 1755 Dr. Smith gave the statue of Sir I. Newton, sculptured
by Roubilliac.

[Page heading: GIBSIDE]

After seeing to the business consequent on his trusteeship to his cousin, Mr. Rogers, of Newcastle, Mr. Montagu had returned to Theakstone on July 29. He describes Gibside, the seat of Mr. Bowes[48]--

“I dined this day sennight at Gibside; it was one of the finest summer days I ever saw. It set off to great advantage the whole vale through which the river Tyne runs, which consists of a great deal of good rich land. The Moors, tho’ not so pleasing to the eye, make abundant amends by the riches of the mines. All the gentlemen are planting and adorning their Seats, but nothing comes up to the grandeur and magnificence of what Mr. Bowes has done, and is a (_sic_), doing, I mean without doors, for his house is but an indifferent one. It stands in the midst of a great wood of about 400 acres, through which there are a great many noble walks and rides interspers’d with fine lawns, with a rough river running thro’ it, on each side of which are very high rocks, which gives it a very romantick look. Mr. Bowes is at present upon a work of great magnificence, which is the erecting a column of above 140 feet high. This, as far as I know, may be the largest that ever was erected by a subject in this Island, and may yield to nothing but the Monument at London. I ought not to omit telling you that he has already erected upon a rising ground a gothick building which he calls a Banquetting room, in which the night before there was a concert of Musick (_sic_), at which Jordain and an Italian woman performed, whom Mrs. Lane[49] brought with her from Bramham Moor, from which she came in a day.... On Monday I dined with Sir Thomas Clavering.[50] This gentleman’s house is very old and bad, but the situation good and prospect pleasant. He has made a long road leading to his house and improved his park, and made a serpentine river.... He has also, as well as all the other gentlemen in that county, made a kitchen garden with very high walls, planted with the finest fruit trees. I question not peaches and nectarines may succeed very well, but for grapes they must be beholden to fire.”

[48] George Bowes, of Streatlam Castle, and Gibside, Durham.

[49] Mrs. Lane, of Bramham Park, Yorkshire.

[50] 7th Baronet, related to the Roger family, Oxwell Park.

[Page heading: EXCURSION TO STONELANDS]

From this it would appear that walled kitchen gardens were new things in the North then; probably “Kail yards” reigned supreme. Miss Carter and Miss Botham now joined Mrs. Montagu at Tunbridge from their school. Another excursion to Stonelands[51] with Mr. Pitt took place, and in a letter to Mr. Montagu on August 3 we learn--

“This dry Summer has been so favourable to the Waters that they have made several surprising cures. I think Mr. Pitt may be numbered amongst them. The first time I saw the Duke of Bolton,[52] I could hardly imagine he would last a month, but seeing him again yesterday I was amazed at the amendment.”

[51] A seat of the Duke of Dorset’s, now called Buckhurst, in
Surrey.

[52] 3rd Duke; he died August 26, 1754. Married as second wife
Lavinia Fenton, _alias_ “Polly Peacham.”

[Page heading: “MINOUETS”]

In the afternoons Mrs. Montagu and Mr. Pitt were attending Mr. King’s lectures on philosophy, etc., and “Mr. Pitt, who is desirous of attaining some knowledge in this way, makes him explain things very precisely.” In another letter she says--

“Miss Carter will excell in dancing. I did not think it right she should dance Minouets at the ball till she was quite perfect in it, but Mr. West, Mr. Pitt and all their family and some other company were here the other day, and I made her dance a Minouet with Master West by way of using her to do it in company; she acquitted herself so well as to get great commendation.”

As usual, the husband and wife exchanged loving letters on the anniversary of their wedding-day, August 5. Mrs. Montagu mentions--

“There is a report that Lord Coke is dying; his wife, Lady Mary, is here; she is extremely pretty, her air and figure the most pleasing I ever saw. She is not properly a beauty, but she has more _agrémens_ than one shall often see. With so many advantages of birth, person and fortune, I do not wonder at her resentment being lively, and that she could ill brook the neglects and insults of her husband.”

Lady Mary was the daughter of the 2nd Duke of Argyll and Duke of Greenwich. She is often mentioned by Horace Walpole. Her husband treated her with great brutality, and she gained a separation from him. He died August 31, 1753; she survived him till 1811.

_John Nixon, pxt._]

TEA AND COFFEE IN THE BATH-ROOM.]

[Page heading: “BEAU” NASH]

Mr. Herbert is mentioned as being very ill at Tunbridge; this was the uncle of the 6th Earl of Carnarvon, of Highclere Castle, Hants. Mr. Montagu says, “He has done a great deal to adorn and beautify Highclere; he had designed to do much more, if he dies it will want his finishing hand.” On August 13 Mrs. Montagu writes to her husband--

“Mr. Nash[53] had a fit yesterday, by which it is imagined this Monarch will soon resign that Empire over Mankind, which in so extraordinary a manner he gained and has preserved. The Young Pretender is now known to be at Passi, near Paris, where he keeps himself so concealed that he may on any project be able to leave it without exciting the attention of the people. It is said in case of a Minority he will make us a visit. Lord Rochford intercepted a letter from a Cardinal in France to his brother in Italy, in which he said he had supped with Prince Charles the night before. I hear this young adventurer is much a favorite with the French officers and soldiers, whose romantic visions of honour may excite them to do more than even the policy of their Monarque requires.”

[53] Richard Nash, “Beau Nash,” Leader of Fashion at Bath and
Tunbridge, born 1674, died 1761.

On August 20 Mr. Montagu arrived at Hinchinbroke to stay with Lord Sandwich, in order to beat up votes for the next election for Huntingdon and the county. A Mr. Jones, an eminent merchant, was to be his fellow-candidate.

“On Tuesday we are to go about the town and canvass, where an entertainment will be prepared for the Burgesses, who will to-morrow night be treated with their wives, with a ball for them only, a thing intirely new and which must produce something new and out of the common. On Friday we shall be at liberty to move off, but on Monday night we are to meet and entertain the Londoners at the King’s Head, Holbourn.”

Writing on August 21 to Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Montagu mentions--

“I am living in the very house my dear Mrs. Boscawen inhabited three years ago. At the Stone Castle reside Mr. Pitt, Mr. and Mrs. West and Miss West. Instead of making parties at Whist or Cribbage, and living with and like the _beau monde_, we have been wandering about like a company of gipsies, visiting all the fine parks and seats in the neighbourhood.”

These excursions were much encouraged by Mr. Pitt, who considered them “as good for the mind as the body,” and that an occasional day without drinking the waters gave them a greater effect.

Mention of a ventriloquist now occurs as something new--

“I have been this morning to hear the man who has a surprising manner of throwing his voice into the Drawer, a bottle, your pocket, up the chimney, or where he pleases within a certain distance.... I was last night at Mr. King’s, we had the Orrery and an astronomical lecture.”

_Thos. Malton, pxt._]

THE CIRCUS, AT BATH.]

[Page heading: MR. PITT VISITS HAYES]

Mr. Montagu joined his wife for a week at Tunbridge, when he had to return to London. On September 16 she writes to him--

“I intend to be with you on Thursday.... I find Mr. Pitt has some intentions, as _I told you when you was here, of going to Heys_, in case he should not be well enough to take the long journey he intends, and he seems much pleased that I will lend him that little tenement; but as I apprehend a feather bed more will be wanted than used to be, I propose to send one from Hill Street.... Mr. Pitt leaves this place to-morrow, he is now going to Dr. Ascough’s, and from thence to Stowe[54] and Hagley.[55] Mr. West goes to Stowe with him.”

[54] Lady Cobham’s.

[55] Sir George Lyttelton’s seat.

Probably it was from this time that Pitt took such a fancy to Hayes, which endured all his lifetime.

[Page heading: MR. HOOKE]

The next letter to Gilbert West I transcribe in portions--

“Sandleford, September 27, 1753.

“MY MOST HONOURED COUSIN,

“Your kind and agreeable letter restored me in some measure to the temper I lost at going out of town the very day you came to it. I know not what poets may find in the country, when they have filled the woods with sylvan Deities, and the rivers with Naides; but to me groves and streams and plains make poor amends for the loss of a friend’s conversation. You have better supplied Mr. Pitt’s absence by reading the Orations of his predecessor, Demosthenes, and I can easily imagine you would rather have passed the evening with the British than the Grecian Demosthenes, whom in talents perhaps he equals, and in grace of manners and the sweet civilities of life, I dare say he excels. But when you seem to say you would even have preferred the simple small talk of your poor cousin to the Athenian Orator, I cry out,--Oh wondrous power of friendship, which like the sun gives glorious colours to a vapour, and brightens the pebble to a gem, till what would have been neglected by the common herd is accepted by the most distinguished.... On Tuesday morning about eight o’clock I called upon Mr. Hooke at his hermitage. I found him like a true Savant surrounded by all the elements of Science, but though I roamed round the room, I could not perceive any signs of the Author, no papers, pen, ink, or sheets just come from the press. I fear the fine ladies and fine prospects of Cookham divert his attention from the Roman History.... I desired him to carry me to Mrs. Edwin’s, which I heard was a pretty place.[56] There is an old ferry woman who crosses the Thames very often before Mrs. Edwin’s terrace.... While we were in Mrs. Edwin’s garden he betrayed my name to her ... she came down, showed me her house and the pictures, which are very fine, but the views from her windows gave one no leisure to consider the works of art.... Cliefden Hill rises majestically in view, and the only flat shore you see from this place lies straight before it, and is a large plain of the finest verdure and full of cattle.”

[56] Could this be Hedsor?

[Page heading: THE WICKHAM URN]

To this letter Gilbert West replies--

“I am glad your journey to Sandleford was relieved by the agreeable digression you made to Cookham, where I hope to find, at least in the memory of Mr. Hooke, the vestiges of your having been there, which will be an additional motive to me to make him a visit from Stoke, for I am going once more from Wickham, notwithstanding the neighbourhood of Sir Thomas Robinson,[57] the Archbishop,[58] and Bower, and the arrival of my Urn, which is to come this very day, and which Mr. Cheer hath taught me to consider as an emblem and monument of the polished, elegant and accomplished Mrs. Montagu, by assuring me ‘that it is indebted for all the extraordinary and highly finished ornaments he hath bestowed upon it, to the great regard and veneration he hath for her, and that he will not either for love or money make such another.’ ... I was paying a visit at Fulham, where I enjoyed the smiles of my beloved Bishop,[59] the presence of Mrs. Sherlock, and the agreeable conversation of Mrs. Chester, with the more substantial delicacies of an excellent English Venison Pasty.”

Further on he says he is going to Lillingston Dayrell to see his mother, Lady Langham.

[57] “Long” Sir Thomas, Mrs. Montagu’s cousin.

[58] Archbishop Secker.

[59] Thomas Sherlock, born 1678, died 1761. Bishop of London.

[Page heading: THE NEW POST-CHAISE]

In the next letter (Oct. 3) from Sandleford to Mr. West occurs this sentence, “Mr. Montagu returned hither on Monday with the new four-wheeled post-chaise; it is the pleasantest machine imaginable in rough roads, but I think it too easy on even roads.” The coachmen had nothing intermediate between the two-wheeled vehicles and the ponderously long six-or four-horsed coach, which required elaborate skill in turning.

Staying again at Fulham, Mr. West mentions that he has been urging Bishop Sherlock to publish some of his sermons, which he promised to do. West had a fresh attack of the gout, which made him return home. Mr. Pitt had left Hayes suddenly for Bath, Tunbridge waters not having been of sufficient use to him; and in a letter of October 13, to West, in capital letters, her inquiries not being answered, Mrs. Montagu asks, “I desire TO KNOW WHAT YOU HAVE HEARD CONCERNING MR. PITT’S HEALTH?” Describing her daily life, she says she keeps up the Tunbridge habit of driving an hour or so after dinner (which, it must be remembered, was then early) over the adjacent common; after these airings she drank tea, and retired to her dressing-room for two or three hours of reading.

On October 14 West writes--

“The Duke and Duchess of Portland, with two of their daughters, dined here last Thursday, and we are to make them a morning’s visit to-morrow at Bullstrode. Her Grace was extremely courteous and obliging to me, but never made any inquiry after you, which piqued me so much, that I put her against her upon talking about Mr. Botham, and from what she said about the distrest situation of his family, took occasion to extol you as the most generous and sincere friend, and indeed the only one the poor man could depend on.”

[Page heading: LADY BUTE]

The reader will have doubtless missed the frequent mention of the duchess and her letters. There is no doubt that the coolness between the quondam intimate friends was on account of the Scott separation. It will be remembered the duchess sided with Mrs. Scott’s engagement against Mrs. Montagu’s opinion. After the Scott separation, probably influenced by her intimate friend, Lady Bute, who with the Princess of Wales seems to have defended him,[60] the duchess appears to have taken his part; but his true character is shown by the fact that the Prince of Wales (George III.), on being given a Household in 1756, begged that Scott[61] should not be continued about him, and to make up for this dismissal he was given a commissionership in the Excise. Later on the duchess and Mrs. Montagu had a _rapprochement_, but the letters were never as cordial as in previous times.

[60] _Vide_ Walpole’s “Memoirs of the Reign of George III.,”
vol. ii. p. 259.

[61] Scott is said to have been a Jacobite secretly. That he was
double-faced is evident from letters.

[Page heading: BULLSTRODE MENAGERIE]

Writing from Lillingston on October 27, West describes his visit to Bullstrode--

“I was very kindly received both at Bullstrode and Cookham; at the former we were shown a great many fine and great many curious things, both in doors and without; the day proved too cold, and I was not enough recovered to see all the rarities of the animal as well as the vegetable kind, which were dispersed over the Park and gardens. Those that might be seen from the windows, as some spotted Sheep and a little Bull from Fort St. David’s, whose resemblance I have often seen in China ware, I beheld with admiration and applause, and ventured two steps into the garden to take a view of the orange trees against the wall.... Her Grace promised to make me a present of some trained up for that purpose. In her closet we were shown some curious works in Shells, performed by Mrs. Delany, whom her Grace expected at Bullstrode in a short time, and expressed great pleasure and not a little impatience in the prospect of seeing so dear and so ingenious a friend. Of you she said nothing, till upon her naming Mrs. Donnellan, I said I could give her some account of her, having been informed by you that she was gone to town; she then asked when I heard from you, and where you was, but carried her enquiry after you no further. At Cookham I spent some hours with Mrs. Stanley, for Mr. Hooke had gone out with Mrs. Edwin to make a visit to Dr. Freind....” He further states that he found his mother well, and “very little alter’d since I last saw her, excepting that she has grown a little fatter, a circumstance to a woman of seventy is greatly preferable to wrinkles. In my way thro’ Stowe Park I met Miss Banks riding out with Lord Vere,[62] of her I enquired much about Mr. Pitt, and received from her the same answer, which I must have made for your enquiries after him, that they had heard nothing of him since he left Stowe.... While he staid at Stowe he was in good health and spirits, he went from thence to Hagley, and she believed he intended to go from Hagley to Bath.”

[62] Baron Vere, of Hanworth.

On November 10 Mrs. Donnellan, to whom Mrs. Montagu had lent her house in Hill Street, whilst she searched for lodgings in the suburbs, her lungs not permitting her to live in the town during the winter, writes--

“I have taken a little house on tryal at Kensington Gravel Pits ... both Richardson’s house at Northend and Mrs. Granville’s at Chelsey I think too low for me.... I want you to read ‘Sir Charles Grandison,’ it is not formed on your plan of banishing delicacy. I am afraid it carrys it too far on t’other side, and is too fine spun, but there are fine things and fine characters in it, and I don’t know how it is, but his tediousness gives one an eagerness to go on; there is a love-sick madness that I think extremely fine and touching, but if you have not read it I must not forestall. I think I will own to you, the great fault of my friend’s writings, there is too much of everything. I really laughed at your nursery of ‘Clarissas,’ but I hope you did not think of me as the old nurse, there was nobody there while I stayed!”

[Page heading: “SIR CHARLES GRANDISON”]

Mr. Richardson had just completed his novel of Sir Charles Grandison. The Clarissas is an allusion to Miss Botham and Miss Carter, then with Mrs. Montagu.

This same month Mrs. Montagu was again very unwell. West urged her to go to London, but Mr. Montagu, who loved the retirement at Sandleford, was unwilling to leave it, and she says--

“Tho’ I am told I may go to town, I know it would not be agreeable where I ought to please, and I can hardly think it right to be in such haste to quit the place where I live most in the manner I ought to do, where only I am useful. I relieve the distresses and animate the industry of a few, and have given all my hours to the two girls under my care, whose welfare, whose eternal welfare perhaps, depends on what they shall now learn.”

Mr. Hooke and Mr. Botham were both at Sandleford. In Mr. Hooke’s conversation Mrs. Montagu found much enjoyment; as West put it, “He (Hooke) is a very worthy man, and has in him the greatest compass of entertainments of any one I know, from nonsense (as Lord Bath calls it), to sense, and beyond sense to Metaphysics.”

[Page heading: “THE TRIUMPHS OF THE GOUT”]

On December 20 Mrs. West writes to present her Christmas wishes, and Mr. West’s, to the Montagus, as “Tubby” (Mr. West), as was his uneuphonious family nickname, had the gout in both hands. Mrs. Montagu writes to him--

“The 27th of December, 1753.

“And what, my dear Cousin, are both hands prisoners of the gout! such innocent hands too! Hands that never open’d to receive or give a bribe, that never dipped into the guilt of the South Sea fraud, of Charitable Corporations, or pilfer’d lottery tickets, clean even from perquisite in office, and the most modest means by which the Miser’s palm wooes and sollicits gain. So far have your hands been from grasping at other’s gold, they have not held fast your own with a tenacious grip, but open’d liberally at the petitions of the poor, for the productions of Art, or to feast your friends at the genial board. Most of all do I resent the fate of the writing hand, which was first dedicated to the Muses, then with maturer judgment consecrated to the Nymphs of Solyma, and shall it be led captive by the cruel gout? Why did you sing the triumphs[63] of the dire goddess? Oh, why could you not describe them unfelt, as Poets often do the softer pains and gentler woes of Venus and her Son?”

[63] West wrote a poem entitled “The Triumphs of the Gout.”

[Year: 1754]

[Page heading: SCHOOLGIRLS’ BILL]

The first amusing paper I have of 1754 is a school bill for the two younger Miss Bothams, Molly and Kitty. I am sorry that several of the items are torn away, but it is curious as to things then required, and also for the extraordinarily bad spelling and wording of the preceptor entrusted with their care. It is addressed to--

“The Revd. Docʳ Botham,
“These.”

“SIR,

“According to your desire by the honour of your Last, I send you the Bill of the two Miss’s Botham, your daughters, to ye first of this month, altho’ wee had spoak of it before the Holydays I had quite forgot it, and was very easy on that account. I hope, Sir, that you’r satisfied of us, if so I shall alwise thry, as well as my wife, to do all wee can to improve your daughters in everything, especially in their Morals and manners. I was very sorry of your last indisposition, and hope you’r much better, it is the sincere wish of

“Sir,
“Your most humble
and obedient Servant,
“E. SAGE ROBERTS.

“Kensington, the 20th January, 1754.

“P.S.--My wife with her compliments to you joyns with me in compts. of the Saison, wishing you health, prosperity and all you can wish yourself for many years.”

“_The two Miss’s Botham’s Bill._

£ _s._ _d._
“To Board from the 9th of August, 1753, to
the 1st January, 1754, at £25 per year,
maketh 19 16 0
To a Seat at Church 0 8 6
To copy Books, pens, pencils, Ink, paper, &c. 0 7 0
To the Dancing Master 4 10
To sundry things furnished, viz.--
To a chest of Draws 1 5 0
To silver spoons, knife and Fork. 1 1 0
To a tea chest 0 (torn off)
To a Spelling book, 1 Grammar 0 3 -
To two Hats and two Bonets 0 15 0
To three pair of Shoes 0 (torn)
To Gloves, 6 pairs 0 (torn)
To tea and suger 0 (torn)
To Thread, Tape and pins, needles, worsted,
laces, &c. 0 13 -
To Hair cutting, Pomatum Powder (torn)
To Pocket Money 0 10 9
To Pots and Mugs, &c. 0 1 6
To a percel recd. by the Coach 0 0 2
To Soap, Oatmeal for to wash, &c. 0 2 6
----------
Total 30 15 0”

[Page heading: MR. PELHAM’S DEATH]

In the beginning of March in this year Mr. Pelham, the Premier, died suddenly, and there was a General Election. Mr. Pelham’s brother, the Duke of Newcastle, was appointed first Lord of the Treasury; Mr. Legge, Mr. Botham’s uncle, Chancellor of the Exchequer; Sir George Lyttelton, Cofferer. Mr. Montagu proceeded to Hinchinbrooke early in April to canvass, and his wife writes to him on the 11th--

“I hope you had a pleasant journey, and arrived without fatigue. You are proceeding quietly and well at Huntingdon, while many are hustling with infinite animosity in other Boroughs. The votes are eleven hundred paid a piece at Bury as I am informed.... Morris is very busy with the Canterbury Voters, he does not like them so well as law Clients.”

Morris was canvassing for his elder brother Matthew, of Horton.

Mr. Montagu writes on April 16 to say, “Yesterday our Election came on, and was, I believe, one of the most quiet and peaceable that ever was.”

[Page heading: AN ELECTION]

In her next letter to her husband she says--

“I have had a letter to-day from my brother Robinson, informing me that he is chosen along with Creed; Mr. Best declined the Poll. My brother has carried his Election without expence.... I cannot take leave of you without expressing my pride and satisfaction in seeing you again enter the House of Commons, where you have behaved with such steadiness and integrity. I have a joy and pride whenever I reflect on any part of your moral character. May your virtues meet with the happiness they deserve!”

[Page heading: “TOM” LYTTELTON]

Bower writes to Mrs. Montagu on April 16 from Oakhampton, where he had gone with Sir George Lyttelton for his election, in fervid Italian. He was disgusted at the orgy of the election, and says that at the election dinner given by the mayor and magistrates in their robes to Sir George Lyttelton, they sat down at 3 o’clock p.m., and none rose to leave till two in the morning! “e tutti, o quasi tutti partirono cordialmente ubbriachi” (“and all, _nearly_ all, parted thoroughly drunk”). He continues, “The cavaliers then went from house to house to kiss the ladies, as was customary, and ask for the votes of their husbands.” After fervid speeches made to the “celeste imagine della Madonna del Monte e della Strada del Monte” (the celestial image of the Madonna of the Mount and the Madonna of Hill Street), meaning Mrs. Montagu, his pen is taken up by Lyttelton, who says, “The Italian language affords such lofty expressions, as the poverty of ours will not come up to, and therefore the Madonna must be content with my telling her that the good Father with all his Devotion does not honour her more than I do....” At the end of his letter he says, “I hear from my wife that my Boy has been with you: a thousand thanks for your goodness to him.” This is the first mention of Thomas, afterwards 2nd Baron Lyttelton, then only ten years old. Lyttelton had early besought the interest and influence of Mrs. Montagu for his son and daughter by his first marriage. Both became truly attached to her, would that her influence had prevailed on “Tom” later in life.

At this period Mrs. Donnellan was very ill, and Mrs. Montagu did her best to nurse her. Lady Sandwich came to town to inoculate her daughter, Lady Mary. Miss Mary Pitt had been to see Mrs. Montagu, and “she assures me Mr. Pitt is in good health, but has had another attack of gout in his hand, owing, ’tis imagined, to his being blooded for a sore throat.”

Mr. Montagu at this period sustained the heavy loss of his faithful agent, the second Mr. Carter, who died at Theakstone, and whose loss necessitated his immediate journey to the north to attend to his own and Mr. Rogers’ affairs, all of which had been confided to Mr. Carter’s care. Taking Mr. Botham as his temporary secretary and companion, they started off northward by post-chaises, a most expensive process, as Mr. Montagu called it. On June 13 Mrs. Montagu writes--

“I am sorry Mrs. Carter (the grandmother), has set her heart so much on having her granddaughter with her, she is of the proper age to receive instruction and take impressions; a few years passed innocently will not leave her as amiable a subject as she is now, her mind will be less flexible.... Mr. Pitt drank tea with me this afternoon; he has recovered his health entirely, if one may judge by his looks. He tells me he has built a very good house at Bath for £1200. He mention’d to me his intention of going on Saturday to Wickham to propose the place at Chelsea to Mr. West, the offer will certainly be an agreeable one.”

This place was that of the paymaster to Chelsea College. In the next letter to Mrs. Boscawen, Mrs. Montagu says--

“The place is call’d a thousand pounds a year, it is in the gift of Mr. Pitt, and was given with grace that few know how to put into any action ... they have excellent lodgings annexed to the place.... Mr. Pitt dined with them on Saturday; I imagine he was very happy, but he so well deserved to be so. It is a fine thing to act the part of Providence and bless the good. Miss Carter was sent for by her old grandmother, last week she left me.”

Writing to her husband on June 15, Mrs. Montagu states she shall be glad to hear as soon as Mr. Montagu thinks he will return, “that I may disfurnish Hayes, which I shall quit as a man does a homely but a quiet wife, with some little regret, but not much tender sorrow; it is not a beautiful place, but it is quiet, and when one steps out of the bustle of Town, appears on that account amiable.” She adds that her sister’s health is greatly improved, and her temper less petulant, on account of having taken to a milk and vegetable diet.

On July 9 Mrs. Montagu mentions--

“My brother Robinson came to town last night; he dined here to-day, and we are all going to Vauxhall, where Mr. Tyers has had the ruins of Palmyra painted in the manner of the scenes so as to deceive the eye and appear buildings.”

Her sister Sarah and brother Charles were with her. She concludes with an affectionate appeal to her husband not to apply himself too much to business at Newcastle, but to take exercise for his health’s sake.

[Page heading: MR. WEST’S APPOINTMENT]

[Page heading: ELIZABETH CANNING]

In another letter undated, but about this period, as it mentions West’s thanks to Mr. Montagu for his congratulations on his appointment to Chelsea Hospital, allusion is made to Elizabeth Canning, whose curious story of having been kidnapped[64] and ill-treated had convulsed London opinion.

“The town is in great agitation about Elizabeth Canning; she is condemn’d to Transportation, but her guilt is so far from appearing certain, that the Sheriffs refuse to conduct her among the other felons. All the Aldermen but Sir Crispe Gascoigne[65] petition in her behalf, all the great officers of the State almost, interpose for her, and the Archbishop of Canterbury also desires that she may have a decent person of her own sex to attend her over, and then to board in a private family. Some fear there will be a rising of the Mob in her favour; in general all seem to agree that the matter is entirely doubtful. As to Sir Crispe Gascoigne he dare not stir without being guarded.... I wish the whole affair was brought to light, there is great iniquity somewhere.”

[64] _Vide_ vol. ix., Smollett, “History of England,” p. 231.

[65] Then Lord Mayor of London.

On July 19, writing from Hayes, she says--

“Miss Mary Pitt, youngest sister of Mr. Pitt, is come to stay a few days with me, she is a very sensible, modest, pretty sort of young woman, and as Mr. Pitt seem’d to take every civility shown to her as a favour, I thought this mark of respect to her one manner of returning my obligations to him.”

Mr. Montagu and Mr. Botham proceeded to Newcastle to regulate Mr. Rogers’ affairs, which, as before mentioned, required attention, owing to the death of the head agent, Mr. Carter.

In consequence probably of worry, Mr. Montagu returned from the north at the end of July with a fever, “which,” as his wife writes to Sarah, “bleeding and wormwood draughts have taken off,” and as soon as he was fit he was to go with her to Hayes to pack up her books. Miss Anstey was staying with them, and was to accompany them to Sandleford. Mention is made of a portrait of herself which Mrs. Montagu was going to send Mrs. Scott: “Mr. Cambridge call’d on me the other day, he spoke much in your praise. I told him I hoped he would call on you at Bath, he promised he would.” This was Richard Owen Cambridge,[66] a friend of Dr. Johnson, who wrote the “Scribbleriad.”

[66] Mr. Cambridge died in 1802.

Writing to West from Sandleford of her neighbours at Hayes, she regrets the society of Mrs. Herring and the Archbishop,[67] and desires her regards to them. He answers--

“I made your compliments to the Archbishop and Mrs. Herring, who dined with us the very day I received your letter. He is very well and as amiable and polite as ever. Dick[68] has been very dilligent and very successful in partridge shooting, and t’other day sent the prime fruits of his labours, a landrail, as a present to his Grace of Canterbury.”

[67] Thomas Herring, born 1671, died 1757. Archbishop of Canterbury.

[68] Young West.

[Page heading: BRIGHTHELMSTONE]

At the beginning of September, through the influence of West, the Bishop of London gave the living of Ealing to Mr. Botham. Botham was at Brighthelmstone with his two boys for sea-bathing, as they were not in health. The joy of Mrs. Montagu was great at this preferment, as the bishop permitted Mr. Botham to continue to hold Albury as well, placing a curate in the living he did not occupy.

[Page heading: “PRECIEUSES RIDICULES”]

Writing again to West, Mrs. Montagu says--

“Dr. Mangey kept a curate at Ealing as he did not reside there, but undoubtedly Mr. Botham will discharge the duties of the living he resides at without assistance; the Bishop of London required Mr. Botham’s residence: as the girls and boys are growing up and must soon live with him, they will be better placed at Ealing in a good neighbourhood than at Albury. They will learn nothing there but eating and drinking plentifully of Lord Aylesford, and Mr. Godschall’s house is generally full of poetic Misses, who are addressing each other by the names of Parthenia, Araminta, etc., with now and then a little epistle to Strephon or Damon. I was uneasy whenever they were at home, for fear they should enter into the _precieuse_ character of Mrs. Godschall.”

This style of conversation is taken off in Molière’s “Precieuses Ridicules.”

West’s mother, Lady Langham was now paying her son a visit. Mrs. Montagu writes--

“I think the vast territories of imagination could not afford any view so pleasing as the meeting of such a son and such a mother; the pictures not only pleased my mind, but warm’d my heart ... that you may at Lady Langham’s age be as well able to take a journey, and your son as well deserve, and as joyfully receive such a visit is my sincerest and most earnest wish ... another pleasure attends you all, and which your benevolence and not your pride will feel, that of setting an example of those various charities, of parent, child, husband and wife, which make the happiness of domestic life; and there is surely more honour in filling well _the circle mark’d of Heaven_ in these spheres of relation, than in running the wild career of Ambition in its most shining track. Indeed there is no part of a conduct that so certainly deserves our approbation as an acquittance of family regards. Actions of a public nature often are inspired by vanity, domestic behaviour has not popular applause for its object, tho’ with the sober judgment, as Mr. Pope says of silence, ‘_its very want of voice makes it a kind of fame_.’”

She then proceeds to thank West eloquently for Botham’s presentation to _Kingston_ (this must be a mistake for Ealing), and ends with desiring some paper hangings “she and Mrs. Isted had laboriously adorned” to be taken down with care at her house at Hayes, but leaves the rest of the hangings to the landlord. “I presume some retail grocer, haberdasher of small wares, or perhaps a tallow chandler, will shortly be in possession of my Castle at Hayes.”

[Page heading: MR. HATELEY]

At Sandleford were staying young Mr. Hateley, an artist, and Miss Anstey. The latter being in treaty for a house in London, accepted Mr. Montagu’s escort thither, and Mr. Hateley wishing to accompany them a portion of the way, mounted a horse, which flung him at the first start off and grievously cut and bruised him. The doctor was summoned after the departure of Mr. Montagu and Miss Anstey, who “blooded him, and he was ordered to take no food but balm tea lest he should have a fever.... The Harvest Home Supper last night was very jolly, the guests had as good appetite as those who meet to eat Turtle,” writes Mrs. Montagu to her husband on September 23.

Miss Anstey, having lost her parents, and Trumpington having become her brother’s property, had determined to live in London. She took Mr. Montagu to help her in choosing a residence in Queen Street, a new-built house for £800. Miss Anstey executed several commissions for Mrs. Montagu, amongst which she mentions, “I have sent several prints of Nun’s habits, some one of which I hope may become the beautiful Eloise, and I shall very much rejoice to hear she has taken the Veil.”

Mention is made in a previous letter of Mrs. Montagu’s of Hateley painting a picture of Eloise, but who sat for it I cannot say. Hateley recovered from his accident. A new post-chaise had been ordered for the Montagus, and Mr. Montagu found it “nothing showy or brilliant,” but his wife assures him, “I shall find no fault with the plainness of the post-chaise, neatness being all that is aimed at.”

[Page heading: LILLINGSTON DAYRELL]

West, writing on October 8 from Wickham, says--

“I have the honour to agree with my dearest and most excellent cousin in looking upon writing letters as one of the evils of Human Life, and for that reason I have always declined engaging in a correspondence of that kind with anybody but her, tho’ I was once invited to it by the great Mr. Pope.... I am now turning my thoughts towards Chelsea, where I hope to be settled for the whole winter by the beginning of next month. My Mother and Mrs. Ives[69] go from hence to my brother’s[70] house in the country, where they will remain a week or ten days, and from there return to Lillingston.[71] Mr. and Mrs. Dayrell were prevented by the death of two of his Aunts from making us a visit at Wickham, by which accident and the absence of my sister Molly, my Mother lost the opportunity of exhibiting the pleasing picture of a Hen gathering with a careful and maternal tenderness all her chickens at once under her wings, but she will have them by turns.”

[69] Mrs. Ives appears to be Lady Langham’s sister.

[70] Temple West.

[71] Lillingston Dayrell in Bucks.

From this it would appear that Mrs. Dayrell was a daughter of Lady Langham’s. The Dayrells have owned Lillingston Dayrell for some eight hundred years!

Mrs. Medows writes from Chute on October 16 to Mrs. Montagu--