of Kingston has hitherto had so ill an education, 'tis hard to make any judgment of him; he has spirit, but I fear will never have his father's good sense.1 As young noblemen go, 'tis possible he may make a good figure amongst them. Wars and rumours of wars make all the conversation at present. The tumbling of the stocks, one way or other, influences most people's affairs. For my own part, I have no concern there or any where, but hearty prayers that what relates to myself may ever be exactly what it is now. Mutability of sublunary things is the only melancholy reflection I have to make on my own account.

I am

in perfect health, and hear it said I look better than ever I did in my life, which is one of those lies one is always glad to hear. However, in this dear minute, in this golden now, I am tenderly touched at your misfortune, and can never call myself quite happy till you are so.

My daughter makes her compliments to yours, but has not yet received the letter Lord Erskine said he had for her. Adieu, dear sister.

TO THE COUNTESS OF MAR.

[June, 1726.]

DEAR SISTER,-I cannot positively fix a time for my waiting on you at Paris; but I do verily believe I shall make a trip thither, sooner or later. This town improves in gaiety every day; the young people are younger than they used to be, and all the old are grown young. Nothing is talked of but entertainments of gallantry by land and water, and we insensibly begin to taste all the joys of arbitrary power. Politics are no more; nobody pretends to wince or kick under their burthens; but we go on cheerfully with our bells at our ears, ornamented with ribands, and highly contented with our present condition: so much

1 Lady Mary was not mistaken in this estimate of her nephew. He was afterwards notorious chiefly for his profligacy. The Duke's marriage to Miss Chudleigh and her trial by the House of Peers for bigamy are well known. He was the last of the Dukes of Kingston, and died in 1773.-T.

2 War with Spain was considered imminent, when, in April, 1726, Admiral Hosier sailed for Portobello.-T.

1

for the general state of the nation. The last pleasure that fell in my way was Madame Sévigné's letters; 1 very pretty they are, but I assert, without the least vanity, that mine will be full as entertaining forty years hence. I advise you, therefore, to put none of them to the use of waste paper. You say nothing to me of the change of your ministry; I thank you for your silence on that subject; I don't remember myself ever child enough to be concerned who reigned in any part of the earth. I am more touched at the death of poor Miss Chiswell, who is carried off by the small-pox. I am so oddly made, that I never forget the tenderness contracted in my infancy; and I think of any past playfellow with a concern that few people feel for their present favourites. After giving you melancholy by this tragedy, 'tis but reasonable I should conclude with a farce, that I may not leave you in ill humour. I have so good an opinion of your taste, to believe Harlequin in person will never make you laugh so much as the Earl of Stair's furious passion for Lady Walpole (aged fourteen and some months). Mrs. Murray undertook to bring the business to bear, and provided the opportunity (a great ingredient you'll say); but the young lady proved skittish. She did not only turn this heroic flame into present ridicule, but exposed all his generous sentiments, to divert her husband and father-in-law. His lordship is gone to Scotland; and if there was anybody wicked enough to write about it, there is a subject worthy the pen of the best ballad-maker in Grub-street.

6

3

4

1 First published, according to Querard, at La Haye and Rouen, in 1726. They are advertised among "Books just imported," in the Daily Courant of June 1.-T.

2 Alluding to the fall of the Duc de Bourbon, who was disgraced and exiled about June 11, 1726, and succeeded by the Cardinal de Fleury.-T.

3 See Memoir, ante.-T.

4 Margaret, daughter and heir of Samuel Rolle, Esq., of Haynton, co. Devon, married to Robert Lord Walpole, March 26, 1724.-D. There are frequent allusions to her in Lady Mary's letters from Florence.-T. 5 Sir Robert Walpole.-T.

The Earl of Stair's departure "for his seat in Scotland" is announced in the London Journal of June 4, 1726.-T.

TO THE COUNTESS OF MAR.

[1726.]

DEAR SISTER,-I writ to you some time ago a long letter, which I perceive never came to your hands: very provoking; it was certainly a chef d'œuvre of a letter, and worth any of the Sévigné's, or Grignan's, crammed with news. And I can't find in my heart to say much in this,

because I believe there is some fault in the direction: as soon as I hear you have received this, you shall have a full and true account of the affairs of this island; my own are in the utmost prosperity:

"Add but eternity, you make it heaven."

I shall come to Paris this summer without fail, and endeavour to pull you out of your melancholies.

TO THE COUNTESS OF MAR.

[July, 1726.]

DEAR SISTER, I am very glad to hear you mention meeting in London. We are much mistaken here as to our ideas of Paris:-to hear gallantry has deserted it, sounds as extraordinary to me as a want of ice in Greenland. We have nothing but ugly faces in this country, but more lovers than ever. There are but three pretty men in England, and they are all in love with me, at this present writing. This will amaze you extremely; but if you were to see the reigning girls at present, I will assure you, there is very little difference between them and old women. I have been embourbée in family affairs for this last fortnight. Lady F. [Frances] Pierrepont having four hundred pounds per annum for her maintenance, has awakened the consciences of half her relations to take care of her education; and (excepting myself) they have all been squabbling about her; and squabble to this day. My sister Gower carries her off to-morrow morning to Staffordshire. The lies, twattles, and contrivances about this

1 Trentham, in Staffordshire, the seat of Lord Gower.—T.

affair are innumerable. I should pity the poor girl, if I saw she pitied herself. The Duke of Kingston is in France,' but is not to go to your capital; so much for that branch of your family. My blessed offspring has already made a great noise in the world. That young rake, my son,2 took to his heels t'other day and transported his person to Oxford; being in his own opinion thoroughly qualified for the University. After a good deal of search we found and reduced him, much against his will, to the humble condition of a schoolboy. It happens very luckily that the sobriety and discretion is of my daughter's side; I am sorry the ugliness is so too, for my son grows extremely handsome.

I don't hear much of Mrs. Murray's despair on the death of poor Gibby, and I saw her dance at a ball where I was two days before his death. I have a vast many pleasantries to tell you, and some that will make your hair stand on an end with wonder. Adieu, dear sister: conservezmoi l'honneur de votre amitié, et croyez que je suis toute à vous."

66

TO THE COUNTESS OF MAR.

[Nov. 1726.]

I AM very sorry, dear sister, for your ill health, but hope it is so entirely past, that you have by this time forgot it. I never was better in my life, nor ever past my hours more agreebly; I ride between London and Twickenham perpetually, and have little societies quite to my taste, and that is saying every thing. I leave the great world to girls that know no better, and do not think one bit the worse of myself for having out-lived a certain giddiness, which is sometimes excusable but never pleasing. Depend upon it, 'tis only the spleen that gives you those ideas; you may

1 "Yesterday the Duke of Kingston went for Dover in order to embark for France, to begin his travels in foreign parts."-Daily Post, July 5, 1726.-T.

2 Edward Wortley Montagu, now thirteen years of age. He absconded again in the following year. See notes on subsequent

letters.-T.

have many delightful days to come, and there is nothing more silly than to be too wise to be happy:

1

If to be sad is to be wise,

I do most heartily despise
Whatever Socrates has said.

Or Tully writ, or Montaigne read.

So much for philosophy.-What do you say to P. [Peg] Pelham's marriage? There's flame! there's constancy! If I could not employ my time better, I would write the history of their loves, in twelve tomes: Lord Hervey should die in her arms like the poor King of Assyria; she should be sometimes carried off by troops of Masques, and at other times blocked up in the strong castles of the Bagnio; but her honour should always remain inviolate by the strength of her own virtue, and the friendship of the enchantress Mrs. Murray, till her happy nuptials with her faithful Cyrus: 'tis a thousand pities I have not time for these vivacities. Here is a book come out,2 that all our people of taste run mad about: 'tis no less than the united work of a dignified clergyman, an eminent physician, and the first poet of the age; and very wonderful it is, God knows! great eloquence have they employed to prove themselves beasts, and shew such a veneration for horses, that, since the Essex Quaker,* nobody has appeared so passionately devoted to that species; and to say truth, they talk of a stable with so much warmth and affection, I cannot help suspecting some very powerful motive at the bottom. of it.

3

1 The Hon. Margaret Pelham was married about the 16th March, 1727, to Sir John Shelley, Bart., of Maresfield Park, Sussex. Sir John had been a widower less than six months, his first wife having been killed by a fall from a horse in September, 1726.-T.

2 The first two volumes of the Travels of Gulliver were advertised as "this day published," in the Daily Post of Oct. 28, 1726.-T.

3 Swift, Arbuthnot, and Pope.-D.

4 Alluding to a poem by Sir John Denham, entitled "News from Colchester, or a Proper new Ballad," &c.-T.