BC_1740_EMONTAGU_WF

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<Q A 1740? FO WF EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
 [}ELIZABETH ROBINSON TO WILLIAM FREIND. 1739-40. bMS ENG 1365 (145)}]
<P1>
[\IN PENCIL 1739-40\]
Sir
   The only comfort I could receive after hearing M=rs= Freind & you had been ill was to hear you were well again. I am glad you enjoy the bloom of nature at Bath, London beauties are cheifly borrow'd from Art, the very Sun is neglected & those who do not rise till he is setting endeavour to out blaze him by Candles, I have often thought Nature meant to [\point\] out Society to us by withdrawing half the year the comforts of Solitude, selflove is still the principle of action & even benevolent beneficient Social Man but seeks another to bless himself [\ye more/], perhaps had there been nothing but Summer all the year he had never forsaken the Woods, defence sufficient against Zephir, & Sun beams but when he found all Coverings fail but those of Art then first might he build houses to [\WORD INTO defend\] himself against the storms & outrages of Weather & once secure still wanting to be happy [\might? DELETED\] seek company & assistance from his fellow Creatures, necessity craved a few things luxury wants many, but the young World in the first page of life had [\not/] learnt the arts of luxury they only ask'd the necessaries of life, for Providence which made us for each other [\WORD DELETED\] has denied happiness to any one alone, escpecially in Winter
<P2>
When half the Creation retires from sight, [\UNCLEAR\] Citties please us then & the busy humm of Men; when the fields are in their freshest liveries Light a thousand objects divert the mind. I am at present my happy being just recoverd from a multitude of fears, I was apprehensive I should be sent for to Mount Morris immediately before I could have the pleasure of seeing my Dear friend safe from the pains & perils of Child birth, for I believe I told you I was in possession of a Room which was to belong to a little Person as [\soon as/] they became a Citizen of the World, but now it is agreed by the Supreme Powers in Kent that I shall remain with the Dutchess till my Pappa comes to Town which will be the first of March, & then I am to be with him & my Sister is to come up & stay a fortnight with us, how happy shall I be to have by Dutchess & my Sister within perhaps a few hundred yards of each other; I shall have the joy of seeing her Grace as well [\as ever/] & happier by a child than she was before, & then go out of Town with a mind free enough from cares to enjoy ease & retirement. I shall go into the Country the beginning of
<P3>
April which is a pleasant Season of the year, & I propose to read & walk, & ride sometimes but not very often for I [\tend\] rather trust two of my own legs than four of anothers, however that I may not lose the health I have gain'd I will make a Horse my guide & companion; I am very discontented at your talking of not coming to Town till April, by that means I may miss the seeing you but I hope M=rs= Freind & you will come in March the Parliament will be up by the end of it & the Palaces & high places will be desolate, I have a thousand things to say to you which I do not care to put upon paper, therefore accuse me not of reserve to you but of caution towards the curious [\& impertinent/] who will open a thing because it is seald & tell it because it is a secret. You should certainly have heard from [\if\] I had not been in the greatest hurry of idleness of any body living, going always into a Croud because I was not wanted, visiting those that did not care for me & doing a hundred things I did not care a farthing for myself, I have yawn'd at Assemblies out of a desire of keeping good company, done many things I disliked to show I had a [\tast\], & have
<P4>
Really to the utmost of my power behaved my self like a genius of the present age, I thank my stars playing at Cards cannot be reckon'd among my misdoings, the face of the Queen of Spades gives me the vapours & Spadille Manille Basto which better than the three Graces brighten the Countenance of a Modern Belle give me no joy, I am sometimes for my Sins visited with the loss of my neighbours (\Sans prendre\) , who from the losers privilege of talking will give me a full & true account how she lost the game tho I cannot instruct [\her/] how to win another half the Monarchs in Christendom might be deposed with [\WORDS DELETED\] noise [\WORD DELETED\] some Ladies make if the King called is unguarded or happens to be trump'd. I have received the money for the trimming. I design to go Miss Grinfeild this afternoon I had a sight of her at the Riddotto but there was such a prodigious croud it was impossible to converse with any one. I am very glad indeed that you did not send any compliment for me by the Miserable Gentleman you mention, a messag from you & M=rs= Freind would have procured a kinder smile than I should otherwise bestow upon him, [\Ward\] may very possibly have cured him of Love by giving his pill, for a real ill will cure an imaginary one, I find by what you say he
[\REST MISSING\]
[\FOLDED\]