BC_1760_EMONTAGU_EC_2

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<Q A 1760? TC EC EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
 [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO ELIZABETH CARTER. MO 3039. 1760? OCTOBER? 24. NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE}]
<P1>
Newcastle ye 24=th=
   I was totally incapable of thanking my Dear M=rs= Carter for her letter last post by an outrageous pain in my teeth & face. I am now in a state of stupidity enliven'd with a little pain. I have the weight of a great cold, with the twitchings of the toothach. I think I have prepared you to expect a very dull letter but I cannot longer delay telling you how anxious my mind is about you. I thank you for the sonnet which would have given me a pleasing melancholly if it had not represented (^your^) state & condition, as it did, it cost me some tears & obliged me to go from table where I received your letter. Teach me to love you less or imitate you better. I admire the resignation with you submit to your pain, but the more I admire the less I practise it. I grew impatient at the sufferings of my patient friend. Cannot you hope for assistance from Physicians? does not your patience make you neglect remedies?
<P2>
I have in the main very well endured my Northumberland life. M=r= Montagu by great diligence and application has brought our most important affairs near a conclusion, & when they are finish'd I shall be dismiss'd from these cold regions. Almost every day since I came hither we have had a tempest of wind & rain. As I came so late in the year, & for so short a time, I chose to reside in the Town of Newcastle in a very large good house [\which DELETED\] [\of/] [\WORD INTO our\] late Cousins. by this means I am better shelter'd from the northern blasts, & we are more in the way of people of business, & I can visit the Newcastle Dames shut up in a sedan chair which is much better than getting in & out of an equipage at the door; but not even this can preserve one from hazard of cold, for you must know as these people enhabit a soft mild region, they have a thorough passage for the zephirs, and as the street door is open behind when you
<P3>
Enter, there is an open passage through [\to/] the Garden so that a fine draught of air is admitted, & if the canvass sail of a large hoop was expanded I imagine one should often be overset by the wind. That I might not offend here I enter'd into all the diversions of this Town, visits, concerts plays & balls. The desire of pleasure & love of dissipation rages here as much as in London. Diversions here are less elegant, & conversation less polite, but no one imagines retirement has any comforts, so that in a little while if one would enjoy retired leisure one must dwell amidst inaccessible mountains & unnavigable rivers. If benevolence impelld to this social intercourse I would endure the effect for the sake of the lovely cause, but it [\is/] merely the love of idleness that brings people thus constantly together, casual, unindear'd, joyless society, how can it pay one for the loss of hours which
<P4>
Might be spent in the improvement of virtue & knowledge & the quiet pleasures of contemplation? There seems too much pride & ill nature in living retired where other people are mixing in society, & I will never affront any particular set of people by doing so; but if this mode of life continues, I shall endeavour to get myself a retreat in summer in some wild Country where I may live with departed saints & sages for some months every year, rather than waste my time on every idle fool that asks for it. I had rather live in Eddystone light house, & see nothing but the stars above & blank ocean below me, than be constantly haunted by the human species, but this scheme is to be reserved for times of leisure, business is a real duty. A prudent attention to ones affairs is so, the careless possessor of a large fortune tempts many to become knaves, has nothing wherewith to encourage merit & relieve distress, but turns a great blessing into a Curse & betrays a sacred trust. M=rs= Pelt has got [REMAINDER OF THE LETTER MISSING]