BC_1760_EMONTAGU_WP_2

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<Q A 1760? TC WP EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
 [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO LORD BATH. MO 4502A. 1760 DEC. LONDON}]
<P1>
My Lord
   I have sent your Lordship back the Bishop of Londons letter, which cannot be more honourably placed than in your cabinet. From an apprehension that this letter may be degraded by appearing in a magazine of chronicle I was desirous to communicate it to my friends under such restraints as would secure [\me/] from blame in case such of accident.
   As I do not expect a (\billet doux\) every morning, I was unluckily asleep (observe that I do not say not dreaming of my Lord Bath) when your letter arrived. I cannot express how much I admire your Lordships parody of a Bishops pastoral letter. As I have yet got but half way towards the ardors of fourscore, your Lordship will not expect I should immediately comply with your proposal; but if you will be content with a
<P2>
sentimental love till I arrive at the tender age of eighty, a person & a passion so ripen'd by time must be very yielding. And according to the latest reckoning of the learned and ingenious M=r= Whiston, the Millenium will then commence, so that we may have a proper period in which to prove our constancy & love, & at a moderate computation, may produce a thousand of those proofs of it, which your Lordship seems to think the best testimony. I am now very much, but at the commencement of the next century hope to be entirely
   Yours.
   I hope your Lordship will not forget your engagement on sunday, for I have been interrupted in my letter by a visit from a very pretty man of five & twenty, whose conversation is so far from the spirit of your Lordships letter, that I cannot but be tired of ye insipidity of these young people.