BC_1762_EMONTAGU_EV_1

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<Q A 1762 TC EV EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
[}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO ELIZABETH VESEY. 1762 27. HUNTINGTON LIBRARY}]
<P1>
Hillstreet y=e= 27th 1762 Dear Madam
     My lively agreable mermaids letter being out of its element by land carriage, did not get to me till Saturday night. I dined out, & was not at home till was late for the post. alas my Dear Madam Minerva, Athens, & their subject & Servant M=r= Stewart, have had no share in my detention in London. yet here I have been ever since I left those Elysian fields where we were all so happy in Worcestershire. I was grievously tormented with pains in my teeth in my journey to Town, so I sent to M=r= Galin who has been very busy upon my unfortunate jaws ever since. It was no small consolation to me that my Lord Bath spent some days in Town in his way to Tunbridge, but I am now reduced to the lowest condition of human life, not a friend, not one of (\mes amans sexagenaires\) , nor even my Mounteban remains. Represent to your self a miserable Ariadne in an old tapestry hanging faded & [\dusty/]
<P2>
triste & pale, & you will see a true resemblance of the person & condition of your humble servant. you know nothing of what has happen'd to the party since you left it at Warwick so I will send you (\memoires pour servir à l'histoire des illustres Voyages\) We went to Warwick Castle with which you are so well acquainted I shall not say any thing of it. after that to the dairy, where there is not a Dun cow for the present Earl of Warwick to try his [\WORD DELETED\] [\prowess/] upon, but many good milck cows & other things suitable to a dairy. but with the greatest veneration I behold the walk of S=ir= Philip Sydney, where he mix'd, as in his Arcadia noble sentiments with rural ideas. We went afterwards to the Church where the great Earl surnamed the King maker lies as quiet & in as little compass as any maker of cabbage nets can do. In that mornings journey we got to Kenilworth Castle, which shows still some of the strength with which Simon de Montfort made head against his sovereign, & some of the magnificence with which Robert Dudley entertain'd his. The Lady of the Lake
<P3>
is turn'd into an honest dairy maid, the Lake is [\UNCLEAR\] into fine pasture, & all the domains of the Castle show peace & plenty possess the Land. The old Ivy like a faithfull servant adheres to the place, & seems proud of its connection with this strong & noble castle. I never saw more beautifull ruins than there at Kenilworth, & the Ivy like the grey hairs of old age covers what would appear deform'd & bald, & at the same render its aspect more venerable. I will own I could have wish'd for the sake of the picture, the fox had peep_d through the broken windows, & the Owl had shown her melancholly face among the battlements, but Cows were grazing, & fat geese feeding among the ruins of the Castle, there wanted the dark shade of horror & melancholly to give y=e= true Sublime. Vide Burke. page y=e= -. Our next excursion was to Boughton, which is a great french palace very noble, very magnificent, but a little dull. It is not the place in which you would chuse to be pensive, nor in which you would [\be\]
<P4>
indeed to be chearfull, it is the great seat of a great nobleman, not pleasing & elegant like the Countess of Cardigan, nor polishd & adorn'd by the fine arts like her son Lord Montagu. The plantations are extreamly fine. A woman as deaf as a post, shew_d us the house, questions one could not make her hear, but being of a temper very communicative, & not very precise in her knowledge, She shew_d us the picture of K Charles ye second for that of Edw=d= the first, with many other things in which the chronology was as happily determined. There is a Carbon of Raphaels in the Hall which charm'd me more than any thing I ever saw.
     The rest of our journey was merely passing through the turnpike road, the number of Monseys stories infinitely exceeded those of the mile stones. I made now & then an escape from his stories to the allegory of Spencer & so arrived at home much pleased with all that I had hear'd & seen since my setting out but  most with the time we pass'd at Hagley where every thing bears the character of its Master.