BC_1768_EMONTAGU_EC_5

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<Q A 1768? TC EC EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
 [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO ELIZABETH CARTER. DEC 22 1768 LONDON. MO 3237}]
<P1>
y=e= 22 Dec [SEAL My] Dear Friend
   I was under great anxiety about you before I had your letter, as you were so much out of order when you wrote before. I wish the Physical faculty could find out what cause y=r= feverish disorder arises from; for tho it does not reduce you to the skeleton state as [it INTO is] usual with that distemper, it must wear you tho invisibly, & hurt [\& burn up/] the internal while the external seems plump & moist, & from this uncommon circumstance it should seem to arise from no usual cause, & therefore not to be cured by common methods. I fear there is some great obstruction in the circulation, & tho the acids may have some effect for the time, they do not do any thing towards a cure, but leave you still suffering in the continual heat of a hectick, which is of all things grievous. I heard of a Person ye other day cured of a constant fever by repeated
<P2>
purges which carried off a redundance of Bile. The poor Bishop of Carlisle is very dangerously ill of a Catarrh. Lord Lyttelton has been ill but is well again. I was at M=rs= J Pitts on monday night, many of our Friends were assembled there M=rs= Dunbar amongst them at whose House I was to have been last night but was prevented by the head ach. M=rs= Vesey & M=rs= Handcock have had colds but are better. The Sylph says she got cold looking at ye prospects in her journey, a Person of less taste w=d= have drawn up the windows. She was much alarm'd about M=rs= Handcock for some days but without any real cause however she is getting well very fast. Their House is in a sad pickle below stairs with ye floods. The Sylph has been entirely taken up with M=rs= Handcock & Lady Primrose but as they are both better I hope one shall enjoy her company. I wrote this last night but some rhubarb I had taken in the morning behaved in such ungentle sort I could not write any more. I was at Court this morning with
<P3>
M=rs= Pulteney. She seems pure well, she was with me on sunday evening. M=r= Pulteney has carried his controverted election for [\Cromartie\] with the H: of Commons, the adverse party durst not abide ye decision but retreated. I calld at ye Sylphs as I came home but she was at dinner for Sylphs dine. She had been out to take ye air. M=rs= Handcock is again (\sur pied\) . The Bishop of Carlisle is better. M=r= Montagu who calld on L=d= Lyttelton this morning found him in sorrow, for that Lady Anglesey again had miscarried. There seems to me nothing tight about that Lady, I sh=d= expect her ever & anon to drop a child or a garter. There are people who have no tensities or tensions [\or tensitiosities/] [\UNCLEAR\] which [\you please & all/] moral & natural matters hang loose about them. just thus poor thing she droppd one of the ten Commandments, & honourd not her Father, tho in all respects he deserves it, &
<P4>
if he had not, the command had deserved it for him. I have not time to describe to you a clock which is going to ye East Indies, it exceeds any thing in y=e= Arabian tales, take with you this circumstance; Dragons flap their Emerald wings & spit pearls every second. But of what use is such a clock? does not every second, & the smallest division of time pace to our eternal home? Does not a small part of a minute suffice to do an act of virtue? It is not by pearl & Diamond we sh=d= measure ye value of time. Hall tells Falstaffe, that if hours were Capons, & minutes were Cups of sack, they w=d= be worth his Enquiry. Nabobs to be sure considers hours as Diamonds, & minutes as pearls, that is they value [\it DELETED\] [\time/] only as it bring Riches or big Wings. I wish you had seen this peice of oriental Wealth set off by English ingenuity & art, it was indeed a wonderfull peice. M=r= John Pitt esteems y=e= Workmanship at 160,000 =L= ye Materials are gold pearl gems of various sort & Diamonds. for 8 years 400 men were employ_d
<P5>
employ_d in making it. I have just this moment [\heard/] the poor Bishop of Carlisle is no more. (\Adieu\) I am fatigued with this mornings drawing room but well in health & always most affect=ly=
   Y=rs= EM
   I did not mention ye breaking up of ye society at Hitcham because M=rs= Freind desired her application for lodgings at Windsor Castle might be a secret. She thinks ye System too expensive, but w=d= be glad if her application does not succeed to continue in the Society in a smaller House upon a life establishment, but between you & I that cannot be, for she does not behave tolerably to M=rs= Cutts to whom my Sister is so much obliged. She complains M=rs= Cutts is not humble enough, poor Woman she is so unaffectedly so that she makes no parade of her humility. pray mention not this to any one. I found poor M=rs= Cutts was not happy in ye summer when I calld there.