BC_1769_EMONTAGU_BS
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<Q A 1769? TC BS EMONTAGU> <X ELIZABETH MONTAGU> [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO BENJAMIN STILLINGFLEET. 2 JUN 1769. SANDLEFORD, BERKS. MO 5129}] <P1> I know you will be glad to hear that I have been for these four days free from Fever & advancing towards health in a regular progression. I expect the pleasure of seeing M=r= Montagu & M=r= Black here to day. I am delighted with peoples opinion of poetical farming, but as the fields of parnassus produce daisies, daffodils, & primroses we should have been supposed to have produced some of these pretty things ready for similies. If the good folks knew ye Lady of the manor is a Critick they might imagine she scattered nettles over poetick ground, such being too often the practice of the Critical Tribe. M=r= Baker has obey_d your orders for since you wrote I have seen the Essay <P2> advertised in a morning & an evening & I believe the Essay is in a fair way of making its fortune, for the Critical Review has puffed it most egregiously, indeed far beyond its merits, for which I am their most obliged Humble Servant, & the more as I did not solicit their favour by sending y=e= book or by making any other application. [\In/] [\The INTO the\] Critical Memoirs of the times the said essay is much praised they have indeed so retailed it out that it may satisfy people without buying it. I shrewdly suspect the reason why y=e= Booksellers w=d= not advertise it was that they intended to have ye selling it in that way, for they give their Readers not only a taste but a surfeit perhaps, and I believe they will retail out almost every line in ye work. The Monthly Review & ye Magazines have not yet taken the Essay into consideration. My great pleasure is no one finds me out, & whenever they mention the Author <P3> they talk of (^him^) , & (^he^) , so that they make me stroke my chin to find whether I have a great beard. A gentleman told a friend of mine the Author of the Essay was a clever fellow. I propose great pleasure in settling every thing relative to the management of this Farm. My late illness has given a check to my scheme of going to the North. I shall make it my business to build up my own frail Tenement of clay rather than inspect M=r= Montagus Farm houses and Farms at present. It mortifies me that I cannot this Summer make him a better Steward, but at this time of life the loss of the Friend & companion w=d= be heavily [felt SEAL] & ye agonies I hear he has sufferd during my illness [\WORDS DELETED\] [\shew that/] he [\WORDS INTO w=d= pay\] dearly for any thing I could do for him in the North should I fall ill there, & fatigue & business might have that consequence. I am now for the first time going to take ye air. I hope you received my letter with one I took ye liberty to enclose from M=r= Shallot. I long to hear that y=e= <P4> [\IN MARGIN\] Bath waters have been of service to you. My Sister begs her best comp=ts=. M=r= Woodhouse his humble respects. Vesey is gone alas to Ireland. I have not heard any thing of y=e= Pitt family lately. May heaven support them and their heavy affliction. With entire esteem I am D=r= Sir y=r= most affect & faithfull Friend & H=ble= Serv=t= EM Y=r= Nephews request is so reasonable it will I doubt not be complied with there may be some difficulty in knowing what living is in a Market Town. [\ADDRESS\] To / Benjamin Stillingfleet Esq=r= / At M=r= Allens / Walcott street / Bath