BC_1769_EMONTAGU_GL_1
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<Q A 1769 TC GL EMONTAGU> <X ELIZABETH MONTAGU> [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO GEORGE LYTTELTON. 4 JUN 1769. SANDLEFORD. MO 1464}] <P1> Sandleford June y=e= 4=th= 1769 My Lord I can now have the pleasure of assuring your Lordship I am getting perfectly well; but the pleasure of being so is much allay=d= by M=r= Montagu's telling me you are indisposed. He assures me you were growing better, but saying at the same time your Lordship was suddenly preparing for Sunninghill alarms me, & I beg a line on the very important subject of your health. I shall be in Town in about a week to finish many things I had left undone on the supposition I should so soon return. I shall stay in Town a week or ten days, & hope to have the pleasure of your company often, for the Town is empty; politicks are asleep, & Politicians are indulging their Midsummer nights dream in their woods & groves, so that your Printer is the only very formidable Competitor [\of whom/] I shall <P2> stand in awe. Indeed were I Lord Lyttelton, I should have an infinite regard for a Printer, to you he is the Conveyer of a perpetuity or least [\ninetynine? CORRECTED INTO ninehundred\] [\99/] years [\lease/] of Fame. We little Scribblers [\are/] like ye grass which to day is, & tomorrow is cast into the (^Oven^). The pastry Cook is sure to inherit our Labours in a very short time! From the wonderful indulgence of the Critical Reviewers I hope my work will survive next Christmas; before the next succeeding some better Critick will drive me to take shelter under minced pyes & twelfth cake. The Courtesy of the Reviewers is prodigious; after many civil things they add, that in its kind, it is as classical a performance as any this age has produced. The word classical sticks in my throat. alas! did these Gentlemen know the first rudiments of ye Authors learning were working a Sampler what would they say! I was afraid these Reviewers would have been severe, but they have hurt me only by undeserved <P3> Commendation. These Reviews are read by people in the Country, so I hope their favourable sentence will be of use. I am glad to find they do not guess the Author, they talk of (^him^) till they make me feel whether I have not a beard on my chin. There is another of these monthly papers call_d the Critical Memoirs of the Times, in which they commend the Essay, but what I am less obliged to them for is, that they seem to [\design to/] insert the whole of it by degrees: the other monthly papers have not yet taken notice of me, but I suppose they will do it, & some perhaps as unfavorably as these have been favorable but is is of no great consequence, for in a year or two, the Reviewed & the Reviewers lye down together in the same Oven, are served at ye same feast, & so pass the glories of this World. Your little Godson George Woodhouse is the prettiest boy in Berkshire. M=r= Montagu arrived on friday. I grieve at the departure of my poor Vesey. She is not made for the noisy <P4> mirth of Dublin, & I believe quitted London with great reluctance. Pray has y=r= Lordship solicited the Duke of Montagu for a place in S=t= Lukes Hospital for the poor madman you found in a Cottage in y=r= road last year? My sister begs to present her best compliments, & M=r= Montagu hopes y=r= Lordship will do him the honour to accept his. My Bard offers his humble duty. I shall rejoyce to hear your Lordship is in health. I am my Lord Your Lordships Most Obed=t= & faithfull H=ble= Servant Eliz Montagu