BC_1778_EMONTAGU_MB_2
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<Q A 1778 TC MB EMONTAGU> <X ELIZABETH MONTAGU> [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO THE DUCHESS OF PORTLAND. OCT 8 1778. MO 440.}] <P1> Tunbridge Wells Oct ye 8=th= 1778 Dear Madam Your Graces great sensibility for all who have the honour & happiness to possess any share of your regard makes me apprehend you will not be sorry to hear my health has not suffer_d from a late melancholly event in my family. The gradual slow approaches of this event took away all surprize, & old age had brought with it so many infirmities as renderd life no longer a blessing to my poor Father. I thank God his last illness was not attended with any violent pain or disorder, & he went off at last with=t= a groan or sigh. I hope your Grace received a long letter of thanks for that you had the goodness to write to me while I was in the North. I had flatterd myself I should have often had the honour of writing to you from the North Pole, but I was taken ill again immediately, & continued much indisposed till I came hither on y=e= 21=st= of Sept: Whether my constitution <P2> was tired & ashamed of being perverse, or the air here was of service I do not know, but I found an immediate amendment. I propose to stay here till cold winds blow, or great rains wash us away. All the habitations at Tunbridge are properly speaking Summer Houses, so after Winter storms begin they are not tenable. I hope however to be able to persue the waters a fortnight longer. Lady Spencer, Duchess of Devonshire, & Lady Clermont will leave us on monday. We shall then be reduced to a little Country Neighbourhood. I hope your Grace found all the benefit you wished, nay more, all that your Friends wish_d, from the air at Weymouth. I was very sorry to hear M=rs= Delany had been indisposed in Town before I arrived there. I rejoyced to hear she was got pretty well & gone to Bullstrode, where if happiness gives health every one must be very well. I begin to be very impatient to hear of M=rs= Veseys arrival in England, if M=r= Vesey does not keep his promise in that matter I shall fit out a Privateer, order ye Crow to <P3> make a descent on ye Court, & snatch M=rs= Vesey as she is indulging a reverie in the Walks of Lucan. I do not think she would dislike an adventure merely as an adventure & its ending in setting her down at her House in London would be no disagreable Circumstance. At Grantham I met Lady Henrietta Roper & M=r= Drummond on their way to Brodsworth. I was much grieved to see M=r= Drummond so thin & pale. I have great apprehensions he will never recover any good state, of health. A most stupifying headach makes me unable to add more than my most affectionate respects to M=rs= Delany & that I am with the most perfect esteem Dear Madam Your Graces most Obliged and devoted EMontagu Miss Gregory begs leave to present her best respects