[}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO MARY ROBINSON. c. 1777? BL ADD. 40663. F. 55}] [\ANOTHER HAND Abt 1777\] Dear Madam Always sensible of your goodness to me I should have wrote to you sooner if I could have given you any tolerable account; in spite of my care, & Doctor Fothergills skill, I have made but a poor progress towards health. I sleep very little, my stomach is much out of order, but my nerves mend, & I cannot better bear the noise of a Cannon now, than I could the report of a pistol when I first returnd to Hillstreet. My Doctor keeps me very quiet, he will not allow me to see the Wise, the Witty, or the fashionable World. I have dined below stairs these four or five days. The Doctor has to day begun to try a new medicine, but I have as [\little/] faith in Doctors of Physick as some of my family have in Doctors of Divinity. I imagine my fever at Canterbury was ye Influenza which has lately raged so much, & it leaves people very weak, & much affects the nerves. Some have lost their speech for a few days, others their hearing. My Northumberland Steward & his Brother, who left London when I did, were both taken ill on ye road. I believe fatigue of preparation for my [\foreign/] journey did me some harm but I imagine my principal illness was owing to ye Contagion in the air. My Servants have all been sick, none of my family have escaped but Miss Gregory & Matt. You will see by the papers Lord Dartmouth is retired to ye greater post of the Seals. Lord Rochford to ye sweet anodyne of a weary Minister, a snug Pension. Lord Weymouth is Secretary of State in the [\room\] of L=d= Rochford, L=d= George Germaine in the place of L=d= Dartmouth L=d= Lyttelton is chief justice in Eyre. Lord Chatham is very ill, the Patriots are rather in despair of changing the Ministry; this may damp their ambition, but will keep their Patriotism in its Vigour. There is something so mortal to Patriotism in a place that one can never wish those who have assumed that character to sacrifice [\it/] to ye [\emoluments\] of an employment. The Recorder was so kind as to call on me yesterday, I am afraid he was kept longer at Canterbury but my obstructing the dispatch of his business; he makes his House so comfortable to the Sick, & so agreable to the well that if I had not been afraid of putting him to inconvenience I should have staid still longer with him. Lord Shelburne made a speech the other day in the House of Lords which has met with the highest & most universal applause. M=r= Burke is kept from ye House of Commons by ye death of his Father in Law. Lady Mary Sommerset has recoverd her health & her nuptials will soon be celebrated. Hymen may exult, for the pair are lovely. Miss Gregory often spends ye evening with Lady Mary & Lady Betty, as L=d= Granby is of ye party, you may suppose Lady Betty & Miss Gregory attend [\most/] to each other. The Duchess has got ye Influenza but is not very bad. Pray tell my Neice I have not forgot her Doll, but have not been well to accomplish an affair of such importance as dressing a Lady. My Nephews book shall come with Doll, thus teaching by allegory, that Men are to be learned, Ladies elegant. Miss Gregory desires her comp=ts= Matt his duty. My love attends my Brother & ye little ones. I am with sincere regard & esteem Dear Madam y=r= most affect=te= Sister EM