BC_1740_EMONTAGU_MR_2
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<Q A 1740? FN MR EMONTAGU> <X ELIZABETH MONTAGU> [}ELIZABETH ROBINSON TO MATTHEW ROBINSON. 1740? NOVEMBER 3. BULSTRODE. MO 4754. ALL LATER EMENDATIONS NOT INDICATED.}] <P1> Bullstrode Nov [\ADDED? y=e= 3\] [\ADDED 1740\] Sir If my time had concurred with my inclination to write to you and my readiness to return thanks for the [\pattern DELETED\] [\drawing,/] you had a letter from [\me/] long ago; the Apron will be fit for a Dutchess if it is a tolerable imitation of the pattern; her Grace charges me to make Compliments for her suitable to the occasion, which I should do, if I did not know you could imagine (\mille gentillesses\) that I cannot express: So please to dress up your thoughts in the elegant habit of your own phrase, & then they will be fit for the Person & the occasion, proper for the most finish'd Dutchess & most finish'd Apron. Lord Oxford & George Vertue arrived here last night after a Ramble which the best Geographer could hardly describe; they have been haunting Church yards & reading the History of Mankind upon Grave stones <P2> A short history, but comprehensive of all the Generality do, [\to/] be born & dye, self love orders that to be engraved in lasting Characters which Reason would wish [\to/] forget, what worth is Remembrance without praise, then the inscription humbly begs the Gentle Reader to weep because Tom a Stiles, born 1700, did nothing till he died, 1730, when he had nothing else to do, one may weep indeed to see Men live so idle, & dye so vain, if ever I have an Inscription over me it shall be without a name; & only here lies one whom, having done no harm, no one shou'd censure, & having done no good, no one can commend, & for past folly only asks oblivion, So shall my friends be discharged of neglect & my self of partiality to my Memory. D=r= Grey is employ'd about a peice of work which is to make its appearance in Publick you woud not easily guess it I believe tis no perplexity upon misteries, no refutation of the doctrine of transubstantiation, no Explanation of the catechism, but a [\thing DELETED\] [\thing/] for which his serious qualifications dont seem very fit. He is writing notes upon Hudibrass; his dulness may be a proper ballad <P3> For Doggrel It is better, however, his stupidity should make jest dull, than serious & sacred things ridiculous; which, as far as false light could do with persons of giddy imagination, he might have done had he apply'd his goose quill again to Controversy, to an honest good Man as he is, it must be a sort of comfort, did he know it, that his folly was innocent. We are all shivering with the apprehension of another hard frost: there was a [\SEAL\] [\terrible BY WHOM?\] storm here on Saturday night, if I had the descriptive genius of a news writer I could give you a magnificent account of the damage the wind did, but not having a hurly-burly imagination, nor a command of Similies proper for a Storm I shall not be able (according to the Phrase of one [\of/] our tragedians) "to deck my tale with decent Horrors [\CROSSED OVER BY MM? I beg my duty to my Mamma, who I hope to have a letter from to morrow; if not I shall write to her next post as I proposed to have done to night, if I had had time.\] I am S=r= your most Dutifull Daughter E Robinson [\CROSSED OVER BY MM? My Lady Dutchess desires her humble Service to you & my Mamma L=d= Oxford charged me with [\UNCLEAR\] .\] <P4> [\ADDRESS\] To / Matt Robinson Esq=r= [\SEAL\]