BC_1760_EMONTAGU_MR

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<Q A 1760? FN MR EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
 [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO MATTHEW ROBINSON. MO 4762. 1760? SEPTEMBER? 26 NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE, NORTHUMBERLAND. EMENDATED BY MATTHEW MONTAGU?}]
<P1>
Newcastle ye 26=th=
[\IN PENCIL 1760\]
Sir
   I arrived here last night, & had the pleasure of finding M=r= Montagu very well. He went this morning to Gibside to this morning to attend M=r= Bowes funeral obsequies, which according to the custom of this Country are to be very pompous. L=d= Ravensworth, S=r= Walter Blackett, & all the Gentleman of Northumberland & the County of Durham are to be at it, & I fear it will be late at night before it is over, tho they are to set out about 4 from Gibside to go to the Church but such a number of Equipage must make the ceremony at procession very tedious. My Cousin Rogers funeral [\which? INTO we\] had order'd to be as private as decency would permit as he had been so long dead to society, but even that was attended by 38 Gentlemens coaches, so I suppose a publick funeral must be three or four hundred. In the south people live with more pomp & dye with less. I hope not to outlive all my vanity, for I have seldom seen a good, & never an agreable character without it, but I think it should not survive one, & I should desire not to go to the Grave with all this bustle, not that I should be afraid any one should say of my funeral as Pope does of Sir John Cutlers When dead a thousand lights attend The wretch who living sav'd a candle's end. I love a blaze
<P2>
of wax lights & my friends about my living person very well, but y=e= torches & the Croud about my dead body would give me neither light nor amusement. S=ir= Walter Blacket call'd here this morning & said he hoped to ride in Hyde Park with you about y=e= 15=th= of November. I had [\a/] very pleasant journey, for fine weather like a good humour'd companion makes ordinary scenes appear chearfull & pleasant, but from the time I left Hertfordshire till I got to Doncaster the countries I pass'd through were dreary & barren, but if these prospects in ye other countries were brown, these in Northumberland are black, our Towns & villages seem the habitations of poverty, & the people in them a parcel of dirty savages, so that I cannot say with the Psalmist, that my lot is fallen in a fair ground; it is some comfort it is [\in/] a rich one & I shall see its produce at S=r= James Colebrookes in Threadneedle street with great pleasure. Our Town of Newcastle is the ugliest City in Great Brittain, but full of wealth & business, the streets are like y=e= ways of thrift; dark, dirty, & narrow. I met S=r= Thomas Clavering just before I got to Darlington, he desired me to present his best respects to you and beg your vote & interest, he sets up for the County of Durham in the room of M=r= Bowes. M=r= Montagu gives him all his interest. If the Bishop of Durham should declare for M=r= Shaftoe (a very young man whose father formerly
<P3>
Served for Durham) S=r= Thomas will be hard press_d. Lord Darlington will support M=r= Shaftoe, and most people imagine the Bishop of Durham will do so too. When applied to for S=r= Thomas Clavering he answerd he should act as he found most agreable to the majority of the Country Gentlemen, now I imagine Bishops as well as well as Women (both wear petticoats and a character of gentleness) command by seeming to submit, "and win their way by yielding to the tyde" & that my Lord Bishop in a mild way of suggestion will bring the Gentlemen to that side he likes best, while he perswades them he follows their inclination. I must say his Lordship is much beloved from his liberality & affability, which are fine moral qualities, as to Xtian graces no doubt but he has them still in a higher degree; so that as Prince Palatine or Bishop he [\must/] influence many. The Dean of Durham is strongly engaged for S=r= Thomas, and there will be a sort of schism in the church. I wish'd for your company very much yesterday at Durham where I dined, the rain that fell the night before prevented my going to Bishop Auckland which I intended to have seen in my way to Newcastle, but as
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The ground was damp I could not have walk'd about it. [\CROSSED OUT BY MM? I shall send you some potted moorgame by the first opportunity. We are to have our Steward & people of business here to morrow. I design to sit every day as the house of Commons [\does/] for (^dispatch^) of business, for I shall wish its conclusion & our return to London, to which this Town resembles in nothing but smoke; I am in an exceeding good house which was y=e= late M=r= Rogers, & M=r= Montagu gave in part of y=e= purchase of an estate he bought of M=r= Isaacson, the good folks are very obliging, & live neatly & well; & I hope to pass my time more quietly & with much [\FOLD less hurry [\& bustle\] than if I was at a house of my own where all the neighbourhood must visit me.\]
   I am Dear Sir
   Your most affectionate
   and most dutifull Daughter
   E Montagu