BC_1761_EMONTAGU_SS_2
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<Q A 1761 FN SS EMONTAGU> <X ELIZABETH MONTAGU> [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO SARAH SCOTT. 1761 JUL 29. MO 5785}] <P1> My Dear Sister I am very sorry to find your head aches have been so frequent & troublesome, & cannot help being alarm'd at the poor state of your blood, on the strength & vigour of which much of health & duration of life should seem to me to depend. let me therefore entreat you my dear Sister, not thus to despise the admonitions of the physician you mention. The present relief may be attended with future danger, & I think the case should be proposed to the best physicians we have in Town. If you will have it accurately written I will shew it to D=r= Addlington, & any other of the physicians of great note you shall chuse, [\D INTO without\] expense or trouble to you, & it will <P2> contribute much to my ease, who cannot bear to think you should lose y=e= immediate benefit of bleeding, if ill consequences cannot attend it, or that you should persue it if they may. D=r= Addington is now much liked, I do not know him, but as he is in great reputation should like that he should be [\asked\], Duncan, Taylor, & Hobberden, are all in great credit. If they hesitated upon the matter I should be much tempted to send y=e= case to D=r= Gregory, to consult a Physician at Edinburgh, who I believe is the greatest genius in Physick in Europe. The case seems to me a very nice one, the living on y=e= verge of a dropsy is horrible, my imagination is terrified with it, & I must insist on consulting y=e= most skilfull, you shall be finally determined by your own choice, but it w=d= be a great <P3> relief to my mind if I was assured you might proceed without danger, & I could hardly be more alarm'd if you persisted in the practise contrary to their advice. of all distempers I have the greatest terrors of a dropsey & I fancy I see you sometimes swell'd as big as a hogshead. There is a Lady here drinking y=e= Waters who is much swelld, & she is now grown a terrible object to me. I am very sorry M=rs= Talbot whom I would have recommended as a Governess to Lady Harriet Sommerset is not well qualified for teaching french, she seems a woman of great merit, & her manners & language [\are/] genteel & unaffected. Such a place would have made her very happy, but from her being little versed in the french language I begin to despair of providing for her in this way. A few <P4> french words ill arranged & worse pronounced, will often recommend an animal who has neither religion, morality, nor behaviour, & without this abracadabra, my M=rs= Talbot who has them all, will not effect any thing. If you know any old Lady who does not want to be taught how to say, (\mouchez la chandelle, & ouvrez la porte,\) I wish you w=d= recommend my sober virgin to attend her. I think your pretty damzel w=d= make a charming governess, but (\si l'amour maitre Se meltoit de la partie\) she might learn a dangerous lesson, & tho too well principled in virtues book to do bad things I used to be always struggling with, an unhappy passion [\w=d= ... DELETED\] miserable contest! (\Ou le combat est penible, & le victoire [\honteux/] \) I have been at this place three weeks, the <P5> Waters have been of great service to me. I never enjoy_d a more perfect state of health, & the having M=rs= Carter in my house makes me perfectly happy. M=r= Stillingfleet who was also to have been here with me, but a friend of his being in a very bad state of health he cannot leave him. I am in daily expectation of D=r= Young, whom I desired to come in hopes I might raise his spirits which are sadly sunk by the death of M=r= Rickhardson. The Princess Dowager not going to Rew the Doctor is not to be in waiting this summer, so he has written to y=e= Princess for leave to come to Tunbridge, & I think she will not refuse it. We have what is call'd a thin season here but having some of my most intimate & most agreable friends here it passes very well. M=rs= Carter <P6> And I are not very fond of the rooms so we got into our post chaise & take ye air in the evening, & we often go to Bounds to visit M=rs= Boscawen. I have some inclination to see the grand spectacle of a coronation but I find that very compatible with seeing [\you/] if it is not I shall give it up. I wish of all things you could come to Sandleford, which would be much more agreable to M=r= Montagu than my going to Bath easton, as he thinks good wives should not be always from home. & I coulkd just return with you & make a short visit to Lady Bab Montagu & Lady Sandwich. I did not know Lady Sandwitch was at Chelsea when I wrote to you. She bore her loss better than I expected, but looks thin, & is not in good health. She <P7> had an ugly pain in her stomach, but since I came hither she wrote me word it grew better. I certainly wrote you two letters for one I received, if you have not had the last it may have perish_d in ye oven, or wrapp_d up figgs or raisins. Lady Frances Coningesbye is not in good health & her spirits are much affected by the death of Lady Coningesbye. M=r= Bathurst & Lady Beltz are here, she enquired after you. I shall be in Town only one day after ye coronation. I hear there are great disappointments among the Ladies, above sixty having desired to be Ladies of y=e= Bedchamber & her Majesty wanting only six. As youth Beauty address & ten thousand things <P8> seem to me necessary for attendance in to young queen in a drawing room, it is lucky that every Woman in ye degree of a Countess or Dutchess should happen to have these requisites. M=rs= Langton is here in hopes of an heir by these waters, which I think an affront to ye prolifick streams of ye Bath waters. Lady Mary Coke left us to day, not finding the waters agree with her, she is very sensible & well bred & a great loss to our Tunbridge party. M=rs= Carter desires her best comp=ts=. I am My Dearest Sister most faithfully & affection=tely= Yours E Montagu