BC_1764_EMONTAGU_EV_3

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<Q A 1764? TC EV EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
[}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO ELIZABETH VESEY. 1764? 17TH. HUNTINGTON LIBRARY}]
<P1>
Hillstreet y=e= 17 [\ADDED? 1764\] Dear Madam
     I receive such charming letters from the blue stocking Lodge, that I begin to be jealous for the Original Society. You seem to imitate the jesuits of Paraguay, who became infinitely more rich & great than the Country from whence they went out a small colony. The imitation of D=r= Young is admirable, I may say the imitation is in inimitable for it has all possible marks of resemblance and yet is not mere [\misticity\] & that is hard to hit. I find M=r= O Hara reveres as he ought the blue stockings of the [\Paripatetick\] philosophers; M=r= Caulfield the blue hose which encircles the nimble & taper leg of one (\jolie paisanne\). I am not sure therefore that he is worthy of our society, however as he may be only an elegant spectator of forms, or consider blue stockings as the least deviation from the simplicity of the golden age, I am glad he is [\WORDS DELETED\] [\received into/] the Lodge, & I think we may admit him of the Colledge in time. Your kind concern for my health makes me think it of importance enough to tell you it is much improved since I drank the Geronstere waters; I will not represent it as
<P2>
perfectly good, but I have spirits enough for my modes of life, I should not be able to go to three assemblies, a Ball, & a supper [\every night/] as I hear is the fashion at Dublin this winter. However, tho I have not for some days been so well as usual, yet I was at a great dinner at My Lord Baths on sunday. Yesterday I had Lady Louisa Farmer, Lady Sophia Carteret, [\BLOT\] [\& M=rs=\] Howe, M=rs= Carter, Count de la Marmosa ye Sardinian Minister, M=r= de Feronce ye Brunswick Minister, a M=r= de Blum, & M=r= Cambridge [\at dinner/], L=d= Lyttelton was to have been of ye party but was indisposed. To day my Lord Bath, M=rs= Pitt, L=d= Lyttelton, M=rs= Carter, M=r= Stillingfleet, & M=r= & M=rs= Johnstone are to dine with me, [\Last\] night I had a card table, as I had a great addition of company in the evening. I ask'd Lady Primrose to dine with me but her Ladyship was engaged. Alas my dear Madam you cannot imagine how you are regretted at every feast of shells! the bards lament you in measure, your Humble Servant in prose periods of all lengths, sometimes it is only, ah if M=rs= Vesey were here! at others, When some who have not the honour of knowing you are of the party, I try to make them apprehend what that M=rs= Vesey is; & I should never have the
<P3>
vanity to think I did justice to my original if M=rs= Carter did not give one of her innocent smiles & cry, ay, yes, ay indeed! so she is! Then I am satisfied that I have [\WORD DELETED\] [\succeeded/]  pretty well, having touch'd the picture not with art, but (\con amore\). Lady Cardigan is to give a ball on monday sennight. You ask me if I was at M=rs= Pitts ball, indeed I was, but do not expect a description of it. It was all feérie, The whole Town comprehended within two small rooms and no croud, no heat, (\Les jeux & les ris\) were Masters of the revel, all was gay, all was pretty, a great supper, 59 guests, they sat at their ease, the table w=d= have held ten more, the room 20 more, M=r= Walpole wrote her a letter ye next day of which she has promised [\me/] a copy for you, he tells her the company at her ball shrunk like y=e= Spirits in Pandemonium, & between his lovely witt & the sublime of Milton, the Ball will long exist in story. The Duchess of Queensberry had a ball last week, & a very fine one, but it was in the way of common human things, every person occupied a certain number of
<P4>
Square feet, & there was no croud because the Size & dimensions of the room bore a natural proportion to the number of persons. every thing was very fine, but nothing supernatural. I met Lady Cardigan to day at M=rs= Pitts, her Ladyship is in very good health, Lady Betty is in very great beauty. The Duchess of Portland has a terrible cough & has been blisterd, but I hope is growing better. There is a report that the D: of Portland is to marry Lady Waldegrave, but of this I am not at all convinced, & would not have my name quoted on the occasion. Lord Suffolk is certainly to marry Miss Trevor. M=r= Hampden Trevors daughter, they are such a pair as Cupid may with a good grace present to Hymen. Accuse me not of delaying S=r= James Macdonalds peregrinations. He is wiser than Telemachus. I am not quite so young & fair as Eucharis, he may travel over the whole habitable globe without my having interest enough to make him saunter away a day. I hear he has got
<P5>
into the best society at Paris, & I dare say will be well amused [\WORD DELETED\] much esteem'd amongst them. I have this evening received a letter from M=r= Lyttelton at Bologna in his way to home. He gives me a charming account of Italy, I dare say he will be much improved by his travels. for the strength & energy of his mind will not suffer him to be too much captivated by the charms of luxury, & the lesser arts. His mind seems a native of antient Rome, a short abode in modern [\Rome/] will only soften & polish it as one could wish. Miss Lyttelton grows more amiable & agreable every day. I give you a particular account of all your friends, for I know when one is seperated by a great distance from people for whom one interests oneself, it is agreable to hear what they are doing. You enquire after books, the press has furnish'd little. I will order Dodsley to send you M=r= Hurds dialogue on the use of foreign travel, which I think extreamly sensible, and the style & character of the speakers very
<P6>
well sustain'd. I met y=r= friend Miss Dashwood y=e= night before last at the Duchess of Beauforts. Now for my chapter of politicks, which will not be like Machiavel, or AntiMachiavel, but a mere relation of what I have heard. Divisions on the Cyder tax in ye house, in which the Ministry had a Majority of only ten, made people imagine there would be some change, the opposition Stirr'd up their war battle singing,
     double double, toil & trouble,
     fire burn, & Cauldron bubble, and the fire crackled, & the cauldron bubbled, but the bubble burst. M=r= Grenville so dextrously untyed the budget the other day, & let out so many hopes, & kept down so many fears, wisely taking the (\contrepied\) of Madame Pandora, that all people were contented. He began by a very agreable assurance that the prize money which the King had given to the publick, & the money the bank was to pay for the renewal of their term [\& y=e= increase of customs/] w=d= answer the expences of this year
<P7>
then he [\gave\] some account of what should be done in our Colonies, & that they might for the future by paying some taxes cease to be a burthen to the Mother Country, while the manufactures they w=d= take of us w=d= be [\beneficent\] to both. Then he talk'd of economy & the House said hear him, & in short all people thought he spoke ably & well, & eloquence being at that time reposing in a Couch in Jermyn Street, & Witt being gone down with M=r= Charles Townshend to Cambridge, to sollicit votes for Lord Hardwicke, no one gainsay'd the Minister, and he now sits higher in peoples opinion & safer in his own than he has yet done, & the War kettle make only a mess of soup maigre for this season. L=d= B- has been in town to make the Ministers kiss & be friends for they were a little at variance. I must tell you that one of the Cyder days Velters Cornwall told the House he would fight in the straits
<P8>
and stand in the gap like Epaminondas, [\WORD INTO which\] diverted every body but M=r= Glover, who liked not to sit by & hear Leonidas robb'd of his glory. We have had two new Oratories, the first calld Deborah which I hear was very fine. The other Nabat was perform_d last night, & I thought the musick very fine, but the words & musick were not always at unison. I shall write you an account of Lady Cardigans ball. The Duchess of Queensberry opend hers herself by a minouet with L=d= Huntingdon. I have sent you some poetry verses made by a very pretty young man, M=r= Jernigan. Pray send y=r= agreable visionaire here, for people in general are too little visionary, & talk common sense & matter of fact till one is tired to death. I think I have given you all the (\frivolités\) of our World, they are not worthy admittance to ye Cave of Malvina, but at Dublin you will say (\c'est [\WORD DELETED\] comme chez nous\). Pray make my comp=ts= to M=r= Vesey, M=rs= Hancock & M=r= Burke, I am dear
     madam Ever [\TEAR\] [{yours{]