BC_1775_EMONTAGU_MO

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<Q A 1775? FN MO EMONTAGU>
<X ELIZABETH MONTAGU>
 [}ELIZABETH MONTAGU TO MORRIS ROBINSON. 5 JUL 1775. DENTON HALL. MO 4802}]
<P1>
Wensday y=e= 5=th= Dear Brother
   I received your letter & the subpena yesterday in the afternoon, & I sent immediately for an attorney from Newcastle, but he was not to be got, however I will take care to get the affair done if possible to day. It was fortunate I sent for my letters yesterday, they are generally convey_d hither the day after they come to Newcastle by the Hexham post, & in that case I sh=d= not have had y=r= letter time enough, as you say wensday is y=e= latest day. The letters are [\coming/] 4 days from London to Newcastle. I wrote as you suggested to M=r= Archdeacon, but whether he will be sober enough to understand my letter I know not. He is fallen into a sad course of life. His eldest Daughter call_d on me when I stopped to change horses at Durham their Grandfather has left =L=5000 amongst eight Children of M=r=
<P2>
Archdeacons, & I fear it is all they will get for [\his child? INTO a girl\] has got y=e= entire management of him, & they say she [\WORDS INTO takes his money when he is drunk out his bureau but I believe he squanders\] [\it himself/] We have high winds & little rain, & beef has been 5=d= a pound in Newcastle market. I had a visit yesterday from M=r= & M=rs= Bigge, they enquired kindly after my Nephew Morris, & said very handsome things of him.
   I am very sorry you had any disappointment about little Matt, & the more as I was the innocent cause of it. When I applied to M=r= Burrows to take the dear boy, he said he feard he might not be able to be of service to him, for as he was a favourite, he w=d= perhaps be often sent away, & such interruptions unsettled young minds, I promised I w=d= not send for him, & indeed I understood you (or rather I find misunderstood you) that
<P3>
you would not do it. He has been but a month at Hadley, if he is to be interrupted every month I fear he will make little progress, but certainly I did not, nor do not mean, to assume any sort of authority, nor in the least to hinder whatever you shall judge proper. I will always provide him with the best means of improvement, & there my power begins & ends. As it is matter of favour & friendship to me that M=r= Burrows undertakes ye care of the little Man, I sh=d= be much obliged to you, if you w=d= acquaint him before hand, when you intend to send for him. I must take blame to my self for having rashly assured M=r= Burrows he w=d= not be taken from his studies, but what you said, & your leaving my Nephew Morris with M=r= Powis & at Eaton, except at holydays, drew me into ye mistake, & indeed I was so perswaded [\of it/] that I was under great concern
<P4>
for the Childs health when M=rs= Fry mentiond his coming home, till I had (just before I received yours) a letter from Matt, saying he was to go home to [\see DELETED\] [\Chancery Lane or/] his new apartment at L=d=Camdens, & he chose ye latter, which I thought very prudent [\especialy/] as he had lately been at home some months, & only a short time at Hadley. My Father is very obliging in what he says of the little token I have given by my love to a Sister who deserves every kindness from me, I know she has a great deal of delicacy, & any considerable sum might have distresse[{d?{] her, it is always pleasant to receive [\a DELETED\] [\little/] marks of a friends love, but when they are encreased to obligations they are heavy, I w=d= put a gold ring on y=e= finger of a friend but not [\a DELETED\] fetters which they w=d= be to a mind so generous as M=rs= Scotts to the ungenerous they are only a cudgell with which they bruise the benefactor to shew a mind superior to obligations, & from some study of human nature, in which I read my own imperfections & those of others, I shall never confer any favour which can create a new set of duties to be expected by me or paid by another, for from such
<P5>
arise uneasy jealousies on all sides. I propose that y=e= course of my expenses sh=d= keep so far behind my income that my friends need no more scruple to take ye overflowings of my purse than any waste water, for if they do not accept of it, it shall flow into y=e= Great Ocean of Human Society. I design to make an experiment whether a rich Person cannot avoid being a Prodigal or Miser. All I ever propose to derive from my liberality is the satisfaction of my own mind, & the general respect a character of liberality will acquire, two things perfectly independent of any individual, but [\must arise from y=e=/] nature of things, & of which neither envy nor malice can deprive me, & it will never be [\in/] any ones power to be ungratefull to me because I shall never make anothers gratitude my object. I have seen people suffer much from a selfish solicitude on this head, & they lead as weary & uneasy a life as a miser w=d= [\who/] [\WORDS INTO in hopes of some\] [\ [...] advantage/] had to lend his money to Bankrupts, & indeed I think they deserve it, for they do not give
<P6>
from any kind or generous principle, or at least it has too much of y=e= (\levain\) of self love in it. My age forbids me to hope any long enjoyment of my possessions, but by enlarging the circle of benevolence & encreasing friendly connections I may hope for a chearfull old age, wide sh=d= be the circle of the Xmass fireside of human life. I wont like many good old folks creep into y=e= jaundice by being peevish, & harrass two or three miserable expectants with ill humour, as Heirless Misers are wont to do, saying in their hard hearts, these people will be paid for this by & by. Alas! What can pay for insults indured & y=e= arrows of peevishness, & storms of anger. I rejoyce much that my situation is indeed most perfectly independent. Owing every thing entirely to the blessing of God & M=r= Montagu, I am in no danger of being controuled or teized, so that I may be as easy from others humours as they from mine, which is a great felicity, for the unhappiness
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of human life arises not so much from distempers or poverty as the plague we are apt to be of to each other in near connections from the fermentation of humours in y=e= human mind for the rest of my life, all the bustle these things make, will but (^Roll o'er my Grotto & but sooth my sleep^) , perhaps [\I may/] sometimes laugh in my sleep, for I find I grow more good humoured every day being in my unyoked condition ungalled in any [\TEAR\] [{way{].
   I expect Miss Gordon & Miss Annie Greg [\TEAR\] here to morrow or friday. I was desirous to [\TEAR\] Miss Gordon all possible civility in return to her great kindness to my Nephew Morris, & y=r= expence of their journey will be no greater than of Miss Gregorys going to them, & she must take leave of them before we go abroad. Pray makes my best comp=ts= to M=rs= Robinson & give my love to my Nephew.
   I am D=r= Brother
   Your most affect Sister
   & sincere friend
   Eliz Montagu
   I have rectified my mistake with M=r= Burrows so y=e= young Gentleman will always be ready as often as you please to send way [\even\] over.
<P8>
[\IN MARGIN\] PS. I sent Ed: Brown & [\John?\] Osgood to take directions of y=r= Attorney how to deliver & witness y=e= Subpena but M=r= Archdeacon has kept his bed these 2 days & I believe is very drunk. John is come back but Brown is still at y=e= House Whether y=e= affair will be effected if it had come two days sooner y=e= business might have been done, he took to his bed yesterday, & y=e= Servants refused my people admittance. Since I wrote y=e= [\UNCLEAR\] the subpoena has been deliverd & I receiv_d y=e= enclosed card. The gentleman was tolerably tipsey but had y=e= caution to consult M=r= [\Faxcalle\] before he w=d= receive y=e= subpena.
[\ADDRESS\] To / Morris Robinson Esq=r= / Chancery Lane
[\MOURNING SEAL\]