my stock of health that it will serve my ordinary demands in town, and enable me to enjoy the conversation of my friends. The feather work will not be quite finished, so I shall leave a house full of artificers till it be done.

I am, dear Madam,

your most affectionate and faithful,

E. MONTAGU.

These letters are intended to convey in them the biography of the writer, which the Editor thinks he could not so well exemplify by any remarks of his own, as by the letters themselves. He regrets, in this point of view, that he has neglected hitherto to insert any of Mrs. Montagu's letters to her husband. When the first two volumes were published, her letters to Mr. Montagu, which are very numerous, were still unsorted. The circumstance of their being without dates (excepting by the post-mark of the day of the month, without the date of the year), deterred the Editor from the labour of the arrangement. He has since placed them in order, principally by means of reference to the letters written to her by Mr. Montagu. From this period he will insert a selection of them, because they contain many anecdotes, public and private, and exhibit the course and tenor of the life and disposition of the writer.

To Edward Montagu, Esq. her husband.

Hill-street, the 4th of January, 1751.

MY DEAREST,

for

I HOPE the leisure of your retirement gives you time to think of me, and to wish our meeting; the bustle of London does not exclude you from my thoughts, nor prevent my wishing continually for your company. Lady Sandwich's spirits were a good deal revived by my coming to her, and she is very thankful to you giving me leave to do it. You may suppose, as she was my sole temptation to come, she is my sole engagement here. I have not seen the face of any person else except my sister, who was with me yesterday morning. Lord Sandwich is in It is said the King's concern for the Queen of Denmark has hurt his health, and that he looks miserably. There is a report that the Princess of Hesse is in a consumption. The King, to oblige the weavers, has declared the mourning shall

town.

last only three months. I cannot hear any public news, except that the Parliament will meet on the seventh of this month, that his Majesty may early repair to that land flowing with milk and honey, called Hanover. Lord and Lady Cardigan are still abroad. My father has reassumed his creative pencil, and I hope will finish the pretty landscape he began for us. Let me hear from you as often as you can spare time, and see you as soon as you can persuade yourself to quit that retirement and leisure you love, and are better able to fill with wise and noble pursuits than most people; but remember here is one who wishes to see you, and is with the most faithful and tender affection,

Your's,

E. MONTAGU,

To the Same.

Hill-street, January 7, 1751.

MY DEAREST,

I AM glad you are so far tired of your monastic life, as to think of returning to the secular state of a husband and member of parliament. I believe our predecessors in the cowl had their particular kinds of volupté, which silence, secresy, and peace might much enhance and recommend; but to those who have been used to the bustle and business of life, such pleasures want vivacity. Boileau makes a man who goes to visit the chantre just before dinner, observe the luxury of a prebendal table; says he,

Il voit la nappe mise,

Admire le bel ordre, et reconnoit l'église.

I have sat so constantly in Lady Sandwich's chimney corner, I can give you little account of the world. It is said

Lord Harcourt, Lord Lincoln, and Prince

Edward, are to have the Garter: Honi soit qui mal y pense. There was a report that the Archbishop of Canterbury was going to be married to Mrs. Clark and her eight children; but Archbishops now a-days do not mortify the flesh at that rate; and I hear she owns with a sigh that the report is groundless. I hear Lord Bolingbroke has left two folios of metaphysics, a history of his own times, and divers other tracts; they are bequeathed to Mallet; but Will. Chetwynd and the other executors do not care to give them up. His estate was entailed. He has given four hundred pounds in legacies to his servants; but it is doubted whether those legacies, and that of his library, will stand good, as he may be more in debt than his cash will answer: and this is made a pretence for witholding the manuscripts assigned to Mallet; though I do not see that any creditors can claim a man's works: I never heard that any part of Parnassus was mortgaged. I shall be very glad when your business is finished, as I shall then hope to see you