“I believe you will hardly be able to read my scrawl, which is even worse than usual; for I have almost put my eyes out with accounts, of which our steward brings a plentiful quantity at this time of year. He is a very diligent Person, and expects that I will apply many hours in the day. Our affairs go on very prosperously and in great order, so that I have as little trouble as is possible in a case where so many and large accounts are to be look’d over.
“... It is said that gaming is carried on with greater spirit among the fine people than ever was known. I desire my most affectionate compliments to my brothers of Horton, Denton and Canterbury.... My best love to ye dear little ones who adorn your fireside, and best wishes for the year begun, and for all succeeding years, to the parents and the babes.”
It was in this year, 1774, that Mrs. Montagu wrote the following to Mrs. Robinson, from Sandleford, September the 5th, 1774:
“... I had intended writing to you as soon as I could get a frank.... All frothy matter takes up a great deal of space, and my letters always run over the fourth side and incur double taxes at the post-office. By mistake I had left my franks to you in London, so I waited till I could see Mr. Congreve, the only member of Parliament in our neighbourhood.
“... The wet weather has hurt me as a valetudinarian, and mortified me as a farmer, so that I cannot say, in the pert fashionable phrase, it has not made me sick nor sorry, but more of the first than the last, and not greatly either.... We have a prodigious crop of barley, and there seems to be a great plenty of it everywhere, and yet the maltsters are contracting for it already at 30s. per quarter. I suppose the ensuing elections will raise the price of malt. I wish our poor people ate more and drank less.
“I am extremely mortified at Lord Mahone’s too great vivacity. Lord Stanhope brought him to Tunbridge to spend a day with me. I was pleased with his conversation and manners, and particularly in not finding him so exotick as I expected. His sentiments and language appear to me perfectly good English, such as suited the heir of an English peer, and not borrow’d from un bourgeois de Genève, which, with all due respect to Jean Jacques, I take to be much inferior in nobleness of mind as well as dignity of office. But his lordship’s attack on Mr. Knight and his presenting articles to a candidate, looks as if he had steep’d his patriotism in the Lake of Geneva. Lord Stanhope is a very respectable man; has great virtues and great talents. These, under the military discipline of worldly warfare, do great things, while they lead and command regiments of inferior minds which fight under them. But in our days the unconnected patriot makes just such a figure in the political system as the preux chevalier would do now in the military. Nothing is to be done in these days by single combat. Neither the patriot nor the champion would be able to effect the abolition of the exorbitant toll of a bridge. If I had a son, I should desire him never to wander single in quest of adventures. Virtue, wisdom, honours, prosperity, happiness, are all to be found on the turnpike road, or not to be found at all....
“I had strong inclinations to make you and my brother at Horton a visit when I left Tunbridge; but as a northern journey was then in contemplation, I durst not propose such a measure to Mr. Montagu. He still talks of our going to Northumberland, but delays setting out. In the meantime, winter approaches. He is in very good health and spirits, but extremely feeble; goes to bed every afternoon by five o’clock, and seems by no means equal to so fatiguing a journey; so I hope it will end in talk.... Mr. Montagu loves delay so well, he intends not to set out till a fortnight after me. He did not leave London till the middle of August, tho’ he had not any business to detain him.
“... If I had children, I should be much more solicitous about their temper than talents. As many hours in the day as a man of the finest parts is peevish or in a passion, he is more contemptible than a blockhead, and suffers (though he does not know it) the internal scorn and contempt of every rational creature that is in good humour. We are, too, much earlier able to judge of a child’s temper than capacity. Minds ripen at very different ages. If the understanding is naturally slow, preceptors should be patient, and not put it too much out of its natural pace. Some children apprehend quick; others acquire everything with difficulty. In the latter case, they should be encouraged, led, and not driven.”
Miss Gregory (a friend and companion of the writer) was very much liked at Cambridge. “Her sweet temper, good sense, and elegant simplicity of manners much charm every one who is well acquainted with her. She is perfectly free from missy pertnesses, airs, and minanderies, which put many of our girls of fashion upon a line with milliners’ apprentices. Though she has lived so much with me I never saw her out of humour. She seems as pleased with retirement as in a publick place; and is as sober and discreet in a publick place as in retirement.
“There is a report that Captain Darby is going to be married to a widow worth fourscore thousand pounds. It seems her first husband was a good-humoured, quiet, dull man. Elle s’en trouvait bien, and is going to take such another; but still, fourscore thousand pounds is a great price for a dull man.... Miss Snell is married to a gentleman of good character and six thousand pounds.