“... The Bishop of Durham is going to be married to Miss Boughton. She is a very proper Person for a wife to a grave bishop—a woman of good family, good character, and good temper.
“... Pray have my neices read ‘Le Théâtre de l’Education,’ by Mme. de Genlis? If they have not, I will get it for them.... I think it is one of the prettiest books that has been written for young persons. The author is governess to the Duc de Chartres’ children.”
Even Walpole acknowledged the beauty of the house which Mrs. Montagu had built for her old age and for her heirs—till Lord Rokeby vacated it recently, the ground lease having “fallen in,” and the edifice passing to the ground landlord. “I dined,” writes Walpole to Mason, in February, 1782, “on Tuesday with the Harcourts, at Mrs. Montagu’s new palace, and was much surprised. Instead of vagaries, it is a noble, simple edifice. Magnificent, yet no gilding. It is grand, not tawdry, not larded, and embroidered, and pomponned with shreds, and remnants, and clinquant, like all the harlequinades of Adam, which never let the eye repose an instant.”
The next letter is addressed to the writer’s niece, Miss Robinson.
“July ye 9th, 1782. ... I was, in my youth, directed in the choice of friends by their solid merit and established character, which was oftener found in persons older than myself than in my contemporaries. If from hence I have often wept for dying, I have never been obliged to blush for my living, friends.... The chief honour and felicity of my life has been derived from the superior merit of my friends; and, from my experience, I would, above all things, recommend to every young person to endeavour to connect themselves with persons whom they can esteem, and, indeed, reverence, rather than with those whose understandings and virtues they think merely on a level with, or, perhaps, inferior to, their own.... Principles, opinions, and habits are acquired and formed from those with whom we live and converse most.... Be cautious, be delicate, be a little ambitious, my dear neice, in the choice of your friends. I would be far from inculcating a supercilious contempt for persons of weak understanding, or a censorious condemnation of their levity of manners. Humility and charity are the greatest virtues, and let them ever guide your manners and regulate your conversation.... Be assured that the wisest persons are the least severe, and the most virtuous are the most charitable.”
“Sandleford, July 9, 1782. ... I had a great deal of occupation of a more important kind, which was the examination and payment of ye workmen who had been employed in building and adorning the said house.... As I got everything accomplished before I left London, I had the satisfaction of getting a receit in full of all demands from the various artificers. I will own my taste is unfashionable, but there is to me a wonderful charm in those words ‘in full of all demands.’ My house never appeared to me so noble, so splendid, so pleasant, so convenient, as when I had paid off every shilling of debt it had incurred. The worst of haunted houses, in my opinion, are those haunted by duns.
“... Mr. Wyatt has nearly completed what belonged to the architect; and Mr. Brown, by removing a good deal of ground and throwing it down below, to raise what was too low, while he sank what was too high, has much improved the view to the south; and, having, at my request, made a fanlight over the east window, so that the arch formed by the trees is now visible, these rooms are the most beautiful imaginable. With the shelter, comfort, and convenience of walls and roofs, you have a beautiful passage and the green shade of a grove.... The celebrated Mr. Brown has already beautified our pastoral scenes extreamly.
“... I can easily give you credit when you say you love society, because I know society loves you, and I am perfectly of the opinion of the common maxim, that nobody lives out of the world who is fit to live in it. Now your husband’s party have got into power, I have no doubt but they will bestow a prebendary upon him, if he asks them. However, his income will very well afford your spending some months in London every winter.”
“Sandleford, June ye 16th 1783. ... You must know, as many authors with whom I have not any personal acquaintance do me the favour to send me their works, I found the carriage of them to be amongst my weekly expenses during the summer. So, of late, if I make a short excursion into the country, I order the literature to wait until my return. Or, if I go for a longer time, to be sent down at proper opportunities, with the tea, or groceries, or some other of the vulgar necessaries of life. So my dear nephew’s letter was supposed to come with a pamphlet from a bookseller’s shop, and my porter kept it, with other things from the same source, till my return from Bath.