Bath. Octr the 20th. 1753.
I am very glad to hear in the Conclusion of my Dear Mary's letter that she will be under no difficulty in getting to London: my Brother is very obliging, as I dare say he intends to be in all things towards you, to make your journey easy and agreeable to you. I propose being in Town by the meeting of the Parliament; if I am able: when I shall have infinite Joy in meeting my Dear Sister after so very long an Absence and seeing Her in a Place where she seems to think herself not unhappy. if I shou'd be prevented being in Town so soon, the House will always be ready to receive you. I think you judge very right not to produce yourself much till we have met: Mrs Stuart, and my Sister Nedham, if in Town, will be the properest, as well as the most agreeable Places for you to frequent. My Dear Child, I need not intimate to your good understanding and right Intentions, what a high degree of Prudence and exact attention to your Conduct and whole behaviour is render'd necessary by the sad errors of others. It is an infinite misfortune to you that my Sister Ann is not in England: her Countenance and her Advice and Instructions, superior to any you can otherwise receive, wou'd be the highest advantage to you. Supply it as well as you can, by thinking of Her, imitating her worth, and thereby endeavouring to deserve her esteem, as you wish to obtain that of the best Part of the World. I can not express how anxious I am for your right behaviour in all respects, upon which alone your happiness must depend. whatever assistance my advice can be to You, you will ever have with the truest affection of a Brother.
Yrs
W. Pitt.
The next letter is pregnant enough, written to Ann at Nevers. Their aunt Essex is dead, but her death only lurks in a postscript. For Pelham is dead and Pitt is a cripple at Bath, disabled from proceeding to the capital, where his fate and that of the future administration are being settled. His restless anguish seems to pierce through these few lines. And yet this bedridden invalid was to be a joyful and alert bridegroom before the year was out.
Bath. March 9th: 1754.
Dear Sister,—I write to you under the greatest affliction, on all Considerations Private and Publick. Mr Pelham Died Wednesday morning, of a Feaver and St. Anthony's fire. This Loss is, in my notion of things, irreparable to the Publick. I am still suffering much Pain with Gout in both feet, and utterly unable To be carry'd to London. I may hope to be the better for it hereafter, but I am at present rather worn down than releiv'd by it: I am extremely concern'd at the last accounts of your health. I hope you have Spring begun at Nevers, which I pray God may relieve you.
I am Dear Sister, Your most affectionate Brother,
W. Pitt.
My Sister Nedham has been ill of a Feaver here, but is well again.
I have just received an account of Mrs Cholmondeley's[81] Death.
The next letter, a month later, leaves Pitt still at Bath; the gout had almost the lion's share of his life, and we wonder that he accomplished so much under its constant pangs. On this occasion he strains our credulity by the complimentary assertion that he thinks a thousand times more of Ann than of the struggle over Pelham's succession, and his own involved ambition. On all that sordid scramble he kept the fierce, unflinching eye of a hawk, and of a hawk fastened by the talon. Ten days before he wrote this note he had despatched a letter to Newcastle, Pelham's brother and successor, burning with a passion which Ann's ailments could never have inspired. Ann indeed, knowing her William, would smile as she read, and value the extravagance at its worth.
Bath. April 4th. 1754.
Dear Sister,—The Account you give me of your own health, and the kind concern you feel for mine, touches me more than I will attempt to express, tho' I am still at Bath, don't think the worse of my health, but be assured that I am in a fairer way of recovering a tolerable degree of it, than I have been in for a long time pass't. My Gout has been most regular and severe, as well as of a proper Continuance to relieve, and perhaps quite remove, the general disorder which had brought me so low. I am recovering my feet and drinking the waters with more apparent good effects than I ever experienced from them. I have been out of all the bustle of the present Conjuncture; and believe me, my thoughts go a thousand times to Nevers, for once that they go towards London. Nothing in this world can, in the smallest degree, interest my mind like the recovery of your health. I wait with very painfull Impatience for better weather for you, and to hear, that the waters you propose to take, afford you relief.
I am My Dear Sister's ever most affectionate Brother
W. Pitt.
My sister Nedham is well, and went yesterday to Marybone to see her Sons.
Poor George Stanhope died of a feaver a few days since.[82]
The next, after an interval of six months, is again from Bath, but in a different strain. He is now the happiest of men, about to be united to the most meritorious and amiable of women, whose brothers are already his own in harmony and affection; a happy marriage, but a disastrous, storm-tossed brotherhood, as it was destined to be in the years to come, when rival ambitions would strain the bond to breaking.
There is also an icicle from Lady Hester herself, which embodies the decorous expression of what a young lady of the middle eighteenth century allowed herself to feel when she was going to be married. Even this act of politeness was inspired by William. 'I have writ this night to my poor sister Ann. She is not well enough to return to England this winter. Whenever your excessive goodness will honour her with a letter it will be a comfort to her. If you please to commit it to me I will forward it to her, and bless you a million of times.'[83]
Bath. Oct. 21st. 1754.
Dear Sister,—The favour of your letter from Chaillot has by no means answered my eager wishes for your health, and a kind of distant hope I had formed of your return to England this winter. My desires to see you are greatly and very painfully disappointed: I have only to hope that your Stay in France will give you a much better winter than the last, and may finally restore your health to you and you to your Friends. I am now, Dear Sister, to impart to you what I have no longer a prospect of doing, with infinitely more pleasure, by word of mouth: it is to say, that, your health excepted, I have nothing to wish for my happiness, Lady Hester Grenville has consented to give herself to me, and by giving me every thing my Heart can wish, she gives you a Sister, I am sure you will find so, not less every other way than in name. the act I now communicate, will best speak her character, she has generosity and goodness enough to join part of her best days to a very shattered part of mine; neither has my fortune any thing more tempting. I know no Motif she can have but wishing to replace to me many things that I have not. I can only add, that I have the honour and satisfaction of receiving the most meritorious and amiable of Women from the hands of a Family already my Brothers in harmony and affection, and who have been kindly Contending which of them shou'd most promote my happiness by throwing away the Establishment of a Sister they esteem and love so much. When I left Lady Hester ten days ago, She wish'd to know when I notify'd this approaching event to you, that She might do herself the pleasure to write to you. when she knows I have writ, she will introduce herself to you. I propose staying here about ten days, if my patience can hold out so long. You will wonder to see a letter on such a subject dated from Bath; but to a goodness like Lady Hester Grenville's, perhaps, my infirmities and my Poverty are my best titles.
Your ever affectionate Brother
W. Pitt.