Ann had gone from Hayes to Clifton, as we know from a letter to Lady Suffolk dated June 22, 1758, and thence proceeded to Bath, as we know from another letter dated August 19, 1758. She was restless, as on August 26 she was at Bristol. In all these letters there is not a word that betokens other than kindness and gratitude to her brother; as, for example, on August 19 she writes to Lady Suffolk: 'God grant that the public news may continue to be good, especially from Prince Ferdinand, for the sake of a person whose health and prosperity I wish more than I shall ever tell him.' A week afterwards she takes public occasion to rejoice at his triumphs by furnishing a bonfire and ten hogsheads of strong beer and all the music she could procure. On the other side, we read the letters which the busy statesman found time to write to her, breathing affection and solicitude.
St. James's Square. Aug. 10th. 1758.
Dear Sister,—I wait with much impatience to hear you are arrived well at Bath, and that you are lodged to your mind. I will not entertain any doubts, after having had the satisfaction of seeing you, that your progression to a perfect recovery will be sensible every Day, and as soon as you can bear a stronger nourishment, that Spirits, the concomitants of Strength, will return. as a part of the necessary regimen, solid nourishment for that busy craving Thing call'd Mind must have its place, and I know of no mental Alteratives(?) of power to renovate and brace up a sickly Constitution of Thought, but that mild and generous Philosophy which teaches us the true value of the World, and a rational firm religion, that anchors us safe in the confidence of another. but I will end my sermon and come to the affairs of the world I am so deeply immersed in. this day had brought us an account that our Troops effected their landing, with little Loss, ye 7th and 8th two Leagues from Cherbourgh, in the face of a pretty considerable Number, who gave some loose fires and run. I am infinitely anxious till we hear again, as I expect something serious will ensue. I must not close my letter without telling you that the most particular enquiries after your health have been made by the Lady you sent a Card to, and I, very obligingly reprimanded for keeping your arrival a secret from Them. Lady Hester shares my Impatience to hear news of you, and all my sentiments for your health and happiness. our Love follows dear Mary, whose merits you must, to your great satisfaction, more and more feel every day.
I am ever my Sister's most affectionate Brother
W. Pitt.
St. James's Square. Sept. ye 12th. 1758.
Dear Sister,—You have now try'd the Bristol waters long enough to make some judgement of their effects, and I have kept silence long enough for you to make perhaps a strange judgement of my manner of feeling for my friends. but feel I certainly do, my Dear Sister, for all that concerns your health and happiness, how much soever I have kept it for some weeks past a matter between me and my own conscience, without giving you the least hint of my truly affectionate sollicitude on your account. I am extremely inclin'd to believe Doctor Oliver judges rightly of the first principle of your disorders; that it is Gout, which aided by the waters of Bath and proper nourishment may ripen into a salutary tho' painfull crisis. as I think myself that Languor or perturbation of Spirits are well exchanged for a degree of pain, I shall heartily wish you joy of such a revolution in the system of your Constitution. how can I have got so far in my paper, and not a word of the King of Kings whose last Glories transcend all the parts? the Modesty of H:P: Majtys relation, his Silence of Himself, and entire attribution of the victory to Genl Seidlitz, are of a mind as truely heroick as H. Majesty's taking a Colours in his own hand, when exhortations failed, and forcing a disordered Infantery to follow Him or see Him perish. more Glory can not be won; but more decisive final consequence we still hope to hear, and languish for further letters from the Prussian army. My Love to Dear Mrs Mary.
I am ever most affecly Yrs
W. Pitt.
Then comes a letter referring apparently to the Battle of Hochkirch:
Dear Sister,—I can not omit writing, tho' but a line, to give you the satisfaction of knowing that Mr d'Escart will return to France in a very few days. I am very glad that it has been practicable to accomplish so soon a thing that will give pleasure to so many of your Friends. the news from Dresden to day is not very agreable, the King of Prussia's right wing attack'd sudenly at 4 in the morning ye 14th, put into disorder, Marshal Keith and Prince Francis of Brunswick kill'd but the King coming to the Right, the action was restored and the Austrians repulsed. His Prussian Majesty's Person so exposed that one trembles: his Horse shot, and a Page and Ecuyer wounded by his side. a second action seems inevitable: I hope every thing from it, as this Heroick Monarch's happy Genius never fails him when he wants it most. I have not a moment more. be assured of my constant wishes for your health and happiness.
I am Dear Sister Your affectionate Brother
W. Pitt.
Loves to Mary.
Oct. ye 24th.
Ann was now in London on a short visit, for the purpose of attending the Court; but she had designs of her own which appear to be serious, but which give some evidence of the insanity which was always hovering over her.
'I hear my Lord Bath,' she writes, November 10, 1758, 'is here very lively, but I have not seen him, which I am very sorry for, because I want to offer myself to him. I am quite in earnest, and have set my heart upon it; so I beg seriously you will carry it in your mind and think if you could find any way to help me. Do not you think Lady Betty (Germaine) and Lord and Lady Vere would be ready to help me, if they knew how willing I am? But I leave this to your discretion, and repeat seriously that I am quite in earnest. He can want nothing but a companion that would like his company, and in my situation, I should not desire to make the bargain without that circumstance. And though all I have been saying puts me in mind of some advertisements I have seen in the newspaper from gentlewomen in distress, I will not take that method; but I want to recollect whether you did not once tell me, as I think you did many years ago, that he spoke so well of me that he got anger for it at home, where I never was a favourite.'[85]
Never, surely, did a spinster of forty-eight breathe so frankly her aspirations towards a wealthy and avaricious septuagenarian. We may be sure that this freak of fancy was not confided to her brother. But he on his side had a favour to ask of her, on behalf of a puissant personage. Statesmen in those days had to pay their homage to the Court wherever they could find it, and Pitt, who was never loved by George II., could not afford to neglect the influence of Lady Yarmouth. At any rate, he did not, though apparently without success in his ultimate object; and so we find him attempting to neutralise, through Ann, the mischief which might ensue from Lady Betty Waldegrave's letters being attributed by the Court of France to the King's favourite. Lady Yarmouth was in danger of being compromised!