Thus end the letters of 1744.
CHAPTER VI.
1745 — AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS — LETTERS FROM MR. MONTAGU AND OTHERS ABOUT THE JACOBITE CAMPAIGN.
1745
The first letter of any interest in 1745 is from Mrs. Robinson to Mrs. Montagu, dated May 8. In this she alludes to the death of the second Mrs. Conyers Middleton, née Miss Place, who had died on April 26, in her thirty-eighth year. It appears the marriage had not been a very happy one. Mrs. Robinson remarks—
“The Dean of Canterbury hears the Doctor (Middleton) is going to Ireland with Lord Chesterfield.[361]... I take it for granted, if he goes he is to be an Irish Bishop. It is very strange that no one can be contented with their present state, for though the Doctor is neither great nor rich, he has more than he wants, and can spend his time in such studies as he chuses, and his vacant hours in the company he has been used to, which I think to one between 60 and 70, would be no small consideration.”
[361] The 4th Earl of Chesterfield, born 1694, died 1773. He was just made Viceroy of Ireland.
DONNINGTON CASTLE
A letter of July 24 from Mrs. Montagu at Sandleford to the Duchess of Portland gives an interesting account of Donnington Castle, near Newbury—
“One day this week we rode to Chaucer’s Castle,[362] where you will suppose we made some verses no doubt, and when they showed us Chaucer’s well, I desired some Helicon, hoping thereby to write you a more poetical letter, but the place having been, during the last Civil War, besieged, the Muses were frightened away, and forbade this spring to flow, so it is entirely choaked up, and where flourished Laurels and Bays, grows only uncouth thorns and thistles. Where erst the Muses and the Graces played in the best room of the Castle, now stink a few tame partridges: in short, the present owner, having none of the divine enthusiasm of poetry, has turned the Castle to barbarous uses. Above it is a partridge Mew, below a court is kept for paying fines and fees.”