A BRAVE GAMEKEEPER!
Mr. Robinson had armed a number of his tenants, and appointed John Cullen, the gamekeeper, as Master of the Ordnance. This amused Mrs. Montagu, as in a letter to Mrs. Robinson she says—
“I fancy John has little notion of a gun without a dog, and though a mighty hunter, his prey not being man, he would probably run away, or take to covert. I once saw my Father arm our Militia to take up Jarvis, the Highwayman, and I own I thought the warrant the only arms they durst use against the offender.”
In the same letter she comments on the prevailing expectation that the Pretender would arrive at some particular place. “They expected the Pretender at Newbury three weeks ago. I had a mind to have asked them if he loved eels, for really I don’t know any other seduction he would have to have called on them....”
Lady Oxford wrote one morning to the Duchess of Portland that “it was said the Rebels would be at Welbeck by one o’clock, but did not leave her house, which I think was very wrong, but she is always composed.”
This is the last letter of 1745.
CHAPTER VII.
1746–1748 — CHIEFLY IN LONDON AND BATH AND AT SANDLEFORD — VISITS TO BULLSTRODE AND TO CAMBRIDGE.
1746
The first letter of 1746 is dated January 1 to the Duchess of Portland at Bullstrode.