“Dear Madam,
“For your pye and your verses what strains are sublime enough to return proper thanks! You have held the balance of justice so exactly and directed its sword so well where to fall that Mrs. Temple West and I are determined to divide the pye this evening according to the rules prescribed. Though our pye has not yet been toasted, your verses have been well relish’d by some of the greatest connoisseurs. About an hour after I had your letter Miss West came to call on me; I communicated your poetic strains and we were very merry over them. When Lord Temple and Sir George Lyttelton came in we let them have a share, and they joined in the laugh and commendation. Lord Temple desired his best and kindest compliments to you and my cousin. He is not at all the worse for his late illness.... Sir George and he were going to dine with Mr. Pitt, whose health, I believe, is in much the same state as when you saw him.”
THE DUCHESS OF CHANDOS
Mrs. Medows wrote on January 6 from Chute, Wilton, then her brother-in-law’s residence, to wish the Montagus a happy new year, and in this letter she says—
“The Duke of C(handos)[31] our neighbour kept his Son’s[32] birthday with great magnificence. I was invited, and not foreseeing such an occasion for dress, I had neither manto nor sack, and desired leave to come in a white apron in the evening, but the Duchess insisted on my coming with it to dinner. You may imagine how well I dined on two and forty dishes, and a dessert of one and twenty, very well ordered and served; but the Duchess’s behaviour was really an entertainment, not in the least embarrassed, she did the honours perfectly well, and seemed conscious she should make a good figure, and pleased with the opportunity. In the evening there was a ball, cards for the grave people. I am pleased to find that I can still see the young people dance and with pleasure; our nieces[33] Pulses were the best dancers. I won four rubbers and past for a good player; content with this, I came away before supper. I was charmed with Mrs. Ironmonger[34] ... If you would have me think you well get a Vandike Hankerchief. Mrs. Ironmonger had one, and I am sure it will become you.”
[31] 2nd Duke of Chandos.
[32] His only son by first wife, afterwards 3rd Duke.
[33] Mrs. Medows’ nieces.
[34] Probably Mrs. Iremonger, of Wherwell, Hants.
The duchess here alluded to was the second wife of the duke, Anne Jefferies, née Wells. In the “Complete Peerage” we read, “See the story of her being sold with a halter round her neck by her husband, Jefferies, an ostler at the Pelican Inn, Newbury, and purchased by the Duke of Chandos in ‘N & Q,’ 4th l. vi. p. 179.” She was married in 1744 to the duke, and died in 1759 s.p.