Mr. Hooke and Mr. Botham were both at Sandleford. In Mr. Hooke’s conversation Mrs. Montagu found much enjoyment; as West put it, “He (Hooke) is a very worthy man, and has in him the greatest compass of entertainments of any one I know, from nonsense (as Lord Bath calls it), to sense, and beyond sense to Metaphysics.”
“THE TRIUMPHS OF THE GOUT”
On December 20 Mrs. West writes to present her Christmas wishes, and Mr. West’s, to the Montagus, as “Tubby” (Mr. West), as was his uneuphonious family nickname, had the gout in both hands. Mrs. Montagu writes to him—
“The 27th of December, 1753.
“And what, my dear Cousin, are both hands prisoners of the gout! such innocent hands too! Hands that never open’d to receive or give a bribe, that never dipped into the guilt of the South Sea fraud, of Charitable Corporations, or pilfer’d lottery tickets, clean even from perquisite in office, and the most modest means by which the Miser’s palm wooes and sollicits gain. So far have your hands been from grasping at other’s gold, they have not held fast your own with a tenacious grip, but open’d liberally at the petitions of the poor, for the productions of Art, or to feast your friends at the genial board. Most of all do I resent the fate of the writing hand, which was first dedicated to the Muses, then with maturer judgment consecrated to the Nymphs of Solyma, and shall it be led captive by the cruel gout? Why did you sing the triumphs[63] of the dire goddess? Oh, why could you not describe them unfelt, as Poets often do the softer pains and gentler woes of Venus and her Son?”
[63] West wrote a poem entitled “The Triumphs of the Gout.”
1754
SCHOOLGIRLS’ BILL
The first amusing paper I have of 1754 is a school bill for the two younger Miss Bothams, Molly and Kitty. I am sorry that several of the items are torn away, but it is curious as to things then required, and also for the extraordinarily bad spelling and wording of the preceptor entrusted with their care. It is addressed to—
“The Revd. Docʳ Botham,
“These.”