DR. MESSENGER MONSEY
Further he alludes to Pitt being laid up with gout at Hayes, “a legacy you left him,” alluding to her formerly owning Pitt’s residence at that place. Then he mentions Stillingfleet having been staying at Sandleford, and says, “Monsey swears he will make out some story of you and him before you are much older; you shall not keep blew stockings at Sandleford for nothing.” This is the first allusion to blue stockings, but that Stillingfleet’s wearing blue stockings gave the name to the coterie entirely, must be false. He was, however, a very learned man, especially upon botany. In later letters allusion is made to his having left off wearing blue stockings! The coterie of friends probably was named thus after the famous bas bleu assemblies of Paris, held in the salons of Madame de Polignac in the Rue St. Honoré, where the wearing of blue stockings was the rage: but Dr. Monsey is mentioned for the first time here. Dr. Messenger Monsey was the son of a clergyman; he was born in 1698, so was fifty-eight years old at this date. He was a doctor and surgeon, and became private physician to the Earl of Godolphin, and afterwards physician to Chelsea Hospital. He was most eccentric, and, if his portrait at the Soane Museum was like him, hideous in appearance; but he had a coarse rough-and-tumble wit, and evidently was so droll in manner, that he became a sort of pet buffoon of the Montagu and Lyttelton circle. His letters are interminably long; written in such small though neat writing, a magnifying glass is required for careful perusal. He was at this time a widower, with one married daughter, Charlotte, whose husband, William Alexander, was elder brother to the 1st Earl of Caledon. Mrs. Alexander had one child, a daughter, Jemima, who married the Rev. Edmund Rolfe, and was mother eventually of the 1st Baron Cranworth. Monsey’s letters are so coarse one can hardly imagine the bas bleus putting up with them. Dr. Monsey begged Dr. Cruickshank, in case of his dying away from his own doctor (Dr. Forster), to dissect his body before the students, set up his skeleton for instruction, and put his flesh in a box and throw it into the Thames. He must either have been very swarthy, or disliked soap and water, as Torriano, in allusion to Monsey’s threat of inventing a story about Stillingfleet and Mrs. Montagu, says, “Your fame, which was as fair as Dian’s visage, will be soon black and begrim’d like the Doctor’s own face!”
EMIN
During this year Mrs. Montagu had also formed an acquaintance with an Armenian named Joseph Ameen, or Emin. He was the son of a merchant, and born at Hamadan, whither his father had been carried captive by the Persians. His father at last escaped to Calcutta, after being slave to Kouli Khan for many years. The Persians, ever since 1604, under Shah Abbas, had frequently made inroads into Armenia, captured the majority of the inhabitants, and carried them away as slaves into Persia. Emin grew up with a passionate desire to free his country from oppression and the yoke of unbelievers, for the Armenians were then, as now, Christians. Emin says of his father in a letter to his patron, the Earl of Northumberland[145]—
“My Father taught me like other Armenians only to write and read in our own language, and to get Psalms by heart to sing in Church, but he did not show me how to handle arms to fight for that Church, as my Uncle did who was killed at his Church door, nor anything to kindle up my heart to understand great affairs.”
[145] Hugh Smithson, the 15th Earl, made Duke of Northumberland in 1766; born 1714, died 1786.
EMIN’S TROUBLES — EMIN’S FORTUNES
Burning to learn “the art of war” as practised by the British soldiers in India, and his father opposing him, Emin determined on flight to England, and, taking what money he possessed, he “kissed the feet of Capt. Fox of the ship Walpole a hundred times to let me work[146] my passage to Europe before he would heed to me, but he did at last admit me, and I came to England with much labour.” Arrived in England, he entered Mr. Middleton’s Academy, and was first a scholar, and then, when his money was exhausted, worked there as a servant for his learning. His master becoming bankrupt, Emin lost his all, and was reduced to the streets. At last he obtained service with a Mr. Rogers, a grocer, as porter. “In this time I carried burthens of near 200 lbs. upon my back, and paid out of my wages to learn geometry, complete my writing, and learn a little French.” Overstraining himself, he could no longer carry such heavy burthens, and was reduced to living on 1½d. a day, but a friend recommended him to a Mr. Webster, an attorney in Cheapside, with whom he got work for a time. His uncle sent £60 to Governor Davis to take Emin home to India, but after a while, meeting “by chance some gentlemen[147] who encouraged me and lent me books, and advised me to kiss Colonel Dingley’s hands and show him my business, he was a brave soldier, took me by the hand, spoke to his own Sergeant, an honest man, to teach me Manuel Exercise, and gave me ‘Bland’s Military Discipline’ and promised to help me learn gunnery and fortification.” Unfortunately Colonel Dingley died, and Emin, in despair, and by the advice of the gentlemen mentioned before, who appear from the letters to have been a Calcutta lawyer and Edmund Burke, applied to the Earl of Northumberland in a long letter, passages of which I have quoted. Emin proposes that his lordship should apply to Governor Davis for some of the money his uncle had sent to pay for his passage back to India to enable him (Emin) to join the “black Armenians in the mountains, as I heard they had never been conquered,” to teach him the art of war. The Earl of Northumberland at last—after Emin waiting at his house often from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.!—took notice of him, and sent his servant to fetch him to see him, and on hearing his story, said, “Ameen, it is very hard to live in this country without friends and without money, almost four years, therefore the Lord is with you, be contented, I will from this time provide and furnish you with all necessaries,” and, said he, “I will mediate to the son of our King, and after you have learned the art of war, I will send you to your Father and your Uncles: the noble lady[148] comforted me also likewise.” Lord Northumberland introduced Emin to Sir Charles Stanhope,[149] and he in turn to Lord Cathcart,[150] who gave him great encouragement. Lord Northumberland now introduced him to the Duke of Cumberland, who henceforth took an interest in him. Emin applied for military service in a long letter to Heraclius II., King of Georgia and Armenia, who was anxious to shake off the yoke of the Persians, but evidently the reply was delayed, and the next we hear of him is that he had been sent to Woolwich Academy, “to Mr. Heaton’s on Church Hill,” to learn the “art of war.” Having effected a reconciliation with his father, it is interesting to read what presents he desired him to send this noble patron, the Earl of Northumberland—
“Send to my protector Nobleman, spices of the finest Pulam of Radnagar, 2 pieces of the finest Mul-mul, and 2 pieces of Madras red handkerchiefs, 2 pieces of Cuzombzar Silk handkerchiefs to be ornamented at both ends at Dacca.”
[146] The passage took from February 3 (from Hoogley) to December 14,—ten months!