MRS. ELIZABETH CARTER.
On June 7, writing to Mrs. Carter, who was drinking the waters at Bristol, Mrs. Montagu chaffs her as to her surroundings. “Do you like pompons or aigrettes in your hair? if you put on rouge, dance minuets and cottillions? that I may describe and define you in your Bristol State.” Mention is made of Mr. Mason’s “Caractacus.”
“It is a Drama not dramatized; his Melpomene is too chaste, too cold for the theatre. She is a very modest virgin, pure in sentiment and diction and void of passion; her sober ornaments are a Greek veil and some Druidical Hieroglyphicks, all which I mightily respect and do not like at all.... Lord Northampton had a fine suit for the birthday, the wastecoat silver and gold, the coat gold and silver.”
DR. JOHNSON
On June 9 occurs the first letter of Dr. Johnson[246] to Mrs. Montagu.
[246] Dr. Samuel Johnson, born 1709, died 1784; the famous lexicographer and critic.
“Madam,
“I am desired by Mrs. Williams to sign receipts with her name for the subscribers which you have been pleased to procure, and to return her humble thanks for your favour, which was conferred with all the grace that elegance can add to Beneficence.
“I am,
“Your most obedient