“I am, Madam,
“Your sincere admirer: and
“Most faithful Humᵉ servᵗ,
“J. Pomfret.
“Lady Sophia Carteret and Mrs. Shelley beg your acceptance of their best respects.”
Lady Pomfret died on December 16, 1761, at Marlborough, Wilts.
LORD LYTTELTON’S LETTER
On October 5 Lord Lyttelton writes to Mrs. Montagu from Hagley a long letter, an extract of which I give—
“Tom proposes to give a ball to some young people of the neighbourhood on this day sennight, which will add to our number and our jollity. He desires me to tell you that if you were within twenty miles of our Ball-room he would invite you to it among the handsome young women; which you may notify to the cynic Monsey, when he talks to you next of the horrid gulph of forty, and bid him hold his fool’s tongue. I believe you fib about your age and make yourself at least ten years older than you are, to be nearer to Lord Bath. I hope you have been, and are still as happy with him at Sandleford as your heart can desire. You will not think it a compliment to either of you when I say, that I would be glad to exchange all the mirth of our ball for the dullest of your evenings; but I will add in great truth, that I would give up the finest day in Hagley Park for a rainy one in your company. I had a letter last post from the Dean,[340] in which he says, ‘Your Lordship must not be surprised if you hear in a post or two of Mr. Secretary Pitt’s and Lord Temple’s being out of their employments. Unless something extraordinary happens, this event will certainly take place in a few days. I have this intelligence not from common report, but from the best authority. The reason given for their resignation is the opposition made in the Cabinet to Mr. Pitt’s proposal of sending a fleet immediately to intercept the Spanish Flota daily expected home, and likewise to attack their men-of-war wherever they are to be found, but your Lordship knows there are other causes of discontent.’ If this should be true, I imagine Lord Egremont[341] will be Secretary of State and Lord Hardwick[342] Privy Seal. Mr. James Grenville will probably lay down with his brother, which will make a vacancy at the Cofferer’s Office, one of the few I might take if there was an inclination to bring me into employment. I wish much to know Lord Bath’s opinion of Pitt’s advice. To me it seems to be that of a man who (in a political sense) fears neither God nor man. It certainly must be founded upon a supposition that a war with Spain is inevitable, which I should hope is not true; and even in that case I think England ought to be very cautious not to appear the aggressor, which this conduct would make her. But I had rather hear his Lordship’s judgment upon this question than give my own.”
[340] Charles Lyttelton, Dean of Carlisle.