[346] French ambassador and writer.
At this period Dr. Gregory lost his wife, and was in great despair; she was a daughter of William, Lord Forbes.
WIDOWS’ WEEDS
At the end of October Mrs. Montagu set out on a short visit to her sister, Mrs. Scott, and Lady Bab Montagu at Bath Easton. Dr. Monsey was then at Bath, whither later Mrs. Montagu also repaired. Bath society was enthusiastic upon the subject of Mr. Pitt and a political letter he wrote at this period. From a letter written from Bath to Mrs. Carter about a Mrs. Talbot, a reduced lady, who was an applicant for a lady’s-maid situation, we learn that £10 per annum were regarded as adequate wages for such an attendant. I subjoin a curious paragraph as to a widow’s dress—
“The fashionable dress for a widow is a gown with two broad plaits in the back, a short cuff which comes a little below the elbow, round double ruffles very shallow. The dress weed is made of silk made on purpose, undress crape, a black silk long apron, black handkerchief, black hood, and a plain sort of night-cap. Either a night-gown or sack may be worn with a short train, no flounce or ornament of any sort, and if a sack scanty, and only two broad plaits. Many women of condition who are not young, wear merely a common crape sack, the younger sort wear the dress that denotes their widowhood, and in a country town I should suppose the full form must be observed. I imagine your enquiry is for poor Mrs. Primrose.”
A CALL FOR POETRY
On November 17 Mrs. Montagu writes from Hill Street to Mrs. Carter—
“My dear Friend,
“I had this day the pleasure of receiving my dear Friend’s most charming ode. I, alas! am like Monsr. Jourdain, I speak nothing but prose, but I believe my heart feels with all the enthusiasm of poetry.... My Lord Bath is vastly happy that you are to be in town the 1st of January. My Lord Lyttelton is better, but his fever is not quite gone.... I think you should print the verses my Lord Lyttelton addressed to you from Penshurst. Pray write some more odes, and let your seamstresses do your plain work, and the Clerk transcribe your verses.”
This year an edition of Mrs. Carter’s various works was printed. When Mrs. Carter was in London she lodged with Mrs. Norman in Clarges Street. Mrs. Montagu having ascertained that she could have her lodgings there from the 1st of January, adds—