'I am sure I ought to return you my gratefull acknowledgmts for the obliging Present you have made me of some sweet Stanzas on this spot,—and my two Predecessors. Mr. Ross was certainly an Admirer of His, & paid that Respect to his Memory as to retain the little Parlour where Mr. Thomson liv'd, tho' he rebuilt every other Part of the House, extending it very much.
'The little Rustick Seat wch inspir'd your poetick Dialogue I found in such a State of decay that I was oblig'd to take it down, but, reserving all the Materials, I have replac'd it in a retir'd part of the Garden much enlarg'd and hung round with votive Tablets or Inscriptions in Honour of your admir'd Poet. His Bust is on the Pedament of the Seat, and in front is written
'"Here Thomson sung
The Seasons & their Change."
In the Alcove is a little old Table, wh I am assur'd belonged to Him, but Sir, if ever you shd have leisure to pay another Visit to your matchless Favourite, You will I hope find Him honour'd by
'Your most humble Servt,
'F. Boscawen.'
After surviving her husband for forty-four years, and never marrying again, the Honourable Frances Evelyn Boscawen closed her long and amiable life at her house in Audley Street, in March, 1805, at the venerable age of eighty-six; and was buried in the same vault with her husband at St. Michael Penkivel, where a monument designed by her son, George Evelyn, third Viscount Falmouth, and executed by Nollekens, was erected to her memory. An epitaph does her no more than justice.
FOOTNOTES:
[80] It is somewhat singular that, notwithstanding the early and close connexion of the Boscawen family with this church, which is one of unusual interest—containing an oratory with a stone altar in the tower—though the Boscawen monuments here are numerous, yet there is no earlier example than one to Hugh, who married a lady of the Carminow family, and who died in 1559.