praise of his genius; I suppose you know he has been lame from his birth, and is carried about in a chair, though a beautiful person from the waist upwards: it is said his family design him for the Church, he having four brothers who are fine children. The weather is now very fine; we have had none of the canals frozen, in the coldest part of the winter, but the mountains are still covered with snow. Your last letters have said nothing of my baggage. If there is danger of its being taken by the privateers, I had rather it stayed in England, and I would go into the southern part of France, where it might be conveyed to me without hazard, than risk the loss of it. If there is a probability of a rupture with France, I can go to Avignon.

TO MR. WORTLEY MONTAGU.

[Venice] April 19, N.S. [1740]. I RECEIVED yours of January 1 but yesterday; for which reason I think it useless to answer it at present, but if I find any occasion, shall not fail to follow your orders. Lord Granby is set out on his journey for Constantinople. Lord Fitzwilliam arrived here three days ago; he came to see me the next day, as all the English do, who are much surprised at the civilities and familiarity with which I am with [sic] the noble ladies. Everybody tells me 'tis what never was done but to myself; and I own I have a little vanity in it, because the French ambassador told me when I first came, that though the Procurator Grimani might persuade them to visit me, he defied me to enter into any sort of intimacy with them: instead of which they call me out almost every day on some diversion or other, and are desirous to have me in all their parties of pleasure. I am invited to-morrow to the Foscarini to dinner, which is to be followed by a concert and a ball, where I shall be the only stranger, though here are at present a great number come to see the regatta, which is fixed for the 29th of this month, N.S. I shall see it at the Procurator Grimani's, where there will be a great entertainment that day. My own house is very well situated to see it, being on the Grand Canal; but I would not refuse him and his niece, since

they seem desirous of my company, and I shall oblige some other ladies with my windows. They are hired at a great rate to see the show. I suppose you know the nature of it, but if it will be any amusement I will send you a particular description.

TO THE COUNTESS OF POMFRET.

[Venice, about April, 1740.] UPON my word, dear madam, I seriously intend myself the happiness of being with you this summer; but it cannot be till then; while the Prince of Saxony stays here I am engaged not to move: not upon his account, as you may very well imagine, but here are many entertainments given, and to be given him by the public, which it would be disobliging to my friends here to run away from; and I have received so many civilities from the first people here, I cannot refuse them the complaisance of passing the feast of the Ascension in their company, though 'tis a real violence to my inclination to be so long deprived of yours, of which I know the value, and may say, that I am just to you from judgment as well as pleased with you from taste. I envy nothing more to Lady Walpole than your conversation, though I am glad you have met with hers. Have you not reasoned much on the surprising conclusion of Lord Scarborough? I confess I look upon his engagement with the duchess, not as the cause, but sign, that he was mad. I

2

1

1 Lady Walpole was then at Florence. See note p. 87, post.-T.

2 Isabella, the widow of William Duke of Manchester, was eldest daughter of John Duke of Montagu, by his wife, Lady Mary Churchill, daughter of John the great Duke of Marlborough, a woman celebrated for her beauty, and the admiration which it excited. She was about to take as her second husband Richard Earl of Scarbrough (the Lord Scarbrough so praised by Chesterfield and Pope), when, without any apparent reason to be tired of life, he destroyed himself the day before that fixed for their marriage. Report said, that by hastily drying up an issue, or using hazardous means to check an eruption, he had repelled a humour, which flew to his brain, and produced a sudden fit of insanity. Lady Mary Wortley's remarks on this, and everything else concerning the Duchess of Manchester, are so far from charitable, that the cause of her bitterness should be explained. The duchess unfortu

could wish for some authentic account of her behaviour on this occasion. I do not doubt she shines in it, as she has done in every other part of her life. I am almost inclined to superstition on this accident; and think it a judgment for the death of a poor silly soul,' that you know he caused some years ago.

I had a visit yesterday from a Greek called Cantacuzena, who had the honour to see your ladyship, as he says, often at Florence, and gave me the pleasure of speaking of you in the manner I think. Prince Beauveau and Lord Shrewsbury intend to leave us in a few days for the Conclave. We expect after it a fresh cargo of English; but, God be praised, I hear of no ladies among them: Mrs. Lethuilier was the last that gave comedies in this town, and she had made her exit before I came; which I look upon as a great blessing. I have nothing to complain of here but too much diversion, as it is called; and which

nately was at variance, indeed at open war, with her parents, having married very young, and in the first enjoyment of delightful freedom, made too much haste to fling off the yoke of her mother, who, perhaps, on her side, strove to govern rather too long. But this Lady Mary, who was her mother the Duchess of Montagu's fast friend, would not admit, and threw the whole blame upon the daughter, for whom, however, the self-same circumstance won zealous protection and partiality from her august grandmother, Sarah of Marlborough. "You, my sweet duchess" (said the grandmother, in an overflow of fondness), " you were always the very best of God's creatures, but you have a mother!!" The granddaughter, who was gifted with a great deal of humour, and knew perfectly well what made her a favourite, could not resist answering, Ay, and she has a mother!"

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None of the Duchess of Manchester's lovers pursued her more ardently than at one time did Mr. Henry Fox, afterwards Lord Holland. So, whenever Duchess Sarah heard of any imprudent love-match, "Ah! well!" she would cry, "I don't care who runs away with whom so long as the Fox does not carry off my Goose."-W. The duchess's marriage to Mr. Hussey will be found subsequently alluded to.-T.

This was Lady Mary's own sister-in-law, the widow Lady Kingston, who with a weak understanding had strong affections, and devoted them all to Lord Scarbrough. She thought him so firmly engaged to her, that she even taught her children to call him papa. But falling ill, and sending for him, she received such a shock from a cold slighting answer he gave to something she said about their future marriage, that she turned on her pillow, and spoke to him no more. As she died a day or two afterwards, Lady Mary might justly accuse him of having struck the death-blow.-W.

literally diverts me from amusements much more agreeable. I can hardly believe it is me dressed up at balls, and stalking about at assemblies; and should not be so much surprised at suffering any of Ovid's transformations; having more disposition, as I thought, to harden into stone or timber, than to be enlivened into these tumultuary entertainments, where I am amazed to find myself seated by a sovereign prince, after travelling a thousand miles to establish myself in the bosom of a republic, with a design. to lose all memory of kings and courts. Won't you admire the force of destiny? I remember my contracting an intimacy with a girl in a village, as the most distant thing on earth from power and politics. Fortune tosses her up (in a double sense), and I am embroiled in a thousand affairs that I had resolved to avoid as long as I lived. Say what you please, madam, we are pushed about by a superior hand, and there is some predestination, as well as a great deal of free will, in my being

Faithfully yours, &c.

TO THE COUNTESS OF POMFRET.

[Venice, about April, 1740.]

I CANNOT help being offended to find that you think it necessary to make an excuse for the desire that you so obligingly expressed of seeing me. Do not think me so tasteless or so ungrateful not to be sensible of all the goodness you have shown me. I prefer one hour of your conversation to all the raree-shows that have ever been exhibited. But little circumstances commonly overrule both our interests and our inclinations. Though I believe, if the weather and roads permitted, I should even now break through them all, to gratify myself with waiting on you however, I hope that happiness in a few weeks; and in the mean time must go through a course of conversa

1 Meaning Miss Skerritt, with whom Lady Mary made an intimate acquaintance at Twickenham, some time before her conquest of Sir Robert Walpole "tossed her up" into the region of power and politics.-W.

tions, concerts, balls, &c. I envy you a more reasonable way of passing your time. It is but a very small quantity that is allowed us by nature, and yet how much of that little is squandered. I am determined to be a better housewife for the future; and not to be cheated out of so many irretrievable hours, that might be laid out to better advantage. I could pity the Duchess of Manchester, though I believe 'tis a sensation she is incapable of feeling for anybody, and I do not doubt it is her pride that is chiefly shocked on this occasion; but as that is a very tender part, and she having always possessed a double portion of it, I am persuaded she is very miserable. I am surprised at the different way of acting I find in Italy, where, though the sun gives more warmth to the passions, they are all managed with a sort of discretion that there is never any public éclat, though there are ten thousand public engagements: which is so different from what I had always heard and read, that I am convinced either the manners of the country are wonderfully changed, or travellers have always related what they have imagined, and not what they saw; as I found at Constantinople, where, instead of the imprisonment in which I fancied all the ladies languished, I saw them running about in veils from morning to night.

Till I can see you, dear madam, let me hear from you as often as possible, and do not think your favours thrown away upon a stupid heart; it is sincerely devoted to your service, with as much attachment as ever. I can part with all other pretensions, but I must be angry if you are in this point unjust to

Your faithful servant, &c. &c.

TO THE COUNTESS OF POMFRET.

Venice, May 17 [1740].

I HAD the happiness of a letter from your ladyship a few days since, and yesterday the pleasure of talking of you with Sir Henry Englefield.1 He tells me you are still in

1 Sir Henry Englefield, Bart., of Wotton-Basset. Tho baronetcy expired in 1822.--T.