“... Pray have my neices read ‘Le Théâtre de l’Education,’ by Mme. de Genlis? If they have not, I will get it for them.... I think it is one of the prettiest books that has been written for young persons. The author is governess to the Duc de Chartres’ children.” Even Walpole acknowledged the beauty of the house which Mrs. Montagu had built for her old age and for her heirs—till Lord Rokeby vacated it recently, the ground lease having “fallen in,” and the edifice passing to the ground landlord. “I dined,” writes Walpole to Mason, in February, 1782, “on Tuesday with the Harcourts, at Mrs. Montagu’s new palace, and was much surprised. Instead of vagaries, it is a noble, simple edifice. Magnificent, yet no gilding. It is grand, not tawdry, not larded, and embroidered, and pomponned with shreds, and remnants, and clinquant, like all the harlequinades of Adam, which never let the eye repose an instant.” The next letter is addressed to the writer’s niece, Miss Robinson. “_July ye 9th, 1782._ ... I was, in my youth, directed in the choice of friends by their solid merit and established character, which was oftener found in persons older than myself than in my contemporaries. If from hence I have often wept for dying, I have never been obliged to blush for my living, friends.... The chief honour and felicity of my life has been derived from the superior merit of my friends; and, from my experience, I would, above all things, recommend to every young person to endeavour to connect themselves with persons whom they can esteem, and, indeed, reverence, rather than with those whose understandings and virtues they think merely on a level with, or, perhaps, inferior to, their own.... Principles, opinions, and habits are acquired and formed from those with whom we live and converse most.... Be cautious, be delicate, be a little ambitious, my dear neice, in the choice of your friends. I would be far from inculcating a supercilious contempt for persons of weak understanding, or a censorious condemnation of their levity of manners. Humility and charity are the greatest virtues, and let them ever guide your manners and regulate your conversation.... Be assured that the wisest persons are the least severe, and the most virtuous are the most charitable.” “_Sandleford, July 9, 1782._ ... I had a great deal of occupation of a more important kind, which was the examination and payment of ye workmen who had been employed in building and adorning the said house.... As I got everything accomplished before I left London, I had the satisfaction of getting a receit in full of all demands from the various artificers. I will own my taste is unfashionable, but there is to me a wonderful charm in those words ‘in full of all demands.’ My house never appeared to me so noble, so splendid, so pleasant, so convenient, as when I had paid off every shilling of debt it had incurred. The worst of haunted houses, in my opinion, are those haunted by duns.