The last letter in the series is addressed to Mrs. Elizabeth Carter. The date is September, 1761. The writer lived nearly forty years after that date. During that time, she maintained a lively correspondence; her letters were copied and circulated. After her death, a few, with fragments of others, found their way into various periodicals. The correspondence which Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu kept up with her sister-in-law, Mrs. Robinson, wife of the Rev. William Robinson, and a few other friends, between 1761 and the close of the last century, was long in the possession of the late Mr. Richard Bentley, who purchased them at a sale of autographs. These form the chief portion of the present volume. In a note to the letters published by Mr. Montagu, the editor states that they are “intended to convey in them the biography of the writer, which the editor thinks he could not so well exemplify by any remarks of his own as by the letters themselves.” Mr. Montagu gave to his aunt’s readers every word of every epistle, from the salutation to the signature. From the letters now printed for the first time there have only been omitted vain repetitions, formal compliments, and the nothings that may have once been somethings, but which are now mere dust and ashes, from which little of value is to be sifted. There have been retained all that could further “convey the biography of the writer,” with addition of such anecdotal illustration from the printed letters and from contemporary records as might serve to show more completely the character and surroundings of a Lady of the Last Century. Contents PAGE CHAPTER I. Birth and Parentage of Mrs. Montagu—Long Tom Robinson—Dr. Conyers Middleton—Early Training of Mrs. Montagu—Funeral at York Cathedral—Mrs. Makin—Her System of Female Education—School at Tottenham High Cross—Early Habits of Mrs. Montagu—The Duchess of Portland—Mary-le-Bone Gardens—“La Petite Fidget” at Bath, at Tunbridge Wells—Lord Noel Somerset—Bath Life in 1740—Lord Lyttelton—Scarlet Beaux and Country Polyphemuses—Modern Marriages—Garrick’s Richard the Third—Offers of Marriage to Miss Robinson 1 CHAPTER II. Edward Montagu—Wedding Tour—Allerthorpe—Pursuits There—Lord Dupplin—Character of Mrs. Montagu’s Neighbours—Unwelcome Visitor—Habits of Mind—Lite in London—Birth of a Son—Little “Punch”—Death of Her Son—Visits Tunbridge Wells—Doctor Young and Colley Cibber There—The Vicar of Tunbridge—The Rebellion of 1745—Death of Mrs. Montagu’s Mother—Wilton—Death of Her Brother—Mode of Life at Bath—Mrs. Gilbert West—Mrs. Montagu’s Tastes—Love of Books—Her Analysis of Clarissa Harlowe—Mrs. Pilkington—Lady Sandwich—Miss Chudleigh at the Masquerade—Letter to Mr. Montagu 23