In a letter to Dr. Freind, Mrs. Montagu says-- “‘Punch’ is a fine fellow, he is greatly improved since you last saw him, he is now an admirable tumbler, I lay him down on a blanket on the ground every morning before he is dressed, and at night when he is stripped, and there he rolls and tumbles about to his great delight.” Alas! the mother’s joy was turned to grief, for in a few days after, Punch cut his first tooth with great difficulty and severe illness. They set out on their journey to the North on July 31, when they started _viâ_ Oxford, stopping at the Blue Boar there. [Page heading: MR. JAMES MONTAGU] [Page heading: CAMBRIDGE AND STOWE] The following letter to the Duchess of Portland was written from Newbold Verdon, Mr. James Montagu’s seat in Leicestershire. He was the elder half-brother of Mr. Montagu by Mr. Charles Montagu’s first wife, Elizabeth Forster, daughter of Sir James William Forster, of Bamborough Castle, Northumberland. Newbold Verdon had been left to Mr. James Montagu by his uncle by marriage, Nathaniel, Baron Crewe of Stene, who married Dorothy Forster. “Newbold Verdon, August 9, 1744. “MADAM, “I did not set out on my journey so soon as we proposed; the letter we sent to my brother Montagu having made the tour of England before it reached him, so we waited for an answer. The 31st of July we set out for Oxford, where we spent an agreeable day in seeing new objects and old friends. The good people from Witney[342] were so kind as to come over to see us, and show us what was best worthy our attention. The University, I think, is finer than Cambridge, but does not excel so much as I had imagined. Alma Mater, however, presides in great dignity there. I had hoped to have seen Mr. Potts,[343] but was informed he was at Bullstrode, or I should have sent to have begged the favour of seeing him.