[Page heading: THE “GOLDEN BALL”] The “Golden Ball” was the ball of the weathercock on the lantern cupola of the house at Mount Morris. In the next letter, November 20, she says-- “Out of my filial piety I would persuade my Pappa to set out for London. I have been preaching to him all this day, that when Saul had the spleen, David’s musick did him a great deal of good, and that I am satisfied Farinelli[23] would do him as much service. He goes frequently shooting or coursing, and fancies that will prevent its return, and to answer me with the Scripture, says, Nimrod the mighty hunter never had the Hyp. Dr. Middleton designed to bring his Dearee to London, but if she is so gay it may be as prudent to keep her at Cambridge ... if it should enter her head that the doctor is no greater than another, what a mortification it would be to my good Grand-pappa; if he knows himself and her, I think he would agree with Arnolfe in _L’Ecole des Femmes_[24]-- “‘Que c’est assez pour elle, a vous en bien parler, De savoir prier Dieu, l’aimer, coudre, et filer.’” [23] Carlo Brocchi, whose professional name was Farinelli, vocalist and pupil of Porpora. [24] A play of Molière’s. [Illustration: _Emery Walker Ph. Sc._ _Miss Sarah Morris_] Mr. Robinson, who drew and painted in a style worthy of a professional artist, was anxious Elizabeth should become a proficient in the same art, but she writes to the duchess-- “If you design to make any proficiency in that art, I would advise you not to draw _old men’s_ heads. It was the rueful head countenance of Socrates or Seneca that first put me out of conceit of it; had my Pappa given me the blooming faces of Adonis or Narcissus, I might have been a more apt scholar; and when I told him I found those great beards difficult to draw, he gave me St. John’s head in a charger, so to avoid the speculation of dismal faces, which by my art I dismalized ten times more than they were before, I threw away my pencil.” [Year: 1735] [Page heading: TUNBRIDGE WELLS] In October, 1735, the duchess’s first child was born, Elizabeth, eventually wife of the 1st Marquis of Bath. Elizabeth writes to congratulate her, and states she heard Dr. Mead (then the great ladies’ doctor) pronounced it the finest child he ever saw. Elizabeth had just returned from her first visit to Tunbridge Wells for her health, suffering much from headaches and weak eyes. At this period the _Dowager_ Duchess of Portland died. The letters up to this date were addressed to “To Her Grace, The junior Duchess of Portland.” [Page heading: LORD STANHOPE] Elizabeth writes a description of her five weeks at Tunbridge Wells. After comments on an unhappy marriage recently made, she says--