“Charles grown from a fine boy to a very clever man, he is improved in all respects.... My house looks like an Indian warehouse: I have got so many figures, jars, etc., etc., you would laugh at the collection, my gown I brought out of the ship buckled under my jumps, it is very pretty and the work extremely neat. The Captain has brought China, Lutestrings, taffeties and Paduasoys, they wear so well, but the colors are not as good as those of our manufacture.” [Page heading: PRICE OF TEA] Tea was also brought, and Dr. Conyers Middleton had 4 lbs. at 16_s._ a pound. He had just brought out his “Free Enquiry into the Miraculous Powers.” Matthew Robinson writes of it on December 17, “Middleton will tell you there is no belief to be given to any of the miracles related by the Fathers, Hume[466] says that there is no belief to be given to miracles related by any man whatsoever.” And thus end the letters of 1748. [466] David Hume, born 1711, died 1776; philosopher and historian. CHAPTER VIII. 1749–1751--SOCIETY IN LONDON AND AT TUNBRIDGE WELLS--BEGINNING OF CORRESPONDENCE WITH GILBERT WEST, AND RESIDENCE AT HAYES. [Year: 1749] An account of a subscription masquerade given at Ranelagh in May opens the letters of 1749. My grandfather[467] by mistake put this in 1751. It succeeded a magnificent fête and masquerade given on May 1 in celebration of the Peace. [467] _Vide_ Horace Walpole’s letter to Sir H. Mann, vol. ii. p. 292. Mrs. Montagu writes to her sister at Bath on May 8-- “I am ashamed that I have been so remiss in writing to my dear sister, but business and amusements have poured in torrents upon me. I was some days preparing for the subscription masquerade, where I was to appear in the character of the Queen Mother,[468] my dress white satin, fine new point for tuckers, kerchief and ruffles, pearl necklace and earrings, and pearls and diamonds on the head, and my hair curled after the Vandyke picture. Mrs. Trevor[469] and the Lady Stanhopes’[470] adjusted my dress, so that I was one day in my life well dressed. “Miss Charlotte Fane was Rubens’ wife, and looked extremely well; we went together. Miss Chudleigh’s[471] dress or rather undress was remarkable. She was Iphigenia for the sacrifice, but so naked, the High Priest might easily inspect the entrails of the victim. The Maids of Honour, not of maids the strictest, were so offended they would not speak to her. [468] Henrietta Maria. [469] Mrs. John Morley Trevor, _née_ Montagu. [470] Daughters of 1st Viscount Stanhope; their mother was a Pitt. [471] Maid-of-Honour, and secretly married to Viscount Bristol, afterwards Duchess of Kingston.