“How very fortunate are those few who in the Person they love, meet
with the principles of Honour and Virtue to guide them through
the World, but this, my fortune, so happy and so rare, shall not
breed in me that insolence of opinion that I deserve it, but I
will still look up to Heaven and you with gratitude and continual
acknowledgments.”
This sufficiently indicates the happiness and mutual confidence
reigning between the newly wedded pair.
On October 2 Dr. Conyers Middleton wrote Mrs. Montagu a long letter,
mainly a dissertation on marriage and its duties. He alludes to his
pleasure at her having her three youngest brothers with her, calling
them “_enfans trouvés_ by a sister unknown to them,” and he adds--
“I shall always think myself particularly interested in their
success, for they were all born under my roof, which may, one day
perhaps, derive an accession of fame from that circumstance. If I
should live to see any of them in the University, it would be a
pleasure to me to do everything in my power that might be of use to
their improvement.”
This shows that Mrs. Robinson had been accustomed to stay with her
mother, the first Mrs. Middleton, for her latter frequent confinements,
though Elizabeth and some of the elder sons were born at York. Dr.
Middleton begs Mr. and Mrs. Montagu to pay him a visit at Cambridge on
their return to London, and states, “This university had the honour of
Mr. Montagu’s education, and claims some share in yours.”
[Page heading: PÈRE LE COURAYER]
[Page heading: WORKSOP]
Being detained by business in the north, Mrs. Montagu wrote to Mrs.
Donnellan to send her a winter mantle and muff, and as prices of those
times may interest my readers, I will mention the blue velvet mantle
cost £5, the ermine muff one guinea. In Mrs. Donnellan’s letter the
Père Courayer sends his compliments and good wishes to Mrs. Montagu.
As he figures much in later letters, I give a short sketch of his
biography. Peter Francis le Courayer was born in 1681, and was a
Normandy ecclesiastic; although a Roman Catholic, he had the courage
to defend the ordinances of the English Church, for which the Pope
censured him severely. He left France for England, and went to Oxford,
where he lodged with Mrs. Chenevix, the famous toy-woman. He was made
LL.D., and translated Father Paul’s “History of the Council of Trent,”
also Sleidan’s “History of the Reformation.” He was well known to
Horace Walpole. He died in 1776. His pet-name was “the little Père.”
In a letter of the duchess’s of October 9 from Welbeck, where she was
visiting her mother, Lady Oxford, she says--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account