[209] For two days her life was despaired of; for four days she
could swallow no solid, and was salivated for a week.
In a second letter she says, “On the fourth day when I was able to look
up I was surprized at the impression concern had made on Mr. Montagu,
and I should hardly have known him, he looked 20 years older at least.”
In a letter of Monsey’s we learn _eau de luce_ was made of strong sal
ammoniac and quicklime.
[Page heading: LADY BURLINGTON]
Mr. Montagu’s sister, now Lady Medows, wrote on September 14 to say
her brother-in-law, Sir Philip, had been nearly killed in the same way
by hartshorn. At the end of the letter she says, “Lady Bath dyed at
two this morning of the Palsy.” This was the wife of Pulteney, Earl of
Bath, soon after this to become one of Mrs. Montagu’s most intimate
friends. Lady Bath’s maiden name was Maria Gumley, daughter and
heiress of a great glass manufacturer. She had the character of great
penuriousness, and her husband was credited with the same character,
but I hope to show later that he could be very generous. When the news
of Mrs. Montagu’s accident spread amongst her numerous friends, many
were the letters of condolence and rejoicing at her safety from Lord
Lyttelton and a host of others. Dr. Monsey had been staying with the
Garricks; he was a great admirer of Mrs. Garrick, whom he often quotes
in his letters. It was whilst staying with them he heard of it. Both
he and Lord Lyttelton were quite frantic at the risk she had run,
and distressed at her fainting fit. Monsey was suffering from a bad
cough, for which, when staying with Sir John Evelyn at Wooton, he tried
bleeding, cathartics, and syrup of white poppies. He returned to St.
James’s, where Mrs. Garrick came to sit with him, and cheer him up. In
a letter of his to Mrs. Montagu of September 23, mention is made of
Lady Burlington’s death. “Lady Burlington is dead. Mrs. G(arrick) gets
nothing, but rid of her, and that’s a great deal, I think. She gives
the Duke of D. £3000 per annum ... not a farthing to any one servant,
she had some lived with her 20 or 25 years.”
[Page heading: MRS. GARRICK]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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