Mr. Montagu had been at Sandleford, where Morris, his wife, and little boy were spending some time. The little Morris was a great favourite, and delight to poor Mr. Montagu, who loved children. He was now preparing to set off northwards to Northumberland, having two collieries which he was going to work, or, as the expression was, to “win,” viz. Leamington and “Denton.” The first would cost a £1000, the latter, now called “Montagu’s main,” £5000. He consults his wife about all this, and adds, “I think j shall not while j live get rid of the trouble my succession has brought upon me, and have only one object, who, j hope, will reap the benefit of all my labour.” This meant his wife. At Tunbridge his wife, with “all our fine ladies and gentlemen,” was attending Mr. Ferguson’s lectures on Philosophy. In a letter of Lord Lyttelton’s he mentions his brother Richard. “Sir Richard, or rather ‘Duke Lyttelton’s’[276] Royall villa at Richmond, a finer room I never saw, and he seems made to sitt in it, with all the dignity of a gouty Prince. But though I greatly admired it, I would not have his gout to have his room.” [276] He had married the Dowager Duchess of Bridgewater in 1745. She was second wife to Scroop, 1st Duke of Bridgewater. To this letter a long answer is returned by Mrs. Montagu, and she informs Lord Lyttelton that, despite her eyes being very weak, she had been reading “the new translation of Sophocles.... The Œdipus Coloneus affected me extreamly, and would have done so more if it had not been for the constant presence of the Chorus, but the passions are awed and checked by a crowd. I am more than ever averse to the Chorus because, though the translator tells us the Choruses of Sophocles are less alien to the subject of the Drama, than those of any other tragedian, yet here they hurt the interest of it very much.” [Page heading: LADY HERVEY] [Page heading: HAGLEY PARK] She adds that she has “sent 4 sets of dressing boxes from hence as your Lordship desired. At the same time I took the liberty to send on a cheap set of tea-cups and coffee cups for a Tunbridge faring.” Lord Lyttelton returns answer, saying, “I dined at Dicky Bateman’s half gothick, half attick, half chinese and completely fribble house.” There he met “my old Love, Lady Hervey,[277] and my new love, Mrs. Hancock[278] not to mention Lady Primrose,[279] for whom I have a great friendship.” Lord Lyttelton was highly delighted with a favourable criticism of his first volumes of his “History of Henry II.” by the great Earl of Hardwicke,[280] too long to be inserted here. Lord Lyttelton had been rebuilding[281] Hagley House, his seat in Worcestershire, which was about to be publicly reopened. On August 18 he writes from there to say he has had to put this off till September 1.