“You and I are playing blind man’s buff; we both fancy we are catching something, and we are both mistaken. You say you have sent me two somethings, and I have not received so much as one, and you expected one from me, which is not yet come to your hand, which will kiss your hand this week, and if you are at the trouble of reading it over you will find a sufficient excuse for my delay. By what you say in your kind letter, you give me a very keen appetite for both the books which you promise. I have heard nothing yet of the time of my going to Kew: when I am there I shall make it my endeavour to enjoy as much of you as I can. I have been in very great pain with my rheumatism for some time, but now, I bless God, I hope the worst is over. May health and peace keep company with that benevolence and genius which are already with you. “I am, dear Madam, “Your much obliged and most obedient humble Servt., “E. YOUNG. “Mrs. Hallows[330] sends her best respects. “Wellwyn, the 2nd July, ’61.” [330] Mrs. Hallows was Dr. Young’s lady housekeeper. Dr. Young’s allusion to Kew was the fact that he had recently been appointed Clerk of the Closet to the Princess Dowager of Wales. [Page heading: THE FUTURE QUEEN] On July 7 Mrs. Montagu started for Tunbridge Wells, and on the following Monday sent her post-chaise to fetch Mrs. Carter, and Lord Bath arrived from London on the same day. Mr. Montagu, who was going to Sandleford for a while, mentions in a letter of July 11 to his wife that “there was a great appearance of the privy council when the King declar’d his intention of demanding the Princess of Mecklenburgh in marriage, a request that can never be denied. The family is ancient, and the blood high, but I suppose the Dukedom not very rich, but this may be helped with subsidies, etc., but this is not much to be grudged if by making our young Monarch happy it contributes to that of the Nation, tho’ Princes are under a disadvantage from which their subjects are free, of marrying those whom they have never seen or convers’d with, still I hope there is reason to be believed that this alliance, as it was of the young Monarch’s choosing and not of the imposing of a Father, and as money, etc., is out of the case, that care has been taken by those employ’d to give a true information both of the perfections of the mind and body of this Princess, and he will be happy.” Mr. Montagu adds that the pictures at Newbold Verdon were to be sold for Mr. Edward Wortley-Montagu’s debts, but that a list of them had been sent to him by Mr. E. Wortley-Montagu, who desired to know which he would accept of as a present. Mr. Montagu had marked his brother’s portrait (Mr. James Montagu), and asks his wife to say if there were any she wished for. Very probably the picture by Sir Peter Lely of the first Earl of Sandwich, Mr. Montagu’s grandfather, which I possess, came from there.