“I feel very sensibly the distress of Mr. Botham and his wife, and judge as you do that it is a case that calls for, and deserves assistance. But in considering where my Patronages lye, I cannot find that I have any living within distance of Albury, unless it be in the City of London, where probably Mr. Botham would not choose to live. When I have the Happiness to see you, you shall be more fully acquainted how far I am able to assist you. “I am, Sir, “Your very obedient, humble Servᵗ, (Signed by himself) “THO. LONDON. “Mrs. Sherlock desires to join me in respects to you and Mrs. West.” In March, Mr. Pitt obtained for Mr. Gilbert West the clerkship of the Privy Council, a lucrative office. On March 25, from Hayes to Wickham, Mrs. Montagu writes-- “DEAR COUSIN, “I thank you most heartily for immediately giving me the sincerest joy I have felt for this long time. May you long enjoy what you have so late attained.... You cannot imagine the pleasure I propose in hearing your friends congratulate you on Fortune’s first courtesy. Base Jade! to be so tedious and so sparing in her favours.” With many congratulations to Mrs. West, etc., to which Lydia Botham, then at Hayes, added a few lines, Mrs. Montagu announces she will convey him and Mrs. West to London the next morning in her post-chaise, and they shall stay in Hill Street, where Mr. Montagu was attending to his parliamentary business; and, she adds, to fix an hour “so as to be with the President of the Council at 12 o’clock.” [Page heading: DR. WILLIAM CHESILDEN] From London, on April 17, Mr. Montagu writes an account of the celebrated surgeon, Dr. William Chesilden’s death-- “The papers, I suppose, have informed you of the death of poor Chesilden. I had an account of the manner of his death from one Mr. Vourse, an eminent man in his own profession. He told me the poor man was with Jerry Pierce and others, telling them how soon after his being seized with the Palsy he had been making a bargain with an undertaker to bury him, with this he was entertaining them with his usual humour, and in the midst of his story was seiz’d with an apoplectic fit which finish’d him in half an hour.... I forgot to add that Mr. Chesilden had eat a great deal of Bread and drank a good quantity of ale; being asthmatic, this was reckoned to be the cause of his death.” [Page heading: THE SCOTT SEPARATION] It will be remembered that Mrs. Montagu was always opposed to her sister Sarah’s marriage to George Lewis Scott. Unfortunately, her fears as to their felicity were prophetic, for in April, 1752, after only a year’s matrimony, they separated; incompatibility of temper was alleged, but from the letters there was evidently much more below the surface. Mrs. Delany, writing in April to her sister, Mrs. D’Ewes, says--