Mrs. Botham writes on July 8, that as Mrs. Montagu was unable, when her
baby was born, to be applied to, she had given him his father’s name,
John. Lydia Botham had two, if not three, daughters, but this was her
first son.
[Page heading: THE COUNTESS OF GRANVILLE]
From Sandleford Mrs. Montagu returned to London, intending to be
inoculated, but in a letter of July 12 she informs the duchess that Dr.
Mead considered she had better defer the operation till the heat of the
summer was over--in September. In the same letter she states that Mrs.
Medows and herself had called on the old Countess of Granville,[278]
who appears to have been a most garrulous old lady, and Mrs. Montagu
says--
“She fell with all her violence on my complexion, and behold, she
certainly by her description takes my forehead to be tortoishell,
my cheeks to be gold, my eyes to be onyx, and my teeth amber: all
these are precious things, but Mr. Montagu not having so rich
a fancy as King Midas, I know not whether he would like such a
wife. Your Grace may believe I was extremely mortified. The good
woman says Mrs. Medows looks better and younger for being married;
but for me I am pale and green, and describes me as worse than
the apothecary that lives about the rendezvous of death in Caius
Marius. She is of opinion that lying in has spoiled my face; true
it is I have furnished a noble pair of chops to the little boy, and
if mine are a little the lanker for it, I scarce grudge it....”
[278] Grace, Viscountess Carteret, and Countess Granville in her
own right.
Further on she says, “Thank you for your kind inquiry after the young
‘Fidget,’ who loves laughing and dancing, and is worthy of the Mother
he sprang from. As for Mrs. Donnellan, she is well. Mrs. Delany is
better than well.”
Mrs. Pendarves had been married on June 9 this same year to the Rev.
Dr. Patrick Delany,[279] afterwards Dean of Down, and an intimate
friend of Swift’s.
[279] Dr. Delany, born 1686, died 1768; made Dean 1744.
[Page heading: MONKEY ISLAND]
The Montagus, accompanied by Sarah Robinson, now moved with the child
to Sandleford. A letter to the Duchess of Portland of July 26 says--
“Sandleford, near Newbury.
“MADAM,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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