Lord Chatham, His Early Life and ConnectionsRosebery, Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of
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Lord Chatham, His Early Life and Connections
Rosebery, Archibald Philip Primrose, Earl of
Pitt, William, Earl of Chatham, 1708-1778
I thank my Dearest Nanny for her Letter Though it abused me, I think
without Reasonable Grounds: tis true I dont write so often as I wish
to see you, yet I won't allow I have let our conversation suffer any
considerable Interruption. I Have had no opportunity yet of
cultivating any farther acquaintance with Mr Molinox than by
receiving his name and leaving Mine: I shall need no other
inducement to his Freindship than the presumption of his civility to
you, which your letter gives me reason to think: I shall ever esteem
Any Man deserving of my regard who loves In any degree what so
thoroughly merits and possesses my Heart as my Dear Girl. I have the
pleasure of telling you my Commission is sign'd and I have Kiss'd
hands for it, so that my Country Quarters won't be Cornwall this
Summer. You are like to have Company soon with you, Hollins having
ordered my Sister Pitt the Bath immediately: what becomes of the two
poor vestals I dont yet know. the Town produces nothing new, as the
Place you are in I suppose, produces absolutely nothing at all: kill
some of your time by writing often to one who will always contribute
to make you pass it more pleasurably, when in his Power. Adieu,
recover yr health, and preserve Chearfulness enough to give your
Understanding a fair light.[56]
Yrs most sensibly
W. PITT.
The next letter was written in the midst of what would now be called a
bear-fight, carried on apparently in the room of the demure Lyttelton.
_London. March ye 13: 1731._
I am now lock'd into George's room; the girls Thundering at the door
as if Heaven and Earth would come together: I am certainly the
warmest Brother, or the coldest Gallant In the Universe, to suffer
the gentle Impertinencies the sportly Sollicitations of two girls
not quite despicable without emotion, and bestow my Time and spirits
upon a Sister: But in effect the thing is not so strange or
unreasonable, for every Man may have Girls worthy his attention, but
few, sisters so conversible as my Dear Nanny. Tis impossible to say
much, amidst this rocking of the doors Chairs and tables: I fancy
myself in a storm Of the utmost danger and horror; and were I really
in one, I would not cease to think of my Dear Girl, till I lost my
fears and Trepidations in the object of my tenderest care and
sincerest zeal. let the winds roar, and the big Torrent burst! I
won't leave my Nanny for any Lady of you all, but with the warmest
assurance of unalterable affection, Adieu.[57]
He is now once more in country quarters, grievously hipped. The allusion
to the barmaid 'who young at the bar is just learning to score' reads
like a line from some forgotten song. In his despair he threatens to get
drunk.
_Northampton April ye 9th. 1731._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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