Feilding, and Bishop
Burnet--Submits to the Bishop a translation of "Encheiridion" of
Epictetus--An attractive child--A "toast" at the Kit-Cat Club--Acts as
hostess to her father
CHAPTER II
GIRLHOOD (1703-1710)
Lady Mary makes the acquaintance of Edward Wortley
Montagu--Montagu attracted by her looks and her literary gifts. Assists
her in her studies--Montagu a friend of the leading men of letters of the
day--Addison, Steele, Congreve, Vanbrugh, and others--The second
volume of the Tatler dedicated to him by Steele--Montagu a staunch
Whig--His paternal interest for Lady Mary does not endure--He
becomes a suitor for her hand--Lady Mary's devotion and respect for
him--Her flirtations--She and Montagu correspond through the medium
of his sister, Anne--Lady Mary's mordant humour--Her delight in
retailing society scandal--The death of Anne Wortley--Lady Mary and
Montagu henceforth communicate direct--Her first letter to him
CHAPTER III
COURTSHIP, ELOPEMENT, AND MARRIAGE (1710-1712)
A lengthy courtship--Montagu a laggard lover--Lady Mary and
Montagu exchange views on married life--Montagu proposes for her to
Lord Dorchester--Dorchester refuses, since Montagu will not make
settlements--Montagu's views on settlements expressed (by Steele) in
the Tatler--Although not engaged, the young people continue to
correspond--Lord Dorchester produces another suitor of his
daughter--She consents to an engagement--The preparations for the
wedding--She confides the whole story to Montagu--She breaks off the
engagement--She and Montagu decide to elope--She runs up to
London--Marriage--Lady Mary's diary destroyed by her sister, Lady
Frances Pierrepont
CHAPTER IV
EARLY MARRIED LIFE (1712-1714)
An uneventful existence--Montagu's Parliamentary duties take him to
London--Lady Mary stays mostly in the
country--Correspondence--Montagu a careless husband, but very
careful of his money--Later he becomes a miser--Lady Mary does not
disguise the tedium of her existence-- Concerning a possible
reconciliation with her father--Lord Pierrepont of Hanslope--Lord
Halifax--Birth of a son, christened after his father, Edward Wortley
Montagu--The mother's anxiety about his health--Family events--Lady
Evelyn Pierrepont marries Baron (afterwards Earl) Gower--Lady
Frances Pierrepont marries the Earl of Mar--Lord Dorchester marries
again--Has issue, two daughters--The death of Lady Mary's brother,
William. His son, Evelyn, in due course succeeds to the Dukedom of
Kingston--Elizabeth Chudleigh--The political situation in 1714--The
death of Queen Anne--The accession of George I--The unrest in the
country--Lady Mary's alarm for her son
CHAPTER V
THE ACCESSION OF GEORGE I (1714)
Lady Mary shows an increasing interest in politics--She tries to incite
her husband to be ambitious--Montagu not returned to the new
Parliament--His lack of energy--Correspondence--The Council of
Regency--The King commands Lord Townshend to form a
Government--The Cabinet--Lord Halifax, First Lord of the
Treasury--Montagu appointed a Lord Commissioner of the
Treasury--Correspondence--The unsatisfactory relations between Lady
Mary and Montagu
CHAPTER VI
LADY MARY WORTLEY MONTAGU'S ACCOUNT OF THE
COURT OF GEORGE I
CHAPTER VII
AT HERRENHAUSEN AND ST. JAMES (1714-1716)
The Elector George Lewis not delighted at his accession to the British
throne--A greater man in Hanover than in London--Lady Mary
modifies her first impression of the King--She is in high favour at
Court--An amusing incident at St. James's--The early unpopularity of
George I in England generally, and especially in the capital--The
Hanoverians in the Royal Household--The Duchess of Kendal--The
Countess of Darlington--Lady Mary's description of the Hanoverian
ladies--The Duchess of Kendal's passion for money--Her influence with
the King in political matters-- Count de Broglie--The scandal about
Lady Darlington refuted--Lady Mary and the Prince of Wales--The
King and the Prince of Wales--The poets and wits of the day--Gray's
tribute to Lady Mary--Pope's verses on her--"Court Poems"
CHAPTER VIII
THE EMBASSY TO THE PORTE (1716-1718)--I
Montagu loses his place at the Treasury--His antagonism against
Walpole--Lady Mary, "Dolly" Walpole, and Molly Skerritt--The Earl
and Countess of Mar leave England--Montagu appointed Ambassador
to the Porte--Leaves England for Constantinople, accompanied by his
wife-- Letters during the Embassy to
Constantinople--Rotterdam--Vienna--Lady Mary at Court--Her
gown--Her interest in clothes--Viennese society-- Gallantry--Lady
Mary's experience--Court Tarrocco--Precedence at Vienna--A
nunnery--The Montagus visit the German Courts--A dangerous
drive--Prince Frederick (afterwards Prince of Wales)--Herrenhausen
CHAPTER IX
THE EMBASSY TO THE PORTS (1716-1718)--II
Adrianople--Turkish baths--Lady Mary wears Turkish dress--Her
description of the costume--Her views on Turkish women--She
becomes acquainted with the practice of inoculation--Her son
engrafted--Her belief in the operation--She later introduces it into
England--Dr. Richard Mead--Richard Steele supports her
campaign--Constantinople--Lady Mary homesick--Exposes the British
ignorance of Turkish life--Montagu recalled--Addison's private letter to
him--Lady Mary gives birth to a daughter--The return journey--The
Montagus at Paris--Lady Mary sees her sister, Lady Mar
CHAPTER X
A SCANDAL
Montagu re-enters the House of Commons--His miserliness--Pope
refers to it--Comments on Society--Lady Mary and a first-class
scandal--Rémond-- His admiration for her--Her imprudent letters to
him--The South Sea Bubble--Lady Mary speculates for Remond--She
loses money for him--He demands to be re-imbursed--He threatens to
publish her letters--She states the case in letters to Lady Mar--Lady
Mary meets Pope--His letters to her when she was abroad--He affects
to be in love with her--Her matter-of-fact replies--Her parody of his
verses, "On John Hughes and Sarah Drew"
CHAPTER XI
AT TWICKENHAM
The Montagus take
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