The Letter-Bag of Lady Elizabeth Spencer-Stanhope, vol 1 | Page 9

Meat in Latin disputation.
"When there was any Public disputation, they were always present;
every Morning they did read & afterwards translate some of Plato in
Greek, & at Supper present their Labours. They were of St John's
College, & every day were devoted to private lectures, & the Residue
they did account for."
I ought almost to apologise for sending you so long an extract, but I
thought it would remind you so forcibly of yourself and your
distribution of your time, that I was unwilling to deny you the pleasure
of the comparison.
Mrs Spencer-Stanhope to John Spencer-Stanhope. (Undated.)
Thanks for the account of the distribution of your time. I flatter myself
you are too much attached to home and to the life you have led here
ever to get into the idle way of spending Sunday, which I fear you will
witness too frequently at Oxford, for from your account of what they
are obliged to do on that day, a very small portion only need be given
up to the religious duties of the day.
I was particularly pleased with a passage I met with the other day in
which Bishop Newton on the Prophecies, speaking of Lord
Bolingbrook, who, you know, was an unbeliever and from his talents
and eloquence had too much weight at the time, says, "Raleigh and

Clarendon believed, Lock and Newton believed, where then is the
discredit to Revelation if Lord Bolingbrook was an Infidel. 'A scorner,'
saith Solomon, 'seeketh Wisdom and findeth it not'"
I know not if your father took any notice of the part of your letter to
him where you mention that, in a lecture, it had been proved that the
Blacks were a species between men and monkeys--I think, for I have
not your letter, that I have stated rightly what was said. It might be
asserted, but surely could not be proved, and it is doctrine I do not like,
as it goes directly to justify using them as beasts of burthen--a very
good argument for a slave dealer.
March 1st.
Your father is very well. He was sorry for the fate of the Slave Trade
Bill last night.
The Elopement and distress in the House of Petre has been the chief
subject of conversation for the last few days. Miss Petre [11] made her
escape from her father's house in Norfolk with her Brothers' tutor on
Monday last. It is said they are at Worcester and married only by a
Catholic Priest. However, Lord and Lady P. are gone there and it is
expected she will be brought back to-night. They can do nothing but
get her married to the man at Church. She is 18, he 30, and no
Gentleman. She was advertised and 20 guineas reward offered to
anyone who could give an account of the stray sheep. It is a sad History.
What misery this idle girl has caused her parents, and probably ensured
her own for life.
Marianne Stanhope to John Spencer Stanhope. March 3rd.
You have doubtless read in the papers the account of Miss Petre's
elopement with her brother's tutor, Mr Philips. He is a very low man,
quite another class, always dined with the children, never associated the
least with the family, a sort of upper servant. Lady Petre thought him
rather forward, he was to have left them at Easter. She had seen her
daughter at twelve the night before, and only missed her at breakfast.
Her clothes were all gone. A friend of his, a brandy merchant,

accompanied her in the chaise, the tutor rode first. A clergyman refused
to marry them some time ago at Lambeth, but they have since been
married at Oxford by a Mr Leslie, a Catholic priest, which is not
enough. They are not yet discovered.
The Same. GROSVENOR SQUARE, March 4th, 1805.
MY DEAR JOHN,
... London cannot be duller, those who remember it formerly were
astonished at the change that time has wrought, and those ho look
forward to the future, hope it will not always be so; but without a joke,
except the Opera and the house of Glyn, I have scarcely seen anybody
or been anywhere. We have three dinner engagements this week,
besides one at home, but not one Assembly. You must know that we
contrive to go out almost every night, but that it is only one degree
better, or if you please, two degrees worse, than dozing at home; then,
you know, as the existence of an Assembly is the not having room to
stir, when you have plenty of elbow room from the thinness of the
company it must be bad; besides another thing, when you have no time
for conversation, you fancy everybody is agreeable, and in fashionable
life, trust me, imagination is