Bristol September 1st. 1784
My dear Friend


      We are grown most
exceedingly irregular in our correspondence;
our friendship and affection I flatter myself is
entire and unimpaired: You indeed are somewhat
pardonable for your irregularities as You have
so interesting and so occupying an Affair
upon your hands which may reasonably be
allowed to engross the greatest part of your time
and thoughts, but I have no such good excuse
to plead, and therefore my disorders and neglects
are entitled to no quarter.
      Mrs. Garrick did indeed give me a full and very
pleasing Account of your situation, prospects, and
of the character of the amiable man whom I hope
one day to know, and to call my Friend; for he
must be compelled to like me a little for

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Your sake, even if he should have made a vow
not to like me for my own. I am disposed to meet
him half way, for I like his character, and I
love his constancy; that single excellence would
give him great merit in my eyes, were he
destitute of those many others in which I
know he is rich, or he would not have been
the choice of my discerning Friend. I am not
sure that the most showy and specious Men
make the best Husbands; I am most pleased
with that sober agreeableness which is exerted
at home, and of which the Wife is the Object;
this is not often the case of Men whose accomplishments
are more brilliant than solid; they
are apt to be diverting and entertaining every
where, except in that very spot where it is
their duty to be so; for I have long laid it
down as a Maxim that to be agreeable to

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those whose lot it is to live with You, is
as much a duty, as any of those which more
immediately claim the name; for this reason
it is that I think more highly of temper
than of any one accomplishment, I had almost
said than of any one Virtue; for though I am
ready to acknowledge that there may be
worth without good temper, yet that worth
can never confer happiness. And I subscribe
heartily to the Sentiment of my dear Mrs.
Boscawen, that if she must bespeak but
one dish in Marriage, it should beyond
all controversy, be good Temper. --
      If you have seen Mrs. Garrick since
she returned from Sandleford, she will have
told you how pleasantly we passed our
time there. I need not tell You, who know

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her so well, how inexhaustible are Mrs.
Montagu's resources for Conversation. I
think I scarcely ever met with any human
being who brought so much Mind into
Conversation, and one may justly say of
her what Johnson says of somebody else
that she never opens her mouth but to
say something. -- Apropos of greatness and
goodness combined, how does our excellent
Mrs. Delany; I tremble to hear of her
having the slightest indisposition; I am
tempted to wish such people immortal, but
I check myself when I consider that there
is an immortality awaiting them, infinitely
beyond that poor imperfect one, which I
am unjust enough to propose as a reward

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for merit so superlative. I suppose she is
gone to Bulstrode, if not pray say something
for me to her that is expressive of the
utmost love respect and veneration, and tell
her, if you please, that we spent one whole
morning at Sandleford reading her favourite
book, Patrick's Pilgrim; Mrs. Montagu read
it to the Primate of Ireland and me, and
we vied with each other in expressions
of delight and admiration, as well at the
grandeur of the style, as the nobleness of the
Sentiments. --
      I enclose our dear Mr. Walpole's
sprightly satire on Family pride.
      My time has been lately a good deal
taken up with my friends, Lady Bathurst
and her daughters, who have been at the Wells;
they are charming Girls, the youngest in

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particular has uncommon talents, but, with their
too natural concomitant, delicate health.
      I am not quite en état to answer your
enquiry about my opinion of Les Veillées
du Chateau; as I have read only the first
Volume, and that in a superficial way, as
an idle book to divert myself. Instead of
answering me by the question, You should have
given me your opinion and that of your  ------ 
friend Lady Stormont, as I dare say you have
both formed it murement, and with deliberation:
I own as far as I read I was exceedingly
amused: That woman has a wonderful talent
at keeping up the attention, and of catching hold
of the affections; the most insignificant event grows
interesting or instructive in her hands. If however
I were apt to read with a critical Spirit, I could
generally raise objections as I go along; and
sometimes pretty considerable ones. There is surely

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no great propriety in the story of the jealous
Husband, in the first Volume considering the Youth
of those to whom it is told; they either cannot
be supposed to understand it, or they should not
be made acquainted with the most deforming
passions in their most terrible excesses: but
I suppose she does it with the same view as
the Spartans exposed their drunken Slaves to
their children. For my own part I don't like
these experiments and anticipations; and I am
for preserving to children their innocence of all
kinds as long as possible
      Adieu my dear friend! return good for
evil, and write soon to your faithful
and --                 very affectionate
                                                         Hannah More

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      To
Miss Hamilton
      Clarges Street