BIB_ID
128649
Accession number
MA 4440
Creator
Chesterfield, Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of, 1694-1773.
Display Date
1762 July 13.
Credit line
Gift of John Fleming, 1973.
Description
1 item (2 pages) ; 22.9 x 18.5 cm
Notes
Docketed.
The publication of the letter in the January 12, 1867 issue of The Athenæum, introduces it as a "confession of the writer's want of faith in fine Ladies and as a piece of evidence respecting a domestic scandal." The published letter deletes "should have a Child, and that if she would not employ somebody else to get it, by God he would go over to her and do it himself" with the explanation for the omission that "..the passage omitted from this copy is withheld because it is unfit for publication."
The publication of the letter in the January 12, 1867 issue of The Athenæum, introduces it as a "confession of the writer's want of faith in fine Ladies and as a piece of evidence respecting a domestic scandal." The published letter deletes "should have a Child, and that if she would not employ somebody else to get it, by God he would go over to her and do it himself" with the explanation for the omission that "..the passage omitted from this copy is withheld because it is unfit for publication."
Provenance
Gift of John Fleming, 1973.
Summary
Discussing, at length, the scandalous behavior of "the Lady" and his letter to "the Knight" expressing his displeasure; saying "I will show you the Knight's letter when I have the pleasure of seeing you. Upon that I wrote him a very long letter, begging of him to keep that disagreable affair, an inviolable secret, and to live with the Lady just as he used to do, in the day time, representing to him the many disagreable, and perhaps fatal consequences, if the affair should transpire: to which letter I have had, and from the time could not have, any answer; But I doubt it will be made publick in Italy, by this accident with that Rascally Abbé Grant and then it will soon be known here. I really believe that that most consummate puppy, and unprincipled Jackanapes, the Lady's Elder Brother, contributed a good deal to this spirit of Coquetry, if no worse, for I have been told, and I have good reason to think it is true, that he has said publickly, with the easy air of an agreable Libertine, that he had told his Sister when she was going abroad, that it was absolutely necessary she should have a Child, and that if she would not employ somebody else to get it, by God he would go over to her and do it himself: Your caution to the Knight concerning his eating and drinking, among a Nation of Assassins and poisoners was a very prudent, and perhaps a very necessary one. I confess I dread some accident of that kind. When I see you next, we will talk this matter over fully, which I own gives me great uneasyness, upon many accounts;" thanking him for a recipe which he has not had the occasion to use as his "head and stomach are better now, than they have been for sometime. I chuse to bear a little pain, rather than take any thing that may happen to disturb their present good humour;" adding, in a postscript, "I return you inclosed the letter to the Abbé, that you may destroy it yourself, and so be sure that it is destroyed."
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