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Royal Tunbridge Wells
quill, sure a gold pen, bought of Mrs. Chevenix, and given by a fine lady, might write to a Tunbridge dame. If writing did not disagree with me I would send him a long letter for his punishment; but tell him my silence has more anger and disdain in it than the most pompous words could express.
Mrs. Elizabeth Montagu to her Husband.
Tunbridge Wells, 1749. May this find you in perfect health, enjoying the quiet, but delicate pleasures of the country ! I am now sitting opposite to a view not unlike that from your terrace at Sandleford. Tunbridge, though it contains persons of high rank and distinction, does not, from its buildings, make a more superb figure than Newtown; small houses irregularly placed, with trees intermixed, appear rural and romantic, and though the inhabitants of these little edifices may not condescend to own that, as the song says—
" To folks in a cottage contentment is wealth ! "
I fear few of them are possessed of anything better. Half of us come here to cure the bodily evils occasioned by laziness; the other 198 |
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