1804.]- Remarks from the 
following expreffion in one of thefe let- 
‘ters (of which there is, in the Addi. 
foniana, a copy from a fac-fimile en- 
graving), fhews that Mr. Addifon became 
firft acquainted with Mr. Montagu on the 
‘Continent. * I fhall only affure you, 
“(fays be) that I think Mr. Montagu’s 
acquaintance the luckieft adventure that 
'T could poffibly have met with in my tra- 
_vels,”"— Another of the letters in the fame 
volume is addreffed by Mr. Addifon to 
Mr. Montagu, from the Three Kings 
Inn at Chateau d’un, on the 23d of July; 
and it muft have been in the year 1699, 
‘as Addifon had not at the date,of the 
letter yet departed for Iialy. Mr. Addi- 
fon there mentions that he éxpeéted Mr. 
Montagu to join him at Chateau d’un, 
** about a week hence.;”’. but begs him 
*€not to haften againft his own inclina-, 
tions.’"—From the beginning of Au- 
guft, 1699, till that of December’ in 
the fame year, Mr. Addifon and Mr. 
Montagu probably paffed their time to- 
gether; for, in the letter which I firtt 
‘quoted, and which is dated from Geneva 
on the roth of December, 1701, Ad- 
difon mentions, that Mr. Montagu and 
he had “ about two years ago”” been ex- 
pofed together to a tempef in the port of 
Genoa! It is to be inferred that they 
failed in the fame veffel from Marfeilles 
for Genoa, in the beginning of December, 
1699. But, if they joined company in 
France in the beginning of Augué, and 
left it together in December, nothing can 
_ be more likely than that they fhould have 
paffed alfo the intermediate time together. 
Mr. Montagu appears to have returned 
_ from Italy tooner than Mr. Addifon, and 
not to have taken, in his return, the way 
over the Alps; for Mr. Addifon, in his 
letter from Geneva, {peaks of his own 
journey over the Alps, as one to the dif- | 
ficulties of which his friend was a ftranger; 
and mentions that he fuppofed Mr. Mon- 
tagu to be thenin England. In a fhort 
poftcript he indicates that there was a+ 
confidential kindnefs between them ; fay- 
ing, ** I have taken care to manage my- 
{elf according to your kind intimation.” 
Words which may, very poeflibly, have a 
regard to pecuniary matters. If it be 
confidered that Addifon had obtained his 
penfion for travelling by the patronage of 
Lord Halifax, and that Wortley Montra- 
“gu was Lord .Halifax’s coufin, we fhall 
find ourfélves fo much the more inclined 
‘to think it natural for Wertley Montagu 
to have travelled in part under Add:fon’s 
direction, The difference of their ages 
, 2 * 
~ 
/ 
Addifoniana, Se. 35 
was alfo fuitable to the exiftence of fuch 
a relation between them; Addifon’s be- 
ing then from feven to nine-and-twenty 
years; Montagu’s, who died in 1761, 
very old, fcarce more than twenty. Ad- 
difon flayed abroad more than a year after 
the date of his letter from Geneva, in 
expeCtation of diplomatic employment. 
After his return to England, and for the 
remainder of his life, he lived in an inti. 
mate and familiar friendfhip with Mr, 
Montagu, fuch as was likely to. be the 
confequence of their having lived toge- 
ther abroad. ..It appears from another of 
the fame letters, that Mr. Montagu agreed 
to pafs the winter, 1711-12, in Mr. Ad- 
difon’s houfe at Kenfington. 
Another part of Mr. Addifon’s Life, 
of which the accounts may be corrected 
from the Addifoniana, is that of his court. 
fhip to the Countefs Dowager of War- 
wick. ‘The ftory, that he had been tutor 
to her fon, is quite falfe. How he be- 
came firft acquainted with that lady, does 
not appear. Bat here are two letters, 
written in the month of May, 1708, to the 
young Earl, then a boy of not more than 
eight or nine years of age; from which it 
appears, that the Earl had thena dameftic 
tator, and was reading fome of the eafier 
claffics; that Addifon had a houfe of his 
own in the country, nearly adjacent to 
the Countefs’s feat ; and that Addifon, in 
the country, and perhaps willing thus to 
ingratiate himfelf with the Counteis, could 
amufe himielt by going out with the little 
boy in fearch of bird’s nefts. Addifon 
was then under-fecretary of flate, fo that 
he could not have leifure to take upen 
him the office of teaching the young' 
Earl the elements of the Latin language. 
Frem about that time, however, he be- 
came probably a fuitor to the Countefs. 
A paflage in a letter to Mr. Montagu, 
dated on the arf of July, 1711, feems to 
xplain the progrefs of the courthip. “IF 
have within this twelvemonth (lays Ad- 
difon) loft a place of: 2000l. a-year, an 
eflate in the Indies of 14,000]. and, what 
is more than allthe ret, my m/ftrefs."— 
From this informatidn it is fair to infer, 
that the Countefs had very probably 
agreed to give him her hand before the 
time when, by the diuniffal of the Whig 
minifters, and its. effects on his fituation, 
he became, in his own, or in the lady’s 
Opinion, too poor to marry a Counteis. 
Another fai, of which we aré here in-’ 
formed, is, that he was either ab/olutely 
difappointed of the fortune of his brother, 
who died in India, or made, at leaft for a 
F 2 time, 
