To George Mordaunt, Esq;
IT is the custom here for every body
to spend their mornings as they please;
which does not however hinder our sometimes
making parties all together, when
our inclinations happen all to take the
same turn. My Lord this morning proposed
an airing to the Ladies, and that
we should, instead of returning to dinner,
stop at the first neat farm-house where we
could hope for decent accommodations.
Love of variety made the proposal agreeable
to us all; and a servant being ordered
before to make some little provision, we
stopped, after the pleasantest airing imaginable,
at the entrance of a wood, where,
leaving our equipages to be sent to the
neighbouring village, we walked up a
winding path to a rustic building, embosomed
in the grove, the architecture of
which was in the most elegant stile of simplicity:
the trees round this lovely retreat
were covered with wood-bines and jessamines,
from which a gale of perfume met
our approach: the gentlest breath of Zephyr
just moved the leaves; the birds sung
in the branches; a spring of the clearest
water broke from the rising ground on
the left, and, murmuring along a transparent
pebbly bottom, seemed to lose itself
in a thicket of roses: no rude sound disturbed
the sweet harmony of nature; all
breathed the soul of innocence and tranquillity,
but a tranquillity raised above itself.
My heart danced with pleasure; and,
the lovely lady Julia happening to be next
me, I kissed her hand with an involuntary
fervor, which called up into her cheeks a
blush "celestial rosy red." When we entered
the house, we were struck with the
propriety, the beauty, the simplicity of all
around us; the apartments were few, but
airy and commodious; the furniture plain,
but new and in the most beautiful taste;
no ornaments but vases of flowers, no attendants
but country girls, blooming as
the morn, and drest with a neatness inexpressible.
After an elegant cold dinner, and a desert
of cream and the best fruits in season,
we walked into the wood with which the
house was surrounded, the romantic variety
of which it is impossible to describe;
all was nature, but nature in her most pleasing
form. We wandered over the sweetly-varied scene, resting at intervals in arbours
of intermingled roses and jessamines,
till we reached a beautiful mossy grotto,
wildly lovely, whose entrance was almost
hid by the vines which flaunted over its
top. Here we found tea and coffee prepared
as if by invisible hands. Lady
Anne exclaimed that all was enchantment;
and Lord Belmont's eyes sparkled with
that lively joy, which a benevolent mind
feels in communicating happiness to others.
Lady Julia alone seemed not to taste the
pleasures of the day: Her charming eyes
had a melancholy languor I never saw in
them before: she was reserved, silent, absent;
and would not have escaped Lady
Anne's raillery, had not the latter been
too much taken up with the lovely scene
to attend to any thing but joy.
As friendship has a thousand groundless
fears, I tremble lest I should have been so
unhappy as to offend her: I remember
she seemed displeased with my kissing her
hand, and scarce spoke to me the whole
day; I will beg of Lady Anne to ask the
cause, for I cannot support the apprehension
of having offended her.
It was with difficulty Lord Belmont forced
us at night from this charming retirement,
which he calls his hermitage, and which is
the scene of his most pleasing hours. To
Lady Anne and me it had a charm it did not
want, the powerful charm of novelty: it is
about four miles from Belmont house, not
far distant from the extremities of the park.
To this place, I am told, Lord Belmont often
retires, with his amiable family, and those
who are particularly happy in his esteem,
to avoid the hurry of company, and give
himself up entirely to the uninterrupted
sweets of domestic enjoyment. Sure no man
but Lord Belmont knows how to live!
H. Mandeville.
