To George Mordaunt, Esq;
Belmont House, July 3, 1762.
I AM indeed, my dear George, the most
happy of human beings; happy in the
paternal regard of the best of parents, the
sincere esteem of my worthy relations, Lord
and Lady Belmont; and the friendship, the
tender friendship, of their lovely daughter,
the amiable lady Julia. An increase of
fortune, which you are kind enough to wish
me, might perhaps add something to my
felicity, but is far from being necessary to
constitute it, nor did it ever excite in my
bosom an anxious wish. My father, though
he educated me to become the most splendid
situation, yet instructed me to be satisfied
with my own moderate one; he taught
me, that independence was all a generous
mind required; and that virtue, adorned by
that liberal education his unsparing bounty
lavished on me, would command through
life that heart-felt esteem from the worthy
of every rank, which the most exorbitant
wealth alone could never procure its possessors.
Other parents hoard up riches
for their children; mine, with a more noble,
more enlightened solicitude, expended
his in storeing my mind with generous
sentiments and useful knowledge, to which
his unbounded goodness added every outward
accomplishment that could give grace
to virtue, and set her charms in the fairest light.
Shall I then murmur because I was not
born to affluence? No, believe me, I would
not be the son of any other than this most
excellent of men, to inherit all the stores
which avarice and ambition sigh for. I am
prouder of a father, to whose discerning
wisdom and generous expanded heart I am
so obliged, than I should be of one whom
I was to succeed in all the titles and possessions
in the power of fortune to bestow.
From him I receive, and learn properly to
value, the most real of all treasures, independence
and content.
What a divine morning! how lovely
is the face of nature! The blue serene of
Italy, with the lively verdure of England.
But behold a more charming object than
nature herself! the sweet, the young, the
blooming lady Julia, who is this instant stepping
into her post chaise with lady Anne
Wilmot! How unspeakably lovely! she
looks up to the window; the smiles; I understand
that smile; she permits me to have the
honour of following her: I'll order my
horses; and, whilst they are getting ready,
endeavour to describe this most angelic of
womankind.
Lady Julia then, who wants only three
months of nineteen, is exactly what a poet
or painter would wish to copy, who intended
to personify the idea of female softness.
Her whose form is delicate and feminine to
the utmost degree: her complexion is fair,
enlivened by the bloom of youth, and often
diversified by blushes more beautiful
than those of the morning: her features
are regular; her mouth and teeth particularly
lovely; her hair light brown; her
eyes blue, full of softness, and strongly expressive
of the exquisite sensibility of her
soul. Her countenance, the beauteous
abode of the Loves and the Smiles, has a
mixture of sweetness and spirit, which gives
life and expression to her charms.
As her mind has been adorned, nor
warped, by education, it is just what her
appearance promises; artless, gentle, timid,
soft, sincere, compassionate, awake
to all the finer impressions of tenderness,
and melting with pity for every human
woe.
But my horses are in the court, and even
this subject cannot detain me a moment
longer. Adieu!
H. Mandeville.
