only inventor. That man has a
malignant and ungenerous heart; and he is base enough to assume the mask
of a moralist, in order to decry human nature, and to give a decent vent
to his hatred of man and woman kind.--But I must quit this contemptible
subject, on which a just indignation would render my pen so fertile,
that after having fatigued you with a long letter, I would surfeit you
with a supplement twice as long."

At Twickenham Lady Mary interested herself in planning alterations in
the house and gardens. "There is a sort of pleasure," she said, "in
shewing one's own fancy on one's own ground." The longer she stayed at
the riverside, the better she liked it. "I am at present at Twickenham,"
she wrote in July, 1723, "which is become so fashionable, and the
neighbourhood so much enlarged, that 'tis more like Tunbridge or the
Bath than a country retreat."

"I am now at the same distance from London that you are from Paris, and
could fall into solitary amusements with a good deal of taste; but I
resist it, as a temptation of Satan, and rather turn my endeavours to
make the world as agreeable to me as I can, which is the true
philosophy; that of despising it is of no use but to hasten wrinkles"
(she wrote to Lady Mar in 1725). "I ride a good deal, and have got a
horse superior to any two-legged animal, he being without a fault. I
work like an angel. I receive visits upon idle days, and I shade my life
as I do my tent-stitch, that is, make as easy transitions as I can from
business to pleasure; the one would be too flaring and gaudy without
some dark shades of t'other; and if I worked altogether in the grave
colours, you know 'twould be quite dismal. Miss Skerritt is in the house
with, me, and Lady Stafford has taken a lodging at Richmond: as their
ages are different, and both agreeable in their kind, I laugh with the
one, or reason with the other, as I happen to be in a gay or serious
humour; and I manage my friends with such a strong yet with a gentle
hand, that they are both willing to do whatever I have a mind to."

"Molly," that is, Maria Skerritt or Skirrett, is best known for her
connection with Sir Robert Walpole. There was nothing clandestine about
the relationship: it was openly avowed. Miss Skerritt, who was the
daughter of a London merchant, had great good looks and an ample
fortune, and Walpole declared that she was indispensable to his
happiness. She was received everywhere, and moved in fashionabl