up the depressions with white paint. She was a great mischief-maker, and had not the smallest regard for truth. Her first gallant after her marriage was Lord Stair, our ambassador at Paris.
“Worsdale, the painter, told Mr. Walpole that the first cause of quarrel between her and Pope was her borrowing a pair of sheets from the poet, which, after keeping them a fortnight, were returned to him unwashed. She had a house at Twickenham, near Pope’s.
“The line of that poet—
alludes to two of her most disreputable actions. Her sister was Lady Mar, who resided some time at Paris. After her coming to England she went mad, and Lady M. W. Montague had the custody of her person. She put her under the care of one who was used to that employment, but allowed so scantily for her maintenance (though the Court of Chancery had furnished her with means for the support of the lunatic), and paid so little attention to her, that her keeper, to save trouble, used to put the three meals intended for her into one, and then lock her up, that she might be free herself for the rest of the day. When Lady Mar’s daughter, Lady Mary Erskine, came of age, she applied to the Court of Chancery, got her mother out of Lady M. W. Montague’s custody, took her into her own house, and carefully attended to her till her death.
“The latter part of the line—‘who forswears a
