CHAPTER XVI

ON THE CONTINENT (1745-1760)

Lady Mary stays at Avignon--She removes to Brescia--And then to
Lovere--She abandons all idea of Montagu joining her abroad--Her house
at Lovere--Her daily round--Her health--Her anxiety about her son--An
amazing incident--A serious illness--A novel in a letter--Her
correspondence attracts the attention of the Italian authorities--Sir
James and Lady Frances Steuart--Politics--She is in the bad books of the
British Resident at Venice--Lord Bute--The philosophy of Lady
Mary--Letters to Lady Bute and Sir James Steuart.


Lady Mary liked Avignon so well that she stayed there until July 1746.
Then she moved to Brescia, where she stayed for a year, and then took up
her quarters at Lovere, a small place in Lombardy on the Lake d'Iseo, a
most attractive spot, as she was at pains to tell her daughter at some
length. For some time she alternated between Lovere and Brescia.


"I am now in a place the most beautifully romantic I ever saw in my
life: it is the Tunbridge of this part of the world, to which I was sent
by the doctor's order, my ague often returning, notwithstanding the
loads of bark I have taken" (she wrote to her daughter from Lovere, July
24, 1747). "To say truth, I have no reason to repent my journey, though