possessed of a particularly unsavoury strain of impropriety which
outraged even the canons of her age. Some twenty years after her death,
it was mentioned in the _Gentleman's Magazine_ that Dr. Young, the
author of _Night Thoughts_, had a little before his death destroyed a
great number of her letters, assigning as a reason of his doing so that
they were too indecent for public inspection. Only the other day I had
confirmation of this from a distinguished man of letters who wrote to
me: "I have somewhere hidden away a copy of a letter by Lady Mary
Wortley Montagu, which was sent to me by a well-known collector about
thirty-five years ago, because he couldn't destroy it and wouldn't for
worlds be found dead with it in his possession--so terrific is it in
character. I'll tell you about it some day when we meet: I can't write
it. In any case you couldn't use it or even refer to it.... I suppose
that my friend quite felt that the document, however objectionable,
should not, on literary grounds, be destroyed. What my executors will
think of me for having it in my possession, the Devil only knows."

Whether this strain permeated the diary which Lady Mary left behind her
when she eloped in 1712, and which was destroyed by one of her sisters,
no one can say; but it is a curious fact that the diary she kept in
later years was destroyed by her devoted daughter, Lady Bute. "Though
Lady Bute always spoke of Lady Mary with great respect," wrote Lady
Louisa Stuart, "yet it might be perceived that she knew it had been too
much her custom to note down and enlarge upon all the scandalous rumours
of the day, without weighing their truth or even their probability; to
record as certain facts stories that perhaps sprang up like mushrooms
from the dirt, and had as brief an existence, but tended to defame
persons of the most spotless character. In this age, she said everything
got into print sooner or later; the name of Lady Mary Wortley would be
sure to attract curiosity; and were such details ever made public, they