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Question
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I have heard that Lady Wortley Montague, who was frequently attacked by Alexander Pope in verse, lived in Wiltshire at one time. Could you tell me where this was?
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Question asked on
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04 July 2011
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Answer
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This was West Dean House (now demolished), the seat of the Evelyns at West Dean in south east Wiltshire on the Hampshire border. It later became the home of the Duke of Kingston whose daughter was Lady Mary Wortley Montague (1690-1762). She once wrote, concerning the local squires and gentlemen, thus;
'......insensible of other pleasures than hunting and drinking. The consequence of which is, the poor female part of their family being seldom permitted a coach, or at best but a couple of starved jades to drag a dirty chariot, their lords and masters having no occasion for such a machine, as their mornings are spent among hounds, and the nights with as beastley compan-ions, with what liquor they can get in this country, which is not very famous for good drink.'
In this letter, written before her marriage in 1712, Lady Mary already well known as both a beauty and a wit, compared the area and its men most unfavourably with Nottinghamshire.
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