henceforth communicate
direct--Her first letter to him.

At the age of fourteen the precocious Lady Mary, when on a visit to
Wharncliffe Lodge, some thirty miles from Thoresby, made a conquest that
was vastly to influence her life. The conquest was no less a person than
Edward Wortley Montagu, son of Sidney Wortley Montagu, who was the
second son of Edward, first Earl of Sandwich, the famous Admiral of
Charles II. Sidney had taken the name of Wortley on his marriage to
Anne, daughter of Sir Francis Wortley. To Sidney Wortley Montagu, of
whom there is to-day little known, is an interesting reference in a
letter from the Earl of Danby to his wife, dated from Kiveton, September
6, 1684: "I have had Mr. Montague with me--my Lord Sandwich his son--who
lives at Wortley, and calls himself by that name, and is really a very
fine gentleman and told me he was sorry that any of his relations--much
more of his name--should have carried themselves so unjustly towards me,
and he hoped I would not have the worse opinion of him for their
ill-behaviour."

Edward Wortley Montagu, who was then twenty-five, was already a person
of some distinction. He was a good classical scholar, acquainted with
modern languages, and versed in what his grand-daughter, Lady Louisa
Stuart, styled "polite literature." He was interested in the pretty,
clever girl, and encouraged her to talk to him of her reading and
writing. "When I was very young," she said, as is recorded in the
_Anecdotes_ of the Rev. Joseph Spence, "I was a great admirer of Ovid's
'Metamorphosis,' and that was one of the reasons that set me upon the
thoughts of stealing the Latin language. Mr. Wortley was the only person
to whom I communicated my design, and he encouraged me in it. I used to
study five or six hours a day for two years in my father's library, and
so got that language whilst everybody else thought I was reading nothing
but novels and romances."

Montagu affected the company of men of letters. He was intimate with
Addison, a close friend of Steele, and on terms with Congreve, Vanbrugh,
and Garth, the author of _The Dispensary._ Steele, in fact, dedicated
the second volume of the _Tatler_ to him.

"SIR,

"When I send you this Volume, I am rather to make a Request than a
Dedication. I must desire, that if you think fit to throw away any
Moments on it, you would not do it after reading those excellent Pieces
with which you are usually conversant. The Images which you