To: Robert Knight, afterwards Lord Luxborough and Earl of Catherlough. n.p. 5 July [n.s.] 1737. 1 Text: MS, BL Add. 34196, fol. 120.

I thank you Dear S^r for your letter of y^e 13^th of June y^r Stile, & for y^e accounts you give me of y^e welfare of you & yours. may you all prosper in every respect, and enjoy as well as you deserve, for they do not go always together, all sorts of good fortune. I thank you for y^e good natured part y^t you took on the request Brinsden made you, and am glad you prevailed on my Lord S^t John to do what he has done. you was much in the right to press him no further. perhaps the letter she ² writes to him, & y^t which my wife intends to write att y^e same time, may work on his generosity, & bring a little vanity in to assist it, for you know y^e world enough to know that our vices are sometimes usefully employed to promote our virtuous actions. ³ the case is really deplorable, and y^e more so, because y^e young woman ⁴ has every good quality, except beauty, that can recommend her. She has been here a month or six weeks, & she sets out tomorrow to return into Britany, to a Convent where she has already passed some time, and where she resolves to take y^e habit, & to pass y^e rest of her days in Retreat, & devotion. the Resolution is entirely her own, and is a proof of sence, & courage, and virtue, uncommon att 17 years of age. the little allowance I am able to make her, will maintain her in all y^e necessarys y^t the House dos not furnish, and 2200 Liv: once payed will be all y^t will be expected as her portion, so they call it, when she is admitted into ye Community. you see att how cheap a rate a young woman y^t is left destitute may be provided for in this country. if my Lord S^t John will do no more, I will give y^e 100 Ster: myself, rather than see one y^t bears our name miserable in y^e world, yt may for such a sum be decently & happily out of it. adieu dear S^r I am y^r affec.^tc Brother & most humble Serv^t