Produced by Andrew Sly

Transcriber’s Notes:  This text retains many old and inconsistent spellings as found in the Dodsley 1769 edition.  Differences from that edition are as follows:  As is usually done in modern editions of Emily Montague, the letters have been renumbered to run consecutively from 1 to 228.  This avoids irregularities in numbering in the original.  Normal case has been used for the initial words of each letter.  Long s has been replaced with a regular short s.  The Errata which appeared at the end of volume four of the original has been applied to the text.  Various other corrections have been made, and in each case, the original form has been recorded in the html markup.  Usage of quote marks has been modernized.

  The
  history
  of
  Emily Montague. 
  In four volumes.

By the author of
Lady Julia Mandeville.

—­“A kind indulgent sleep
O’er works of length allowably may creep.” 
Horace.

Vol. 1

London,
Printed for J. Dodsley, in Pall Mall. 
MDCCLXIX.

To his excellency Guy Carleton, Esq.  Governor and commander in chief of His Majesty’s Province of Quebec, &c. &c. &c.

Sir,

As the scene of so great a part of the following work is laid in Canada, I flatter myself there is a peculiar propriety in addressing it to your excellency, to whose probity and enlightened attention the colony owes its happiness, and individuals that tranquillity of mind, without which there can be no exertion of the powers of either the understanding or imagination.

Were I to say all your excellency has done to diffuse, through this province, so happy under your command, a spirit of loyalty and attachment to our excellent Sovereign, of chearful obedience to the laws, and of that union which makes the strength of government, I should hazard your esteem by doing you justice.

I will, therefore, only beg leave to add mine to the general voice of Canada; and to assure your excellency, that

    I am,
      With the utmost esteem
        and respect,
      Your most obedient servant,
          Frances Brooke. 
    London,
  March 22, 1769.

THE HISTORY OF EMILY MONTAGUE.

LETTER 1.

To John Temple, Esq; at Paris.

Cowes, April 10, 1766.

After spending two or three very agreeable days here, with a party of friends, in exploring the beauties of the Island, and dropping a tender tear at Carisbrook Castle on the memory of the unfortunate Charles the First, I am just setting out for America, on a scheme I once hinted to you, of settling the lands to which I have a right as a lieutenant-colonel on half pay.  On enquiry and mature deliberation, I prefer Canada to New-York for two reasons, that it is wilder, and that the women are handsomer:  the first, perhaps, every body will not approve; the latter, I am sure, you will.