History and genealogy of Peter Montague, of Nansemond and ...

INTRODUCTION. 39
the first experiment upon her own son, and its success proved the
means of disseminating the blessings and the continuation of life to
thousands. Upon her return to England she became a great friend
of the poet Pope. The letters of Lady Montagu appeared before the
public in 1763. She possessed great talent, and inexhaustible
powers of language. She died in 1762, leaving one dau. Mary Mon-
tagu, Baroness Mountstuart, married to John Stuart, Earl of Bute ;
and one only son Edward Wortley Montagu. He was remarkable
for his eccentricities. He ran away from school and became a
chimney sweep, was restored by accident to his parents, but again he
left them to join himself to a fisherman, after which he embarked as
a cabin boy for Spain, and hired himself there as a servant to a
muleteer. Here he was discovered and prevailed upon to return to
his friends, who placed him under the care of a tutor, and with him
he visited many foreign countries. On his return he was elected
member of parliament, and conducted himself with a propriety
becoming his birth and fortune. But soon he again embarked for
the East. At Constantinople, he adopted the dress and the manners
of the Turks ;
he
kept a numerous seraglio of wives, he sat cross-
legged, he wore a long beard, and behaved with all the pomp of
oriental consequence. He died in Italy in 1776 aged about 62. He
was an author of books of merit—among them, An Examination into
the Causes of Earthquakes— Observations on the Rise and Fall of
the Roman Empire—Account of the Mountains of Arabia—besides
some interesting papers inserted in the Philosophical transactions.
Origin and Antiquity of the Name Montague.
The name came into England in the year 1066 from Normandy,
and originated in the Latin de monte acuto, meaning " of or from a
sharp or pointed mountain" [a mountain peak]. It has been written
in various forms as de Monte Acuto, Monteacuto, Montacute, Mont-
agute, Montaigut, Montaigu, Montagu, Mountagu, Mountague,
Montague. There is a mountain in the Pyrenees of considerable
height called Montacuto. In the Department of Aisne, in France,
may be seen the ruins of an old feudal Castle, named Montaigu,
situated in a town of the same name. This castle was an important
fortress in the tenth century. It was besieged and taken by Louis