She made answer, the whole town believed so, by the improbable tales he told them; and informed me what he had said; by which I knew what I have related to you.
"I expect your orders in relation to his letters." Edward was still anxious to join the army, and his parents were not averse to the scheme.

Lady Mary, however, thought that certain precautions should be taken in the event of his securing a commission.
"It is my opinion," she wrote to Montagu in January, 1744, "he should have no distinction, in equipage, from any other cornet; everything of that sort will only serve to blow his vanity and consequently heighten his folly.

Your indulgence has always been greater to him than any other parent's would have been in the same circumstances.

I have always said so, and thought so.

If anything can alter him, it will be thinking firmly that he has no dependence but on his own conduct for a future maintenance." Edward obtained a commission, and was present at Fontenoy.
On his return to England, in 1747, he was elected to Parliament for the family borough of Huntingdon.