John Rust accompanied Henry Hoare's son (Henry Junior) on a tour of the continent to the end of 1750, where, two years later in Naples, Henry caught smallpox and died. Rust's first acquaintance with Lyttelton, probably realised through the latter's friendship with the Hoare family, was in 1760 when Lyttelton referred to him in a letter to Mrs Montagu from Hagley Hall, September 1760, (MO 1292). Rust was clearly unknown to Elizabeth Montagu and hence here she discreetly enquires after his character, which Lyttelton duly supplied in his letter of 16 October (MO 1291).