white and gold cabinet, with four looking-glasses, a lustre, a scrap of hanging over against the windows, and two rows of chairs, with no variety in the apartments, but from bigger to less, and more or less gilt, and a bed-chamber with a blue or red damask bed; this is that effort of taste to which they think we have not attained-we who have as pure architecture, and as classic taste as there was in Adrian's or Pliny's villas. Monsieur de Guisnes is very civil, and affects to like even our gardens, though I can but doubt whether they do not use more of Nature's beauties than a Frenchman can be brought to feel.

*

Lord Halifax died yesterday. The Bishop of Osnaburg is to have that riband to which the Earl had never been installed. As there is going to be an installation at the expense of the Crown, the bishop's will be lumped with it, and save such another cost. Lord Hyde, they say, is to be Chancellor of the Duchy, in the room of Lord Strange,+ who died suddenly last week. I don't know how the greater places are to go. If I hear to-morrow, when I shall pass through London in my way to Lord Ossory's, I will tell you.

Monday night.

It rains great places and preferments. The Bishop of Durham died last night; but what is that to you or me? You no more desire to be a right-reverend

* Thomas Villiers, brother of the Earl of Jersey, and afterwards Earl of Clarendon.

+ Only son of the Earl of Derby.

Dr. Trevor.

father in God than I to be Secretary of State. Yet how many are hankering after these things, without reflecting that they are more likely to follow in death than in succession! It is excusable in children to cry for rattles; for they don't know how soon they are to part with them. I don't mean by this to give myself any preference in wisdom; I have a house full of playthings, and am as fond of them as any bishop is of his bishoprick.

LETTER CLXXVI.

Strawberry Hill, June 19, 1771.

I ANSWER your letter, as you desire, the moment I receive it, that is, acknowledge the receipt of it; but I am sorry Mr. Davenport's punctuality is not as well ascertained as mine. I have sent him your letter, and wish it may correct him for the future. But do not you deserve to be scolded, too, when you talk of my getting paid? How many score of commissions am I in your debt? Or is this a reprimand, and a prohibition ever to employ you again?

I know no news but newspaper news, which is seldom new but by being false. The Duke of Grafton has certainly got the Privy Seal it is not being proud.* In France, the Duc d'Aiguillon is at last Minister it is not being timorous. I expect to find

*The Duke had been Prime Minister.

a doleful scene in that country: tyranny and poverty are trying which shall have the honour of conferring total ruin on it. It is fortunate for us that Louis the Well-beloved has preferred Ministers who will undo his own country, to one* who had an ambition of undoing his neighbours; and it is unlucky for Corsica that so amiable a monarch did not make his option sooner. It looks as if he himself was fond of both sorts.

Wilkes seems destined to confound all his adversaries. He carries the palm triumphantly from Horne, who has proved a very dull fool-not that I have read half their correspondence; but at least Wilkes maintains his empire over the mob without the benefit of his clergy. The Court profits by their civil war, and we are as quiet as ever I remember the season. Wilkes's canvass for sheriff just stands in place of a considerable horse-race.

I am writing to you in the bow-window of my delicious Round Tower, with your Bianca Capello over against me, and the setting sun behind me, throwing its golden rays all around. Are you never to see this castle? It is not a hovel like Lady Mary Wortley's château, of which she used to brag to the Florentines. My trees flourish so exuberantly, that I am every day clearing away; and every bough that is lopped lets in new verdure, gaiety and prospect. From such a scene one looks down with contempt or pity on Messieurs Maupeou and D'Aiguillon; with greater on Monsieur de Choiseul, if he is sorry to be at Chanteloup. + Parson Horne.

*The Duke de Choiseul. VOL. II.-NEW SERIES.

M

If he were here at this moment, I would say, "Look at yon sinking beams; his gaudy reign is over; but the silver moon above that elm succeeds to a tranquil horizon, and seems to enjoy the serenity of the evening, with more passionate though with fewer admirers! If she gilds no objects, remember she scorches none."-Oh! a charming idea, no doubt, Monsieur de Choiseul would conceive of the pleasure of sitting in a silent window alone, admiring the changes of an evening landscape, and writing to a distant friend! 'Tis below the dignity of ambition to taste a satisfaction that any common individual may enjoy ! Crowds must be witnesses to the luxury of our situation, or it loses its quintessence; and yet I, who was born in the cradle of that greatness M. de Choiseul doats on, thank heaven for having given me no inclination to sacrifice my repose to a chimera! As an acquaintance, the world amuses me; it is horrible to be its master or its slave. Adieu! my dear sir: it will not be long, I hope, before I write to you again from this very spot!

Thursday, June 20.

I have been dining at Lord Buckingham's at Marble Hill.* He has three fine children by his first wife; + and has got a pretty, agreeable young wife; but it was a melancholy day to me, who have passed so many agreeable hours in that house and garden with poor Lady Suffolk.

* At Twickenham, built by Henrietta Hobart, Countess of Suffolk, aunt of Lord Buckingham, to whom she left it. +Daughter of Sir Robert Drury.

Sister of W. Conolly, Esq.

LETTER CLXXVII.

Arlington Street, Saturday noon, July 6, 1771.

I AM not gone; I do go to-morrow, and this letter will not set out till after me, as there is no foreign post till Tuesday. I only write to tell you that my nephew,* Lord Cholmondeley, is gone to Spa, and thinks of frisking through Italy before the Parliament meets. If he comes to Florence, I know how kind you will be to him. He is a good young man, and I hope will not make a bad old one; but of that I know nothing— nor ever shall.

Pray take

Nor do I

We are told the Jesuits are restored in France. That I shall know in two or three days. notice that two years ago I foretold this. brag of it now, but to show that once in least I guessed right.

my life at

Wilkes is another Phoenix revived from his own ashes. He was sunk it was over with him; but the Ministers too precipitately hurrying to bury him alive, blew up the embers, and he is again as formidable as ever; and what will seem worse, he must go into the very closet whenever the City sends him thither with a message. You and I, and all very wise men, laugh at luck and fatality, and such essences as we know do not exist; but pray let us confess honestly that we cannot wonder if the unilluminated populace are staggered on some occasions. Does there not seem

* Only son of George Lord Malpas, who was son of Mary, daughter of Sir Robert Walpole. The King's closet.