I am writing to you up to the ears in packing: Lord Wilmington has lent this house to Sandys, and he has given us instant warning; we are moving as fast as possible to Siberia,-Sir Robert has a house there, within a few miles of the Duke of Courland; in short, child, we are all going to Norfolk, till we can get a house ready in town: all the furniture is taken down, and lying about in confusion. I look like St. John in the Isle of Patmos, writing revelations, and prophesying "Woe! woe! woe! the kingdom of desolation is at hand!" indeed, I have prettier animals about me, than he ever dreamt of: here is the dear Patapan, and a little Vandyke cat, with black whiskers and boots; you would swear it was of a very ancient family, in the West of England, famous for their loyalty.

I told you I was going to the masquerade at Ranelagh gardens, last week it was miserable; there were but an hundred men, six women, and two shepherdesses. The King liked it,-and that he might not be known, they had dressed him a box with red damask! Lady Pomfret and her three daughters were there, all dressed alike, that they might not be known. My Lady said to Lady Bel Finch,* who was dressed like a nun, and for coolness had cut off the nose of her mask, "Madam, you are the first nun that ever I saw without a nose!"

As I came home last night, they told me there was a fire in Downing Street; when I came to Whitehall, I could not get to the end of the street in my chariot, for the crowd; when I got out, the first thing I heard was a man enjoying himself: "Well! if it lasts two hours longer, Sir Robert Walpole's house will be burnt to the ground!" it was a very comfortable hearing! but I found the fire was on the opposite side of the way, and at a good distance. I stood in the crowd an hour to hear their discourse: one man was relating at how many fires he had happened to be present, and did not think himself at all unlucky in passing by, just at this. What diverted me most, was a servant-maid, who was working, and carrying pails of water, with the strength of half-a-dozen troopers, and swearing the mob out of her way-the soft creature's name was Phillis! When I arrived at our door, I found the house full of goods, beds, women, and children, and three Scotch members of parliament, who lodge in the row, and who had sent in a saddle, a flitch of bacon, and a bottle of ink. There was no wind, and the house was saved, with the loss of only its garret, and the furniture.

I forgot to mention the Dominichin last post, as I suppose I had before, for I always was for buying it; it is one of the most engaging pictures I ever saw. I have no qualms about its originality; and even if Sir Robert should not like it when it comes, which is impossible, I think I would live upon a flitch of bacon and a bottle of

Lady Isabella Finch, third daughter of the sixth Earl of Winchilsea, first lady of the bedchamber to the Princess Amelia. It was for her that Kent built the pretty and singular house on the western side of Berkeley Square, with a fine room in it, of which the ceiling is painted in arabesque compartments, by Zucchi;-now the residence of C. B. Wall, Esq.-D. [In this house her ladyship died unmarried, in 1771.]

ink, rather than not spare the money to buy it myself: so my dear Sir, buy it.

Your brother has this moment brought me a letter: I find by it, that you are very old style with relation to the Prussian peace. Why, we have sent Robinson and Lord Hyndford" a green ribbon, for it, above a fortnight ago. Muley, (as Lord Lovel calls him,) Duke of Bedford, is, they say, to have a blue one, for making his own peace: you know we always mind home-peaces more than foreign ones.

I am quite sorry for all the trouble you have had about the Maltese cats; but you know they were for Lord Islay, not for myself. Adieu! I have no more time.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

You scolded me so much about my little paper, that I dare not venture upon it even now, when I have very little to say to you. The long session is over, and the Secret Committee already forgotten. Nobody remembers it but poor Paxton, who has lost his placed by it. saw him the day after he came out of Newgate: he came to Chelsea :* Lord Fitzwilliam was there, and in the height of zeal, took him about the neck and kissed him. Lord Orford had been at Court that morning, and with his usual spirits, said to the new ministers, "So! the parliament is up, and Paxton, Bell, and I have got our liberty!" The King spoke in the kindest manner to him at his levee, but did not call him into the closet, as the new ministry feared he would, and as perhaps, the old ministry expected he wonld. The day before, when the King went to put an end to the session, Lord Quarendon asked Winnington "whether Bell would be let out time enough to hire a mob to huzza him as he went to the House of Lords.”

The few people that are left in town have been much diverted with an adventure that has befallen the new ministers. Last Sunday the Duke of Newcastle gave them a dinner at Claremont, where their servants got so drunk, that when they came to the inn over against the gate of Newpark, the coachman, who was the only remaining fragment of their suite, tumbled off the box, and there they were planted. There were Lord Bath, Lord Carteret, Lord Limerick, and Harry Furneses in the coach: they asked the innkeeper if he could

Sir Thomas Robinson, minister at Vienna; he was made secretary of state in 1754. (And a peer, by the title of Lord Grantham, in 1761.-D.)

John Carmichael, third Earl of Hyndford. He had been sent as envoy to the King of Prussia, during the first war of Silesia. He was afterwards sent ambassador to Petersburgh and Vienna, and died in 1767.-D.

The Duke of Bedford had not the Garter till some years after this.

a Solicitor to the treasury. See antè, p. 246.

Sir R. Walpole's house at Chelsea.-D.

f Lord Walpole was ranger of Newpark. (Now called Richmond Park.-D.)

One of the band of incapables who obtained power and place on the fall of Walpole. Horace Walpole, in his Memoires, calls him "that old rag of Lord Bath's quota to an administration, the mute Harry Furnese."-D.

contrive no way to convey them to town. "No," he said, "not he, unless it was to get Lord Orford's coachman to drive them." They demurred; but Lord Carteret said, "Oh, I dare say, Lord Orford will willingly let us have him." So they sent and he drove them home."

Ceretesi had a mind to see this wonderful Lord Orford, of whom he had heard so much; I carried him to dine at Chelsea. You know the earl don't speak a word of any language but English and Latin, and Ceretesi not a word of either; yet he assured me that he was very happy to have made cosi bella conoscenza! He whips out his pocketbook every moment, and writes descriptions in issimo of every thing he sees the grotto alone took up three pages. What volumes he will publish at his return, in usum Serenissimi Pannoni !c

There has lately been the most shocking scene of murder imaginable; a parcel of drunken constables took it into their heads to put the laws in execution against disorderly persons, and so took up every woman they met, till they had collected five and six or twenty, all of whom they thrust into St. Martin's round-house, where they kept them all night, with doors and windows closed. The poor creatures, who could not stir or breathe, screamed as long as they had any breath left, begging at least for water: one poor wretch said she was worth eighteen-pence, and would gladly give it for a draught of water, but in vain! So well did they keep them there, that in the morning four were found stifled to death, two died soon after, and a dozen more are in a shocking way. In short, it is horrid to think what the poor creatures suffered: several of them were beggars, who, from having no lodging, were necessarily found in the street, and others. honest labouring women. One of the dead was a poor washerwoman, big with child, who was returning home late from washing. One of the constables is taken, and others absconded; but I question if any of them will suffer death, though the greatest criminals in this town are the officers of justice; there is no tyranny they do not exercise, no villany of which they do not partake. These same men, the same night, broke into a bagnio in Covent-Garden, and took up Jack Spencer,

This occurrence was celebrated in a ballad which is inserted in C. Hanbury William's works, and begins thus.

"As Caleb and Carteret, two birds of a feather,
Went down to a feast at Newcastle's together."

Lord Bath is called "Caleb," in consequence of the name of Caleb D'Anvers having been used in The Craftsman, of which he was the principal author.-D.

b It was very remarkable that Lord Orford could get and keep such an ascendant with King George I. when they had no way of conversing but very imperfectly in Latin. The coffee-house at Florence where the nobility meet.

a The keeper of the round-house was tried, but acquitted of wilful murder. [The keeper, whose name was William Bird, was tried at the Old Bailey in October, and received sentence of death; which was afterwards transmuted to transportation.]

* The Honourable John Spencer, second son of Charles, third Earl of Sunderland, by Anne his wife, second daughter of the great Duke of Marlborough. He was the favourite grandson of old Sarah, Duchess of Marlbourough, who left him a vast fortune, having disinherited, to the utmost of her power, his eldest brother, Charles, Duke of Marlborough. The condition upon which she made this bequest was, that neither he nor his

Mr. Stewart, and Lord George Graham, and would have thrust them into the round-house with the poor women, if they had not been worth more than eighteen-pence!

I have just now received yours of the 15th of July, with a married letter from both Prince and Princess: but sure nothing ever equalled the setting out of it! She says, "The generosity of your friendship for me, Sir, leaves me nothing to desire of all that is precious in England, China, and the Indies!" Do you know, after such a testimony under the hand of a princess, that I am determined, after the laudable example of the house of Medici, to take the title of Horace the magnificent! I am only afraid it should be a dangerous example for my posterity, who may ruin themselves in emulating the magnificence of their ancestor. It happens comically, for the other day, in removing from Downing-street, Sir Robert found an old account-book of his father, wherein he set down all his expenses. In three months and ten days that he was in London one winter as member of parliament, he spent-what do you think?-sixty-four pounds seven shillings and five-pence! There are many articles for Nottingham ale, eighteenpences for dinners, five shillings to Bob (now Earl of Orford), and one memorandum of six shillings given in exchange to Mr. Wilkins for his wig-and yet this old man, my grandfather, had two thousand pounds a-year, Norfolk sterling! He little thought that what maintained him for a whole session, would scarce serve one of his younger grandsons to buy japan and fans for princesses at Florence!

Lord Orford has been at court again to-day: Lord Carteret came up to thank him for his coachman; the Duke of Newcastle standing by. My father said, "My lord, whenever the duke is near overturning you, you have nothing to do but to send to me, and I will save you." The duke said to Lord Carteret, "Do you know, my lord, that the venison you eat that day came out of Newpark?" Lord Orford laughed, and said, "So, you see I am made to kill the fatted calf for the return of the prodigals!" The King passed by all the new ministry to speak to him, and afterwards only spoke to my Lord Carteret.

Should I answer the letters from the court of Petraria again? there will be no end of our magnificent correspondence!-but would it not be too haughty to let a princess write last?

Oh, the cats! I can never keep them, and yet it is barbarous to send them all to Lord Islay: he will shut them up and starve them, and then bury them under the stairs with his wife. Adieu!

heirs should take any place or pension from any government, except the rangership of Windsor Park. He was the ancestor of the present Earl Spencer, and died in 1746.-D. Lord George Graham, youngest son of the Duke of Montrose, and a captain in the navy. He died in 1747.-D.

b Prince and Princess Craon.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

Chelsea, July 29, 1742.

I AM quite out of humour; the whole town is melted away; you never saw such a desert. You know what Florence is in the vintageseason, at least I remember what it was: London is just as empty, nothing but half-a-dozen private gentlewomen left, who live upon the scandal that they laid up in the winter. I am going too! this day se'nnight we set out for Houghton, for three months; but I scarce think that I shall allow thirty days apiece to them. Next post I shall not be able to write to you; and when I am there shall scarce find materials to furnish a letter above every other post. I beg, however, that you will write constantly to me: it will be my only entertainment, for I neither hunt, brew, drink, nor reap. When I return in the winter, I will make amends for this barren season of our correspondence.

I carried Sir Robert the other night to Ranelagh for the first time: my uncle's prudence, or fear, would never let him go before. It was pretty full, and all its fulness flocked round us: we walked with a train at our heels, like two chairmen going to fight; but they were extremely civil, and did not crowd him, or say the least impertinence -I think he grows popular already! The other day he got it asked, whether he should be received if he went to Carleton House ?-no, truly!—but yesterday morning Lord Baltimore' came to soften it a little; that his royal highness did not refuse to see him, but that now the Court was out of town, and he had no drawing-room, he did not see any body.

They have given Mrs. Pultney an admirable name, and one that is likely to stick by her-instead of Lady Bath, they call her the wife of Bath. Don't you figure her squabbling at the gate with St. Peter for a halfpenny.

Cibber has published a little pamphlet against Pope, which has a great deal of spirit, and, from some circumstances, will notably vex him. I will send it to you by the first opportunity, with a new pamphlet, said to be Doddington's, called " A Comparison of the Old and New Ministry:" it is much liked. I have not forgot your magazines, but will send them and these pamphlets together. Adieu! I am at the end of my tell.

P. S. Lord Edgecumbe is just made Lord-lieutenant of Cornwall, at which the Lord of Bath looks sour. He said, yesterday, that the King would give orders for several other considerable alterations; but

Lord of the bedchamber to the Prince.

b In allusion to the old ballad.

This pamphlet, which was entitled "A Letter from Mr. Cibber to Mr. Pope; inquiring into the motives that might induce him, in his satirical works to be so frequently fond of Mr. Cibber's name,' so "notably vexed" the great poet, that, in a new edition of the Dunciad, he dethroned Theobald from his eminence as King of the Dunces, and enthroned Cibber in his stead.-E.