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Mr. Stone, treasurer;' the duchess of Ancaster and lady Bolingbroke of her bedchamber: these I do not know are certain, but hitherto all seems well chosen. Miss Molly Howe, one of the pretty Bishops, and a daughter of lady Harry Beauclerc, are talked of for maids of honour. The great apartment at St. James's is enlarging, and to be furnished with the pictures from Kensington: this does not portend a new palace.

In the midst of all this novelty and hurry, my mind is very differently employed. They expect every minute the news of a battle between Soubise and the hereditary prince. Mr. Conway, I believe, is in the latter army; judge if I can be thinking much of espousals and coronations! It is terrible to be forced to sit still, expecting such an event; in one's own room one is not obliged to be a hero; consequently, I tremble for one that is really a hero.

Mr. *** , your secretary, has been to see me to-day; I am quite ashamed not to have prevented him. I will go to-morrow with all the speeches I can muster.

I am sorry neither you nor your brother are quite well, but shall be content if my Pythagorean sermons have any weight with you. You go to Ireland to make the rest of your life happy; don't go to fling the rest of it away. Good night! Yours most faithfully.

Mr. Chute is gone to his Chutehood.

TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY.

Strawberry-hill, July 20, 1761.

I BLUSH, dear madam, on observing that half my letters to your ladyship are prefaced with thanks for presents :-don't mistake; I am not ashamed of thanking you, but of having so many occasions for it. Monsieur Hop has sent me the piece of china: I admire it as much as possible, and intend to like him as much as ever I can; but hitherto I have not seen him, not having been in town since he arrived.

Could I have believed that the Hague would so easily compensate for England? nay, for Park-place! Adieu, all our agree

1 Andrew Stone, esq. was appointed treasurer of the queen's household. [Ed.]

able suppers! Instead of lady Cecilia's' French songs, we shall have madame Welderen2 quavering a confusion of d's and t's, b's and p's-Bourquoi sçais du blaire ?3—Worse than that, I expect to meet all my relations at your house, and sir Samson Gideon instead of Charles Townshend. You will laugh like Mrs. Tipkin3 when a Dutch Jew tells you that he bought at two and a-half per cent., and sold at four. Come back, if you have any taste left: you had better be here talking robes, ermine and tissue, jewels and tresses, as all the world does, than own you are so corrupted. Did you receive my notification of the new queen? Her mother is dead, and she will not be here before the end of August.

My mind is much more at peace about Mr. Conway than it was. Nobody thinks there will be a battle, as the French did not attack them when both armies shifted camps; and since that, Soubise has entrenched himself up to the whiskers :-whiskers I think he has, I have been so afraid of him! Yet our hopes of meeting are still very distant: the peace does not advance; and if Europe has a stiver left in its pockets, the war will continue; though happily all parties have been so scratched, that they only sit and look anger at one another, like a dog and cat that don't care to begin again.

We are in danger of losing our sociable box at the opera. The new queen is very musical, and, if Mr. deputy Hodges and the city don't exert their veto, will probably go to the Haymarket. * * * * * G *** P * * *, in imitation of the Adonises in Tanzai's retinue, has asked to be her majesty's grand harper. Dieu sçait quelle raclerie il y aura! All the guitars are untuned; and if miss Conway has a mind to be in fashion at her return, she must take some David or other to teach her the new twing twang, twing twing twang. As I am still desirous of

1 Lady Cecilia West, daughter of John earl of Delawar, afterwards married to general James Johnston. [Or.]

2 The wife of the Count de Welderen, one of the lords of the states of Holland. [Ed.]

3 The first words of a favourite French air, with madame Welderen's confusion of p's, t's, &c. [Or.]

4 Sir Sampson Gideon, father of Sampson lord Eardley. On his death in 1762, he left the whole of his vast estates, in the case of his race failing, to the Duke of Devonshire. [Ed.]

5 A character in the Tender Husband, or the Accomplished Fools. [Or.]

6

being in fashion with your ladyship, and am, over and above, very grateful, I keep no company but my lady Denbigh and lady Blandford, and learn every evening, for two hours, to mash my English. Already, I am tolerably fluent in saying she for he.7

Good night, madam! I have no news to send you: one cannot announce a royal wedding and a coronation every post.

Your most faithful and obliged servant.

P.S. Pray, madam, do the gnats bite your legs? Mine are swelled as big as one, which is saying a deal for me.

July 22.

I HAD writ this, and was not time enough for the mail, when I receive your charming note, and this magnificent victory !8 Oh! my dear madam, how I thank you, how I congratulate you, how I feel for you, how I have felt for you and for myself! -But I bought it by two terrible hours to-day-I heard of the battle two hours before I could learn a word of Mr. ConwayI sent all round the world, and went half round it myself. I have cried and laughed, trembled and danced, as you bid me. If you had sent me as much old china as king Augustus gave two regiments for, I should not be half so much obliged to you as for your note. How could you think of me, when you had so much reason to think of nothing but yourself?—And then they say virtue is not rewarded in this world. I will preach at Paul's Cross, and quote you and Mr. Conway; no two persons were ever so good and so happy. In short, I am serious in the height of all my joy. God is very good to you, my dear madam ; I thank him for you; I thank him for myself: it is very unalloyed pleasure we taste at this moment!-Good night! My heart is so

6 Isabella, dowager countess of Denbigh, widow of William fifth earl; was daughter of Peter de Songe of Utrecht in Holland, and sister of Maria Catherine, widow of William marquis of Blandford, who died without issue, 24th August 1731. [Ed.]

7 A mistake which these ladies, who were both Dutch women, constantly made. [Or.]

8 Of Kirckdenckirck. [Or.] On the 15th and 16th July, the allied army under Prince Ferdinand gained a great victory over the French under Prince Soubise, in which the latter were computed to have lost in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about 5,000 men. [Ed.]

expanded, I could write to the last scrap of my paper; but I

won't.

Yours most entirely.

TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

MY DEAR LORD,

Strawberry-hill, July 22, 1761.

I love to be able to contribute to your satisfaction; and I think few things would make you happier than to hear that we have totally defeated the French combined armies, and that Mr. Conway is safe. The account came this morning: I had a short note from poor lady Ailesbury, who was waked with the good news, before she had heard there had been a battle. I don't pretend to send you circumstances, no more than I do of the wedding and coronation, because you have relations and friends in town nearer and better informed. Indeed, only the blossom of victory is come yet.-Fitzroy1 is expected, and another fuller courier after him. Lord Granby, to the mob's heart's content, has the chief honour of the day-rather, of the two days. The French behaved to the mob's content too, that is, shamefully. And all this glory cheaply bought on our side. Lieutenantcolonel Keith killed; and colonel Marlay and Harry Townshend wounded. If it produces a peace, I shall be happy for mankind -if not, shall content myself with the single but pure joy of Mr. Conway's being safe.

Well! my lord, when do you come? You don't like the question, but kings will be married and must be crowned-and if people will be earls, they must now and then give up castles and new fronts, for processions and ermine. By the way, the number of peeresses that propose to excuse themselves makes great noise; especially as so many are breeding, or trying to breed, by commoners, that they cannot walk. I hear that my lord D * * * *, concluding all women would not dislike the ceremony, is negotiating his peerage in the city, and trying if any great fortune will give fifty thousand pounds for one day, as they

1 Lieut. Colonel Fitzroy, aid-de-camp to Prince Ferdinand, arrived with the particulars of the victory on the 23d. [Ed.]

often do for one night. I saw miss * * * * this evening at my lady Suffolk's, and fancy she does not think my lord * * * * quite so ugly as she did two months ago.

Adieu, my lord! This is a splendid year!

Yours ever.

To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq.

Strawberry-hill, July 22, 1761.

FOR my part, I believe Mademoiselle Scuderi1 drew the plan of this year. It is all royal marriages, coronations, and victories; they come tumbling so over one another from distant parts of the globe, that it looks just like the handy-work of a lady romance writer, whom it costs nothing but a little false geography to make the great Mogul in love with a princess of * * * * * and defeat two marshals of France as he rides post on an elephant to his nuptials. I don't know where I am. I had scarce found Mecklenburgh Strelitz with a magnifying glass, before I am whisked to Pondicherri 3—well, I take it, and raze it. I begin to grow acquainted with colonel Coote, and to figure him packing up chests of diamonds, and sending them to his wife against the king's wedding-thunder go the Tower guns, and behold Broglio and Soubise are totally defeated; if the mob have not much stronger heads and quicker conceptions than I have, they will conclude my lord Granby is become nabob. How the deuce in two days can one digest all this? Why is not Pondicherri in Westphalia? I don't know how the Romans did, but I cannot

1 Magdeline de Scudery, the celebrated authoress of ' Ibrahim ou l'Illustre Bassa'—' Le Grand Cyrus,' &c. It is related of this lady, that when travelling with her brother, at a time when they were engaged in the composition of Artamenes, they entered into a discussion at a small inn where they were resting, as to whether they should kill the prince Mazares, one of the characters in that romance, by poison or the dagger, and being overheard by two merchants, were arrested on suspicion of intended murder, and escaped from 'durance vile' by a declaration of the real facts of the case. [Ed.]

2 In consequence of the king's announcement of his intention to demand in marriage the princess Charlotte of Mecklenburg Strelitz. [Ed.]

3 The news of the capture of Pondicherry, in January 1761, had only arrived the day preceding the date of this letter. [Ed.]

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