rified; she fell into tears. Madame du Deffand, who has too much parts not to see everything in its true light, perceiving that she had not beaten Tonton half enough, immediately told us a story of a lady, whose dog, having bitten a piece out of a gentleman's leg, the tender dame, in a great fright, cried out, "Won't it make my dog sick?”

Lady Barrymore1 has taken a house. She will be glutted with conquests: I never saw anybody so much admired. I doubt her poor little head will be quite overset.

2

Madame de Marchais is charming: eloquence and attention itself. I cannot stir for peaches, nectarines, grapes, and bury pears. You would think Pomona was in love with me. I am not so transported with N * * * * cock and hen. They are a tabor and pipe that I do not understand. He mouths and she squeaks, and neither articulates. M. d'Entragues I have not seen. Upon the whole, I am much more pleased with Paris than ever I was; and, perhaps, shall stay a little longer than I intended. The Harry Grenvilles3 are arrived. I dined with them at Madame de Viry's,* who has completed the conquest of France by her behaviour on Madame Clotilde's wedding, and by the fêtes she gave. Of other English I wot not, but grieve the Richmonds do

not come.

I am charmed with Dr. Bally; nay, and with the King of Prussia as much as I can be with a northern monarch. For your Kragen, I think we ought to procure a female one, and marry it to Ireland, that we may breed some new islands against we have lost America. I know nothing of said

Third daughter of William second Earl of Harrington, and wife of Richard sixth Earl of Barrymore, who, dying in 1780, left issue Richard and Henry, each of whom became, successively, Earl of Barrymore; a title which expired upon the death of the latter, in 1823.-E.

2 Madame de Marchais, née Laborde, married to a valet-de-chambre of Louis XVI. From her intimacy with M. d'Angivillier, Directeur des Bâtimens, Jardins, &c. du Roi, she had the opportunity of obtaining the finest fruits and flowers.-E.

• Henry Grenville, brother to Earl Temple. He married Miss Margaret Banks. He died in 1784.-E.

She is one of the For an account of

Miss Harriet Speed. She had married M. le Comte de Viry when he was minister at London from the Court of Turin. ladies to whom Gray's " Long Story" is addressed. her, see vol. iv. p. 191.-E.

America. There is not a Frenchman that does not think us distracted.

I used to scold you about your bad writing, and perceive I have written in such a hurry, and blotted my letter so much, that you will not be able to read it: but consider how few moments I have to myself.

I am forced to stuff

my ears with cotton to get any sleep. However, my journey has done me good. I have thrown off at least fifteen years. Here is a letter for my dear Mrs. Damer from Madame de Cambis, who thinks she doats on you all. Adieu !

P.S. I shall bring you two éloges of Marshal Catinat; not because I admire them, but because I admire him, because I think him very like you.

TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY.

Paris, Oct. 6, 1775.

It will look like a month since I wrote to you; but I have been coming, and am. Madame du Deffand has been so ill, that the day she was seized I thought she would not live till night. Her Herculean weakness, which could not resist strawberries and cream after supper, has surmounted all the ups and downs which followed her excess; but her impatience to go everywhere and to do everything has been attended with a kind of relapse, and another kind of giddiness so that I am not quite easy about her, as they allow her to take no nourishment to recruit, and she will die of inanition, if she does not live upon it. She cannot lift her head from the pillow without étourdissemens; and yet her spirits gallop faster than anybody's, and so do her repartees. She has a great supper to-night for the Duc de Choiseul, and was in such a passion yesterday with her cook about it, and that put Tonton into such a rage, that nos dames de Saint Joseph thought the devil or the philosophers were flying away with their convent! As I have scarce quitted her, I can have had nothing to tell you. If she gets well, as I trust, I shall set out on the 12th; but I cannot leave

her in any danger-though I shall run many myself, if I stay longer. I have kept such bad hours with this malade, that I have had alarms of gout; and bad weather, worse inns, and a voyage in winter, will ill suit me. The fans arrived at a propitious moment, and she immediately had them opened on her bed, and felt all the patterns, and had all the papers described. She was all satisfaction and thanks, and swore me to do her full justice to Lady Ailesbury and Mrs. Damer. Lord Harrington and Lady Harriet are arrived; but have announced and persisted in a strict invisibility.

I know nothing of my chère patrie, but what I learn from the London Chronicle; and that tells me, that the trading towns are suing out lettres de noblesse, that is, entreating the King to put an end to commerce, that they may all be gentlemen. Here agriculture, economy, reformation, philosophy, are the bon-ton even at court. The two nations seem to have crossed over and figured in; but as people that copy take the bad with the good, as well as the good with the bad, there was two days ago a great horse-race in the plain de Sablon, between the Comte d'Artois,1 the Duc de Chartres,? Monsieur de Conflans, and the Duc de Lauzun.3 The latter won by the address of a little English postillion, who is in such fashion, that I don't know whether the Academy will not give him for the subject of an éloge.

The Duc de Choiseul, I said, is here; and, as he has a second time put off his departure, cela fait beaucoup de bruit. I shall not be at all surprised if he resumes the reins, as (forgive me a pun) he has the Reine already. Messrs. de Turgot and Malesherbes certainly totter- but I shall tell you no more till I see you; for though this goes by a private hand, it is so private, that I don't know it, being an English

1 Afterwards Charles the Tenth.-E.

2 On the death of his father, in 1785, he became Duke of Orleans. In 1792, he was chosen a member of the National Convention, when he adopted the Jacobinical title of Louis-Philippe-Joseph Egalité; and, in November 1793, he suffered by the guillotine.-E.

The Duc de Lauzun, son of the Duc de Gontaut, the maternal nephew of the Duchesse de Choiseul.-E.

merchant's, who lodges in this hotel, and whom I do not know by sight: so, perhaps, I may bring you word of this letter myself. I flatter myself Lady Ailesbury's arm has recovered its straightness and its cunning.

Madame du Deffand says, I love you better than anything in the world. If true, I hope you have not less penetration : if you have not, or it is not true, what would professions avail? So I leave that matter in suspense. Adieu!

October 7.

Madame du Deffand was quite well yesterday; and at near one this morning I left the Duc de Choiseul, the Duchess de Grammont, the Prince and Princess of Beauveau, Princess of Poix,1 the Maréchale de Luxembourg, Duchess de Lauzun, Ducs de Gontaut et de Chabot, and Caraccioli, round her chaise longue; and she herself was not a dumb personage. I have not heard yet how she has slept, and must send away my letter this moment, as I must dress to go to dinner with Monsieur de Malesherbes at Madame de Villegagnon's. I must repose a great while after all this living in company; nay, intend to go very little into the world again, as I do not admire the French way of burning one's candle to the very snuff in public. Tell Mrs. Damer, that the fashion now is to erect the toupée into a high detached tuft of hair, like a cockatoo's crest; and this toupée they call la physionomie-I don't guess why.

My laquais is come back from St. Joseph's, and says Marie3

Wife of the Prince de Poix, eldest son of the Maréchal de Mouchy, and daughter of the Prince de Beauveau. The Prince de Poix retired to this country on the breaking out of the French revolution, accompanied by his son, Comte Charles de Noailles, who married the daughter of La Borde, the great banker.-E.

2 The Duc de Gontaut, brother to the Maréchal Duc de Biron, and father to the Duc de Lauzun. The Duchesse de Gontaut was a sister of the Duchesse de Choiseul.-E.

3 The maiden name of Madame du Deffand was Marie de Vichy Chamrond. She was born in 1697, of a noble family in the province of Burgundy; and, as her fortune was small, she was married by her parents, in 1718, to the Marquis du Deffand; the union being settled with as little attention to her feelings as was usual in French marriages of that age. A separation soon took place; but Walpole says they always continued on good terms, and that upon her husband's death-bed, at his express desire, she saw him.-E.

de Vichy has had a very good night, and is quite well.Philip! let my chaise be ready on Thursday.

TO THE REV. MR. COLE.

Strawberry Hill, Dec. 10, 1775.

I was very sorry to have been here, dear Sir, the day you called on me in town. It is so difficult to uncloister you, that I regret not seeing you when you are out of your own ambry. I have nothing new to tell you that is very old; but you can inform me of something within your own district. Who is the author, E. B. G. of a version of Mr. Gray's Latin Odes into English,3 and of an Elegy on my wolf-devoured dog, poor Tory? a name you will marvel at in a dog of mine; but his godmother was the widow of Alderman Parsons, who gave him at Paris to Lord Conway, and he to me. The author is a poet; but he makes me blush, for he calls Mr. Gray and me congenial pair. Alas! I have no genius; and if any symptom of talent, so inferior to Gray's, that Milton and Quarles might as well be coupled together. We rode over the Alps in the same chaise, but Pegasus drew on his side, and a cart-horse on mine. I am too jealous of his fame to let us be coupled together. This author says he has lately printed at Cambridge a Latin translation of the Bards; I should be much obliged to you for it.

I do not ask you if Cambridge has produced anything, for it never does. Have you made any discoveries? Has Mr. Lort? Where is he? Does Mr. Tyson engrave no more? My plates for Strawberry advance leisurely. I am about nothing. I grow old and lazy, and the present world

Mr. Walpole's valet-de-chambre.

2 Walpole left Paris on the 12th; upon which day, Madame du Deffand thus wrote to him:-"Adieu! ce mot est bien triste! Souvenez que vous laissez ici la personne dont vous êtes le plus aimé, et dont le bonheur et le malheur consistent dans ce que vous pensez pour elle. Donnez-moi de vos nouvelles le plus tôt qu'il sera possible."-E.

3 Edward Burnaby Greene, formerly of Bennet College, but at that time a brewer in Westminster. He likewise published translations of Pindar, Persius, Apollonius Rhodius, Anacreon, &c.-E.

VOL. V.

2 F