4 Willes is dead, and Pratt is to be chief justice; Mr. Yorke attorney-general; solicitor, I don't know who. the watchman cries, past one! Good night: Yours ever. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Dec. 30, 1761. I HAVE received two more letters from you since I wrote last week, and I like to find by them that you are so well and so happy. As nothing has happened of change in my situation but a few more months passed, I have nothing to tell you new of myself. Time does not sharpen my passions or pursuits, and the experience I have had by no means prompts me to make new connections. 'Tis a busy world, and well adapted to those who love to bustle in it. I loved it onceloved its very tempest: now I barely open my window, to view what course the storm takes. The town, who, like the devil, when one has once sold oneself to him, never permits one to have done playing the fool, believe I have a great hand in their amusements; but to write pamphlets, I mean as a volunteer, one must love or hate, and I have the satisfaction of doing neither. I would not be at the trouble of composing a distich to achieve a revolution. 'Tis equal to me what names are on the scene. In the general view, the prospect is very dark: the Spanish war, added to the load, almost oversets our most sanguine heroism; and now we have an opportunity of conquering all the world, by being at war with all the world, we seem to doubt a little of our abilities. On a survey of our 4 The right hon. John Willes, knt., lord chief justice of the Common Pleas, died 15th December, 1761. [Ed.] 5 Charles Pratt was created, in 1765, baron Camden, of Camden-place, in the county of Kent, and soon afterwards was appointed lord high chancellor, but resigned the seals in 1770. In 1776 he was created viscount Bayham, of Bayham, county Sussex, and earl Camden, and died in 1794, and was succeeded by his son, John Jefferys, who was advanced in 1812 to the dignity of marquis Camden, and at the same time created earl of Brecknock in Wales. [Ed.] 6 Charles Yorke, second son of the first earl of Hardwicke, was afterwards appointed, in 1770, lord Chancellor; but died suddenly while the patent of his creation to the barony of Morden was in progress. [Ed.] situation, I comfort myself with saying, "Well, what is it to me?" A selfishness that is far from anxious, when it is the first thought in one's constitution; not so agreeable when it is the last, and adopted by necessity alone. You drive your expectations much too fast, in thinking my Anecdotes of Painting are ready to appear, in demanding three volumes. You will see but two, and it will be February first. True, I have written three, but I question whether the third will be published at all; certainly not soon; it is not a work of merit enough to cloy the town with a great deal at once. My printer ran away and left a third part of the two first volumes unfinished. I suppose he is writing a tragedy himself, or an epistle to my lord Melcomb, or a panegyric on my lord Bute. Jemmy Pelham1 is dead, and has left to his servants what little his servants had left him. Lord Ligonier was killed by the newspapers, and wanted to prosecute them; his lawyer told him it was impossible-a tradesman indeed might prosecute, as such a report might affect his credit. "Well, then," said the old man, "I may prosecute, too, for I can prove I have been hurt by this report: I was going to marry a great fortune, who thought I was but seventy-four; the newspapers have said I am eighty, and she will not have me." 2 Lord Charlemont's Queen Elizabeth I know perfectly; he out-bid me for it; is his villa finished? I am well pleased with the design in Chambers. I have been my out-of-town with lord Waldegrave, Selwyn, and Williams; it was melancholy the missing poor Edgecumbe, who was constantly of the Christmas and Easter parties. Did you see the charming picture Reynolds painted for me of him, Selwyn, and Williams? It is by far one of the best things he has executed. He has just finished a pretty whole-length of lady Elizabeth Keppel,3 in the bridemaid's habit, sacrificing to Hymen. 1 The hon. James Pelham, of Crowhurst, Sussex, died 27th December 1761; he had been principal secretary to the prince of Wales, and for nearly forty years secretary to the several lords chamberlain. He sate in parliament six times for Hastings and Newark. [Ed.] 2 Richard, second lord Edgecumbe, who died 13th May, 1761. His father Richard, the first lord, created baron Edgecumbe in 1742, had been an intimate friend of sir Robert Walpole. [Ed.] 3 She was daughter of the earl of Albemarle, and married to the marquis of Tavistock. [Or.] If the Spaniards land in Ireland, shall you make the campaign? No, no, come back to England; you and I will not be patriots, till the Gauls are in the city, and we must take our great chairs and our fasces, and be knocked on the head with decorum in St. James's market. Good night ! Yours ever. P.S. I am told that they bind in vellum better at Dublin than any where; pray bring me one book of their binding, as well as it can be done, and I will not mind the price. If Mr. Bourk's history appears before your return, let it be that. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Jan. 26, 1762. WE have had as many mails due from Ireland as you had from us. I have at last received a line from you; it tells me you are well, which I am always glad to hear; I cannot say you tell me much more. My health is so little subject to alteration, and so preserved by temperance, that it is not worth repetition; thank God you may conclude it is good, if I do not say the contrary. Here is nothing new but preparations for conquest, and approaches to bankruptcy; and the worst is, the former will advance the latter at least as much as impede it. You say the Irish will live and die with your cousin: I am glad they are so well disposed. I have lived long enough to doubt whether all, who like to live with one, would be so ready to die with one. I know it is not pleasant to have the time arrived when one looks about to see whether they would or not; but you are in a country of more sanguine complexion, and where I believe the clergy do not deny the laity the cup. The queen's brother1 arrived yesterday; your brother, prince John, has been here about a week; I am to dine with him today at lord Dacre's with the Chute. Our burlettas are gone out of fashion; do the Amicis come hither next year, or go to Guadaloupe, as is said? The prince of Mecklenburg Strelitz. [Ed.] I have been told that a lady Kingsland at Dublin has a picture of madame Grammont by Petitot; I don't know who lady Kingsland is, whether rich or poor, but I know there is nothing I would not give for such a picture. I wish you would hunt it; and, if the dame is above temptation, do try if you could obtain a copy in water-colours, if there is any body at Dublin could execute it. The duchess of Portland has lately enriched me exceedingly; nine portraits of the court of Louis Quatorze! Lord Portland brought them over; they hung in the nursery at Bulstrode; the children amused themselves with shooting at them. I have got them, but I will tell you no more, you don't deserve it; you write to me as if I were your godfather: "Honoured sir, I am brave and well, my cousin George is well, we drink your health every night, and beg your blessing." This is the sum total of all your letters. I thought in a new country, and with your spirits and humour, you could have found something to tell me. I shall only ask you now when you return; but I declare I will not correspond with you: I don't write letters to divert myself, but in expectation of returns; in short, you are extremely in disgrace with me; I have measured my letters for some time, and for the future will answer you paragraph for paragraph. You yourself don't seem to find letter-writing so amusing as to pay itself. Adieu! Yours ever. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Arlington-street, Feb. 2, 1762. I SCOLDED you in my last, but I shall forgive you if you return soon to England, as you talk of doing; for though you are 2 Nicholas Barnewall, third viscount Kingsland, married Mary, daughter of Frances Jennings, sister to the celebrated duchess of Marlborough, by George count Hamilton-" by which marriage," says Walpole elsewhere, "the pictures I saw at Tarvey, lord Kingsland's house, came to him. I particularly recollect the portraits of count Hamilton and his brother Anthony, and two of madame Grammont, one taken in her youth, the other in advanced age." [Ed.] an abominable correspondent, and only write to beg letters, you are good company, and I have a notion I shall still be glad to see you. 1 Lady Mary Wortley is arrived; I have seen her; I think her avarice, her dirt, and her vivacity are all increased. Her dress, like her languages, is a galimatias of several countries; the ground-work rags, and the embroidery nastiness. She needs no cap, no handkerchief, no gown, no petticoat, no shoes. An old black-laced hood represents the first; the fur of a horseman's coat, which replaces the third serves for the second; a dimity petticoat is deputy, and officiates for the fourth, and slippers act the part of the last. When I was at Florence, and she was expected there, we were drawing Sortes Virgilianas for her; we literally drew Insanam vatem aspicies. It would have been a stronger prophecy now, even than it was then. 2 You told me not a word of Mr. Macnaughton, and I have a great mind to be as coolly indolent about our famous ghost in Cock-lane. Why should one steal half an hour from one's The celebrated lady Mary Pierrepoint, daughter of Evelyn, duke of Kingston, married to Edward Wortley Montagu, esq., the eldest son of the hon. Sidney Montagu, second son of Edward first earl of Sandwich, who married Anne, daughter and heir of sir Francis Wortley, bart., of a very ancient family, seated at Wortley, county York, from the Conquest, who was obliged, according to the settlement of the Wortley estate, to take the name of Wortley. Mr. Wortley died in 1761; lady Mary, 21st August in the following year. They had one son, Edward, who was disinherited; and one daughter, Mary, on whom the Wortley property devolved. She married, 24th August 1736, John, third earl of Bute, and was created baroness Mount Stuart, with remainder to her issue male by the earl. [Ed.] 2 John Macnaughton, esq., executed in December, 1761, for the murder of Miss Knox, daughter of Andrew Knox, esq., of Prehen, M.P. for Donegal. Macnaughton, who had ruined himself by gambling, sought to replenish his fortune by marriage with this young lady, who had considerable expectations; but as her friends would not consent to their union, and he failed both in inveigling her into a secret marriage, and in compelling her by the suits which he commenced in the ecclesiastical courts to ratify an alleged promise of marriage, he revenged himself by shooting her while riding in a carriage with her father. [Ed.] 3 The affair of the Cock-lane ghost, a piece of imposture, arising as |