fear it should hereafter be taxed with changing sides, it lets lord Bute be abused every day, though he has not had time to do the least wrong thing. His levee was crowded. Bothmar, the Danish minister, said, "La chaleur est excessive!" George Selwyn replied, "Pour se mettre au froid, il faut aller chez Monsieur le Duc de Newcastle!" There was another George not quite so tender. George Brudenel was passing by; somebody in the mob said, "What is the matter here?" Brudenel answered, "Why, there is a Scotchman got into the treasury, and they can't get him out." The archbishop, conscious of not having been at Newcastle's last levee, and ashamed of appearing at lord Bute's first, pretended he had been going by in his way from Lambeth, and, upon inquiry, found it was lord Bute's levee, and so had thought he might as well go in-I am glad he thought he might as well tell it. The mob call Buckingham-house, Holyrood-house; in short, every thing promises to be like times I can remember. Lord Anson is dead; poor Mrs. Osborn will not break her heart; I should think lord Melcomb' will succeed to the Admiralty. Adieu! Yours ever. TO THE REV. MR. COLE. Strawberry-hill, July 29, 1762. SIR, I fear you will have thought me neglectful of the visit you was so good as to offer me for a day or two at this place: the truth is, I have been in Somersetshire on a visit, which was protracted much longer than I intended. I am now returned, and shall be glad to see you as soon as you please, Sunday or Monday next, if you like either, or any other day you will name. I cannot defer the pleasure of seeing you any longer, though to my mortification you will find Strawberry-hill with its worst looks-not a blade of grass! My workmen, too, have disappointed me; they have been in the association for forcing their 1 Lord Halifax succeeded to the admiralty: lord Melcomb died 28th July, 1762. His title became extinct. A considerable estate went to earl Temple, and a patent place of £2,000 a year to the sons of the right hon. Henry Fox. [Ed.] masters to raise their wages, and but two are yet returned-so you must excuse litter and shavings. I am, sir, Your obedient servant. MADAM, TO THE COUNTESS OF AILESBURY. Strawberry-hill, July 31, 1762. Magnanimous as the fair soul of your ladyship is, and plaited with superabundance of Spartan fortitude, I felicitate my own good fortune who can circle this epistle with branches of the gentle olive, as well as crown it with victorious laurel. This pompous paragraph, madam, which in compliment to my lady Lyttelton I have penned in the style of her lord, means no more, than that I wish you joy of the castle of Waldeck,1 and more joy on the peace, which I find every body thinks is concluded. In truth, I still have my doubts; and yesterday came news, which, if my lord Bute does not make haste, may throw a little rub in the way. In short, the czar is dethroned. Some give the honour to his wife; others, who add the little circumstance of his being murdered too, ascribe the revolution to the archbishop of Novorgorod, who, like other priests, thinks assassination a less affront to Heaven than three Lutheran churches. I hope the latter is the truth; because in the honeymoonhood of lady C***'s tenderness, I don't know but she might miscarry at the thought of a wife preferring a crown, and scandal says, a regiment of grenadiers, to her husband. I have little meaning in naming lady Lyttelton and lady C***, who I think are at Park-place. Was not there a promise that you all three would meet Mr. Churchill and lady Mary here in the beginning of August? Yes, indeed there was, and I put in my claim.-Not confining your heroic and musical ladyship to a day or a week; my time is at your command: and I wish the rain was at mine; for, if you or it do not come soon, I shall not have a leaf left. Strawberry is browner than lady B*** F***. I was grieved, madam, to miss seeing you in town on Monday, 1 At the taking of which Mr. Conway had assisted. [Or.] particularly as I wished to settle this party. If you let me know when it will be your pleasure, I will write to my sister. I am your ladyship's most faithful servant. To the EARL of STRAFFORD. Strawberry-hill, August 5, 1762. MY DEAR LORD, As you have correspondents of better authority in town, I don't pretend to send you great events, and I know no small ones. Nobody talks of any thing under a revolution. That in Russia alarms me, lest lady * * * should fall in love with the czarina, who has deposed her lord * * *, and set out for Petersburgh. We throw away a whole summer in writing Britons and North Britons; the Russians change sovereigns faster than Mr. Wilkes can choose a motto for a paper. What years were spent here in controversy on the abdication of King James, and the legitimacy of the pretender! Commend me to the czarina.1 They doubted, that is, her husband did, whether her children were of genuine blood-royal. She appealed to the Preobazinsky guards, excellent casuists; and, to prove duke Paul heir to the crown, assumed it herself. The proof was compendious and unanswerable. I trust you know that Mr. Conway has made a figure by taking the castle of Waldeck. There has been another action to prince Ferdinand's advantage, but no English were engaged. You tantalize me by talking of the verdure of Yorkshire; we have not had a tea-cup-full of rain till to-day for these six weeks. Corn has been reaped that never wetted its lips; not a blade of grass; the leaves yellow and falling as in the end of October. In short, Twickenham is rueful; I don't believe Westphalia 1 The proclamation issued on the accession of the empress Catherine, contains the announcement of the death of the emperor Paul, in very extraordinary terms. "But to our great regret and affliction we learned yesterday evening, that by the permission of the Almighty, the late emperor departed this life.” * which is followed by a request to her subjects, "to consider this unexpected and sudden death as a special effect of the divine providence. [Ed.] looks more barren. Nay, we are forced to fortify ourselves, too. Hanworth was broken open last night, though the family was all there. Lord Vere lost a silver standish, an old watch, and his writing-box with fifty pounds in it. They broke it open in the park, but missed a diamond ring, which was found, and the telescope, which by the weight of the case they had fancied full of money. Another house in the middle of Sunbury has had the same fate. I am mounting cannon on my battlements. Your chateau, I hope, proceeds faster than mine. The carpenters are all associated for increase of wages; I have had but two men at work these five weeks. You know, to be sure, that lady Mary Wortley cannot live. Adieu, my dear lord! Your most faithful servant. SIR, TO THE REV. MR. COLE. Strawberry-hill, August 5, 1762. As I had been dilatory in accepting your kind offer of coming hither, I proposed it as soon as I returned. As we are so burnt, and as my workmen have disappointed me, I am not quite sorry that I had not the pleasure of seeing you this week. Next week I am obliged to be in town on business. If you please, therefore, we will postpone our meeting till the first of September; by which time, I flatter myself we shall be green, and I shall be able to shew you my additional apartment to more advantage. Unless you forbid me, I will expect you, sir, the very beginning of next month. In the mean time, I will only thank you for the obliging and curious notes you have sent me, which will make a great figure in my second edition. I am, Sir, Your much obliged humble servant. To GEORGE MONTAGU, Esq. Strawberry-hill, August 10, 1762. I HAVE received your letter from Greatworth since your return, but I do not find that you have got one which I sent you to the Vine, enclosing one directed for you: Mr. Chute says you did not mention hearing from me there. I left your button, too, in town with old Richard to be transmitted to you. Our drought continues, though we have had one handsome storm. I have been reading the story of Phaeton in the Metamorphoses; it is a picture of Twickenham. Ardet Athos, taurusque Cilix, &c.; mount Richmond burns, parched is Petersham, Parnassusque biceps, dry is Pope's grot, the nymphs of Clivden are burning to blackmoors, their faces are already as glowing as a cinder, Cycnus is changed into a swan; quodque suo Tagus amne vehit, fluit ignibus aurum; my gold fishes are almost molten. Yet this conflagration is nothing to that in Russia: what do you say to a czarina mounting her horse, and marching at the head of fourteen thousand men, with a large train of artillery, to dethrone her husband? Yet, she is not the only virago in that country; the conspiracy was conducted by the sister of the czar's mistress, a heroine under twenty! They have no fewer than two czars now in coops-that is, supposing these gentle damsels have murdered neither of them. Turkey will become a moderate government; one must travel to frozen climates if one chooses to see revolutions in perfection Here's room for meditation even to madness: the deposed emperor possessed Muscovy, was heir to Sweden, and the true heir of Denmark; all the northern crowns centred in his person; one hopes he is in a dungeon, that is, one hopes he is not assassinated. You cannot crowd more matter into a lecture of morality than is comprehended in those few words. This is the fourth czarina that you and I have seen; to be sure, as historians, we have not passed our time ill. Mrs. Ann Pitt, who, I suspect, envies the heroine of twenty a little, says, "The czarina has only robbed Peter to pay Paul ;" and I do not believe that her brother, Mr. William Pitt, feels very happy, that he cannot immediately dispatch a squadron to the Baltic to reinstate the |