insist on it that you would take from Child whatever money they may come to. If [you] consign them to the English consul at Venice directed to me, they will come very safe.

TO THE COUNTESS OF BUTE.

[About September, 1748.]

It is very true, my dear child, we cannot now maintain a family with the product of a flock, though I do not doubt. the present sheep afford as much wool and milk as any of their ancestors, and it is certain our natural wants are not more numerous than formerly; but the world is past its infancy, and will no longer be contented with spoon meat. Time has added great improvements, but those very improvements have introduced a train of artificial necessities. A collective body of men make a gradual progress in understanding, like that of a single individual. When I reflect on the vast increase of useful, as well as speculative, knowledge the last three hundred years has produced, and that the peasants of this age have more conveniences than the first emperors of Rome had any notion of, I imagine we are now arrived at that period which answers to fifteen. I cannot think we are older, when I recollect the many palpable follies which are still (almost) universally persisted in I place that of war amongst the most glaring, being fully as senseless as the boxing of schoolboys, and whenever we come to man's estate (perhaps a thousand years hence), I do not doubt it will appear as ridiculous as the pranks of unlucky lads. Several discoveries will then be made, and several truths made clear, of which we have now no more idea than the ancients had of the circulation of the blood, or the optics of Sir I. Newton.

You will believe me in a very dull humour when I fill my letter with such whims, and indeed so I am. I have just received the news of Sir J. Gray's departure, and am exceedingly vexed I did not know of his designed journey. I suppose he would have carried my token;' and now I

Lady Mary sent a present annually to one of her grandchildren.-D.

utterly despair of an opportunity of sending it, and therefore enclose a note on Child for the value of it.

When you see Lady Rich, pray do not fail to present my thanks and compliments. I desire the same to everybody that thinks it worth while to inquire after me. You mention a Colonel Rich as her son; I thought he had been killed in Scotland. You see my entire ignorance of all English affairs, and consequently, whatever you tell me of my acquaintance, has the merit of novelty to me, who correspond with nobody but yourself and Lady Oxford, whose retirement and ill health does not permit her to send me much news.

I expect a letter of thanks from my granddaughter: I wrote to my grandmother long before her age. I desire you would not see it, being willing to judge of her genius. I know I shall read it with some partiality, which I cannot avoid to all that is yours, as I am your most affectionate mother.

My compliments to Lord Bute.'

TO THE COUNTESS OF OXFORD.

[Came to London, Jan. 18th, O.S., Monday; received at Welbeck, Jan. 21st, Thursday.]

Nov. 29, N.S. [1748].

DEAREST MADAM,-I received yesterday the most sensible pleasure, by your obliging letter: it is impossible to tell you what joy the sight of your ladyship's hand gave me, which was very much heightened by the account of your health and continued goodness to me. I believe the air you are in is the best in England, and I do not doubt but the tranquillity and regularity of your life will re-establish your constitution, which is naturally a very good one, and only hurt by melancholy reflections, which I hope you will

[In Hunter's summaries is one immediately following that given in our footnote at p. 176, thus:

"TO THE COUNTESS OF Oxford,

"Same subject" (i.e. regret at her silence)].

"Oct. 23, N. S., 1748.

never more have any occasion for. It is no diminution of the Duchess of Portland's merit, to say you deserve whatever affection she can pay, since those who do their duty can never be too much valued: I sincerely share in the satisfaction you have in seeing that she performs hers to you, it is the clearest proof of her good sense and good mind may you long be happy in one another! I am glad my daughter enjoys her conversation, which is in every sense an honour and advantage.

I have bought the house I live in, which, I suppose, you will imagine little better than a house of office when I talk of my purchasing, and indeed it has cost me little more than the price of one; but, to say truth, it is not much more than the shell of a palace, which was built not above forty years ago, but the master of it dying before it was quite finished, and falling into hands that had many others, it has been wholly neglected; but being well built, the walls are perfectly sound, and I amuse myself in fitting it up. I will take the liberty of sending your ladyship a plan of it, which is far from magnificent, but I believe you will be of my opinion, that it is one of the most convenient you ever saw. The owners of it looking upon it as only an expense to them, were pleased to part with it for a trifle. I won't make you any excuses for troubling you with this long account of my little affairs; your friendship and good nature, I know, gives you a concern in all that regards your ladyship's

Ever faithful and affectionate humble servant.

To MR. WORTLEY MONTAGU.

Dec. 25, N.S. [1748].

I HOPE I have now regulated our correspondence in a manner more safe than by Holland. I have sent a large collection of letters to you and my daughter, which have all miscarried; neither have I had one line from either of some months.

I am now assured by one of the principal merchants here, that all those directed to Signor Isaac M. de Treves,

à Venezia, shall be carefully remitted, and I beg you would make use of that direction.

I was surprised not many days ago by a very extraordinary visit: it was from the Duchess of Guastalla, who you know is a princess of the house d'Armstadt, and reported to be near marriage with the King of Sardinia. I confess it was an honour I could easily have spared, she coming attended with the greatest part of her court; her grandmaster, who is brother to Cardinal Valenti, the first lady of her bed-chamber, four pages, and a long et cetera of inferior servants, besides her guards. She entered with an easy French air, and told me, since I would not oblige her by coming to her court, she was resolved to come to me, and eat a salad of my raising, having heard much fame of my gardening. You may imagine I gave her as good a supper as I could. She was (or seemed to be) extremely pleased with an English sack-posset of my ordering. I owned to her freely that my house was much at her service, but it was impossible for me to find beds for all her suite. She said she intended to return when the moon rose, which was an hour after midnight. In the mean time I sent for the violins to entertain her attendants, who were very well pleased to dance, while she and her grandmaster and I played at piquet. She pressed me extremely to return with her to her jointure-house, where she now resides (all the furniture of Guastalla being sold). I excused myself on not daring to venture in the cold night fifteen miles, but promised I would not fail to pay her my acknowledgments for the great honour her highness had done me, in a very short time, and we parted very good friends. She said she intended this spring to retire into her native country. I did not take the liberty of mentioning to her the report of her being in treaty with the King of Sardinia, though it has been in the newspaper of Mantua; but I found an opportunity of hinting it to Signor Gonzagna, her grand-master, who told me the duchess would not have been pleased to talk of it, since, perhaps, there was nothing in it more than a friendship that had long been between them, and since her widowhood the king sends her an express every day.

I believe you'll wish this long story much shorter; but

I think you seemed to desire me to lengthen my letters, and I can have no greater pleasure than endeavouring to amuse you.1

TO THE COUNTESS OF OXFORD.

[Received at Welbeck, Monday, Feb. 27th, 1748, O.S.]

[Feb. 2, N.S., 1749.2]

DEAREST MADAM,-I received this day, the 2nd of February, N.S., the happiness of your ladyship's obliging letter of December 17th; it has relieved me from the great anxiety I was under in regard to your health. I have ever done you the justice (during this long interruption of our correspondence) of being persuaded you was incapable of forgetting me; or if sometimes my melancholy, joined with a consciousness of my own unworthiness, suggested to me a contrary thought, I presently corrected it, as not suited to that esteem you so well deserve from me. I hope the good air of Welbeck has entirely re-established your health; I should be ungrateful to Heaven to complain of mine, which is indeed better than I have reason to expect. I walk very much, I sometimes ride, I amuse myself with a little garden that I have made out of a vineyard; and if I could enjoy your ladyship's conversation, I should not regret a world in which I never had great pleasure, and have so little inclination to return to, that I do not even intend to see the new court which is expected at Parma, though it is but ten miles from hence.

Dearest madam, continue to me the honour of writing to me, and be assured that you can bestow your favours on no person who is more sensible of their value than

Your ladyship's most faithfully devoted humble servant. [ From the Hunter MSS.

"TO THE COUNTESS OF Oxford.

"It is now a year since I had the happiness of a line from your Ladyship."]

2 This is evidently the true date. Lady Oxford, in her memorandum, dates according to the ecclesiastical year.-T.