scripts and rarities by the cart-load, will make ample amends for all the aforesaid inconveniences. I this day past through the jaws of a great leviathan into the den of Dr. Templeman, superintendant of the reading-room, who congratulated himself on the sight of so much good company. We were, first, a man that writes for Lord Royston; 2dly, a man that writes for Dr. Burton, of York; 3dly, a man that writes for the Emperor of Germany, or Dr. Pocock, for he speaks the worst English I ever heard; 4thly, Dr. Stukely, who writes for himself, the very worst person he could write for; and, lastly, I, who only read to know if there be any thing worth writing, and that not without some difficulty. I find that they printed 1000 copies of the Harleian Catalogue, and have sold only fourscore; that they have £900 a year income, and spend 1300, and are building apartments for the under-keepers; so I expect in winter to see the collection advertised and set to auction. Have you read Lord Clarendon's Continuation of his History? Do you remember Mr. * *'s account of it before it came out? How well he recollected all the faults, and how utterly he forgot all the beauties: Surely the grossest taste is better than such a sort of delicacy, LETTER LXXXIV. MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON. DEAR DOCTOR, I CANNOT say any thing to you about Mason, whose motions I am entirely a stranger to, and have not once heard from him since he left London, till (the 3d of this month) a letter came, in which he tells me, that Gaskarth is at Aston with him, and that the latter end of the month, or the beginning of the next, he shall be in town, as he goes into waiting the last fortnight in October. Lord Holdernesse has sent him no less than four expresses (literally so) with public news, good and bad, which has made him of infinite importance in the eyes of that neighbourhood. I cannot pretend, therefore, to guess, whether he will be able to come to you. I am sorry to tell you, that I try in vain to execute your commission about tapestry. What is so bad as wry-mouthed histories? and yet for this they ask me at least double the price you talk of. I have seen nothing neither, that would please me at any price. Yet I allow tapestry (if at all tolerable) to be a very proper furniture for your sort of house; but doubt, if any bargain of that kind is to be met with, except at some old mansion-sale in the country, where people will disdain tapestry, because they hear that paper is all the fashion. Stonehewer has been in Northamptonshire till now; as you told me the subject your letter, I did not send it thither to him, besides that, he was every day expected in town. At last he is come, and has it, but I have not yet seen him; he is gone to day (I believe) of to Portsmouth to receive a Morocco Ambassador, but returns very shortly. There is one advantage in getting into your Abbey at Christmas time, that it will be at its worst, and if you can bear it then, you need not fear for the rest of the year. Mr. Walpole has lately made a new bed-chamber, which as it is in the best taste of any thing he has yet done, and in your own Gothic way, I must decribe a little. You enter by a peaked door at one corner of the room (out of a narrow winding passage, you may be sure) into an alcove, in which the bed is to stand, formed by a screen of pierced work opening by one large arch in the middle to the rest of the chamber, which is lighted at the other end by a bow-window of three days, whose tops are of rich painted glass in mosaic. The cieling is covered and fretted in star and quatrefoil compartments, with roses at the intersections, all is papier maché. The chimney on your left is the high altar in the cathedral of Rouen (from whence the screen also is taken) consisting of a low surbased arch between two octagon towers, whose pinnacles almost reach the cieling, all of nich-work; the chairs and dressing-table are real carved ebony, picked up at auctions. The hangings uniform, purple paper, hung all over with the court of Henry the VIII. copied after the Holbeins in the Queen's Closet at Kensington, in black and gold frames. The bed is to be either from Burleigh (for Lord Exeter is newfurnishing it, and means to sell some of his original household stuff) of the rich old tarnished embroidery; or if that is not to be had, and it must be new, it is to be a cut velvet with a dark purple pattern on a stone-colour satin ground, and deep mixed fringes and tassels. There's for you, but I want you to see it. In the mean time I live in the Museum, and write volumes of antiquity. I have got (out of the original Ledgerbook of the Signet) King Richard the Third's oath to Elizabeth, late calling herself Queen of England; to prevail upon her to come out of sanctuary with her five daughters. His grant to Lady Hastings and her son, dated six weeks after he had cut off her husband's head. A letter to his mother, another to his chancellor, to persuade his solicitor general not to marry Jane Shore then in Ludgate by his command. Sir Thomas Wyat's Defence at his trial, when accused by Bishop Bonner of high-treason; Lady Purbeck and her son's remarkable case, and several more odd things unknown to our historians. When I come home I have a great heap of the Conway Papers * (which is a secret) to read, and make out. In short, I am up to the ears. The fish you mention is so accurately described, that I know it at sight. It is the Ink-fish, or Loligo of the Romans. In Greek, Teufòs; in Italian, Calamaio; in French, Calmar. You will find it ranged by Linnæus in the class of Vermes, the order of Molusca, the genus of Sepia, No. 4, page 659. The smaller ones are eaten as a delicacy fried, with their own ink for sauce, by the Italians and others. You may see it in Aldrovandus. I do not see much myself of the face of nature here, but I enquire. Wheat was cutting in Kent the 23d of July, the 25th at Enfield. The 27th, wheat, barley, and oats cutting all at once about Windsor; the forward peas all got in, ground ploughed and turnips sowed. 9th of August, harvest still continued in Buckinghamshire; the 27th, about Kennington, it was just over, being delayed for want of hands; in some places, 50 miles from London, it is but just over now for the same * The Conway Papers in the Reign of James I. See Walpole's Letters, Vol. 5. p. 61. "I am still in the height of my impatience for the chest of old papers from Ragley, which either by the fault of their servants or the waggoner, is not yet arrived. I shall go to London again on Monday in quest of it; and in truth think so much about it, that when I first heard of the victory this morning, I rejoiced, as we were likely now to recover the Palatinate.”—Ed. reason. The 3d of August, catharine-pears, muscle-plums, and small black cherries were sold in wheelbarrows. Filberds in plenty the 8th. Mulberries and fine green-gage plums the 19th. Fine nectarines and peaches the 27th. The 4th of September, melons and perdrigon-plums. The 8th, walnuts 20 a penny. This is all I know about fruit. My weather is not very complete. July 20, 1759. London. Thermometer 5 in the Afternoon, at 79. 29 Wind N.N.W. brisk at noon 69. ditto 70. 28 Wind N. fair, white flying clouds, 9 in morning, 68. S.S.W. still, and cloudy sunshine, ditto 30 Gloomy and hot, W.S.W. shower at night, 81 Eight hours rain, S.W. moonshine night ditto 70. August 1 Cloudy, W.S.W. brisk and chill, bright even. ditto 66. 2 Cloudy sun, W.S.W. chill, a little rain, night clear, do. 65. 3 Fine, wind N.W. cool ditto 64. 4 Gloomy, S.W. high, seven hours heavy rain ditto 64. ditto 66. ditto . 76. ditto . 74. . ditto. 70. ditto . 66. 7 Wind S.W. fair 8 W. clear and hot 9 S.S.W. very hot 10 11 12 N.N.W. small rain, evening fine |