had during the winter. Again, Feb. 5, toward night, Therm. was down at 30 Deg. with a clear sky. The Snowdrops then beginning to blow in the garden. Next day was a little snow, but on the 11th and 12th fell a deep snow, (the weather not very cold), which however was melted on the 15th, and made a flood in the river. Next day the Thrush was singing, and the Rooks building. At and about London, instead of snow, they had heavy rains. On the 19th the red Hepatica blew, and next day the Primrose. The Crocus is now in full bloom. So ends my chronicle. My Oracle of State (who now and then utters a little, as far as he may with discretion) is a very slave and pack horse, that never breathes any air better than that of London; except like an apprentice on Sundays with his Master and Co.: however he is in health, and a very good boy. It is strange the turn that things have taken :-that the late Ministry should negociate a reconciliation with Lord Bute, and that Lord Temple should join them: that they should, after making their (bad) apologies, be received with a gracious kind of contempt, and told that his Lordship could enter into no political connections with them; that on the first division on the American business that happened in the House of Lords, they should however all join to carry a point against the Ministry, by a majority indeed of four only; but the Duke of York present, and making one: that when the Ministers expostulated in a proper place, they should be seriously assured the King would support them: that on a division, on an insignificant point to try their strength, in the House of Commons, they should again lose it by 12 majority: that they should persist nevertheless that * I believe Gray alludes to Mr. Stonehewer, the friend and Secretary of the Duke of Grafton.-Ed. Mr. Pitt should appear tanquam e Machiná, speak for three hours and a half, and assert the rights of the Colonies in their greatest latitude that the Minister should profess himself ready to act with, and even serve under him: that he should receive such a compliment with coldness, and a sort of derision: that Norton should move to send him to the Tower: that when the great questions came on, the Ministry should always carry their point at one, two, three in the morning, by majorities of 110 and 170, (Mr. Pitt entirely concurring with them, and the Tories, people of the Court, and many Placemen, even Lord G. Sackville, constantly voting against them): all these events are unaccountable on any principles of common sense. I attribute much of the singular part to the interposition of women, as rash as they are foolish. On Monday (I do not doubt, though as yet I do not certainly know it), the Bill to repeal the Stamp-Act went through that House, and to-day it is before the Lords, who surely will not venture to throw it out. that they would!—but after this important business is well over, there must be an eclaircissement. Some amends must be made, and some gracious condescensions insisted on, or else who would go on that really means to serve his country ! The D. of Bedford and Lord Temple were gone down to their villas, and I believe are not likely to come back. Lord Ches terfield, who had not been for many years at the House, came the other day to qualify himself, in order to have a Proxy that should vote with the Ministry. Somebody (I thought) made no bad application of those lines in Virgil, Lib. 6, v. 489:* "At Danaum proceres, Agamemnoniæq. Phalanges," &c. * At Danaûm proceres, Agamemnoniæq. phalanges, Oh, to Mr. Pitt's first appearance (for no one expected him) in the House. Turn to the place. Every thing is politics. There are no literary productions worth your notice, at least of our country. The French have finished their great Encyc. pædia in 17 volumes, but there are many flimsy articles very hastily treated, and great incorrectness of the press. There are now 13 volumes of Buffon's Natural History, and he has not come to the Monkies yet, who are a very numerous people. The * Life of Petrarch has entertained me; it is not well written, but very curious, and laid together from his own letters and the original writings of the 14th century. So that it takes in much of the history of those obscure times, and the characters of many remarkable persons. There are 2 vols. 4to. and another (unpublished yet) that will complete it. Mr. Walpole writes me now and then a long and lively letter from Paris, to which place he vent the last Summer, with the gout upon him; sometimes in his limbs; often in his stomach and head. He has got somehow well (not by means of the climate, one would think), goes to all public places, sees all the best company, and is very much in fashion. He says he sunk, like Queen Eleanor, at Charing Cross, and has risen * Memoires pour la Vie de François Petrarque, tirés de ses Œuvres, & des Auteurs Contemporains, par L'Abbé de Sade. 3 Tom. 4to. 1764 The Essay on the Life and Character of Petrarch, by F. Tytler, Lord Woodhouslee, is dírected against the Hypothesis of the Abbe de Sade, that the Laura of Petrarch was Laura de Noves, who married Hugh de Sade In a Note to the 6th Volume of his Roman History (p. 567) Gibbon sketches the character of this Work-"The Memoires sur la Vie de Petrarque (he says) form a copious, original, and entertaining Work, a labour of love, composed from the accurate study of Petrarch and his contemporaries. But the Hero is too often lost in the general history of the age, and the Author too often languishes in the affectation of politeness and gallantry."-Ed. again at Paris. He returns again in April; but his health is certainly in a deplorable state. Mad. de la Perriere is come over from the Hague to be Ministress at London: her fatherin-law Viry is now first Minister at Turin. I sat a morning with her before I left London: she is a prodigious fine lady, and a Catholick (though she did not expressly own it to me), not fatter than she was. She had a cage of foreign birds, and a piping bullfinch at her elbow, two little dogs on a cushion in her lap, a cockatoo on her shoulder, and a strong suspicion of rouge on her cheeks: they were all exceeding glad to see me, and I them. Pray tell me the history of your Winter, and present my respects to Mrs. Wharton. I hope Miss Wharton and Miss Peggy, with the assistance of sister Betty, make a great progress in Natural History. Recommend me to all their good graces, and believe me ever Truly yours. If you chance to see or send to Mr. and Mrs. Leighton, I will trouble you to make my compliments. I have never received the box of shells, though possibly it may wait for me at Mr. Jonathan's in town; where I shall be in April. Mr. Brown is well, and desires to be remembered to you and Mrs. Wharton, I have just heard there are like to be warm debates in the House of Lords, but that the Ministry will undoubtedly carry it in spite of them all. They say Lord Camden will soon be chancellor. LETTER CXXVII. MR. GRAY TO DR. WHARTON. DEAR DOCTOR, WHATEVER my pen may do, I am sure my thoughts expatiate no where oftener, or with more pleasure, than to Old Park. I hope you have made my peace with Miss Deborah. It is certain, whether her name were in my letter or not, she was as present to my memory as the rest of the little family; and I desire you would present her with two kisses in my name, and one a piece to all the others; for I shall take the liberty to kiss them all (great and small) as you are to be my proxy*. In spite of the rain, which I think continued with very short intervals till the beginning of this month, and quite effaced the summer from the year, I made a shift to pass May and June, not disagreeably, in Kent. I was surprised at the beauty of the road to Canterbury, which (I know not why) had not struck me in the same manner before. The whole country is a rich and well cultivated garden; orchards, cherry grounds, hop grounds, intermixed with corn and frequent villages, gentle risings covered with wood, and every where the Thames and Medway breaking in upon the landscape, with all their navigation. It was indeed * Some readers will think this paragraph very trifling; yet many, I hope, will take it as I give it, for a pleasing example of the amiableness of his domestic character.Mason. |