was a Captain Maggett, that is obliged to lie in the room every night with him. When first he was introduced to him, he made him come to his bedside, where he lay in a hundred flannel waistcoats, and a furred night-gown, took him in his arms, and gave him a long embrace, that absolutely suffocated him. He will speak nothing but French; insists upon it that Maggett is a Frenchman, and calls him mon cher Capitaine Magot (you know Magot is a monkey.) At his head lie two Highland women, at his feet two Highland men. By his bed-side is

a close-stool, to which he rises two or three times in a night, and always says,—Ah, mon cher Capitaine Magot! vous m'excuserez, mais la Nature demande que je chie! He is to be impeached by the House of Commons, because not being actually in arms, it would otherwise be necessary that the jury of Inverness should find a Bill of Indictment against him, which it is very sure they would

Lovat's Tragedy is over. ** I must tell you an excessive good thing of George Selwyn. Some women were scolding him for going to see the execution, and asked him how he could be such a barbarian, to see the head cut off?'

Nay, (says he) if that was such a crime, I am sure I have made amends, for I went to see it sewed on again." When he was at the undertaker's, as soon as they had stitched him together, and were going to put the body into the coffin, George, in my Lord Chancellor's voice, said," My Lord Lovat, your lordship may rise." See Suffolk Letters, vol. i. p. 189. Croker's ed. of Boswell, vol. i. p. 155. Walpole's Letters to H. Mann, vol. ii. p. 205, Lett. clxxiii.—

Ed.

not do. When the Duke returned to Edinburgh they refused to admit Kingston's Light Horse, and talked of their privileges, but they came in sword in hand, and replied, that when the Pretender was at their gates, they had said nothing of their privileges. The Duke rested some hours there, but refused to see the magistracy. I believe you may think it full time, that I close my budget of stories: Mr. Walpole I have seen a good deal, and shall do a good deal more, I suppose, for he is looking for a house somewhere about Windsor* during the Summer. All is mighty free, and even friendly more than one could expect. You remember a paper in the Museum on + Message-Cards, which he told me was Fielding's, and asked my opinion about it was his own, and so was the Advertisement on Good Breeding, that made us laugh so. Mr. Ashton I have had several conversations with, and do really believe he shews himself to me, such as he really is: I don't tell you, I like him ever the better for it; but that may be my fault, not his. The Pelhams lie very hard at his stomach; he is not 40 yet, but he is 31, he says, and thinks it

* See Walpole's Letters to Mann, vol. ii. p. 172. I have taken a pretty house at Windsor, and am going there for the remainder of the Summer. I have taken a small house here within the Castle!-Ed.

+ Published in Walpole's Works, vol. i. p. 132, and No. II. of the Museum, April, 1746.—Ed.

See Walpole's Works, vol. i. p. 141, and No. V. of the Museum, May, 1746.—Ed.

his duty to be married. One thing of that kind is just broke off; she had £12,000 in her own hands. This is a profound secret, but I not conceiving that he told it me as such, happened to tell it to Stonhewer, who told it to Lyne, who told it to Ashton again, all in the space of three hours, whereby I incurred a scolding; so pray don't let me fall under a second, and lose all my hopes of rising in the church. He is still as I said, resolute to marry out of hand; only two things he is terrified at, lest she should not breed, and lest she should love him : I comforted him, by saying there was no danger of either.

of her.

The Muse, I doubt, is gone; and has left me in far worse company: if she returns you will hear You see I have left no room for a catalogue, which is a sort of policy, for it's hardly possible my memory should supply one: I will try by next time, which will be soon, if I hear from you. your curiosity require any more circumstances of these tryals *** will see *** find some. * * *

My best compliments to the little man of the world.

Adieu, my dear Wharton,

Believe me very truly yours,

T. GRAY.

Stoke, Sunday, 13th August, 1746.

X. MR. GRAY TO MR. WHARTON.

MY DEAR WHARTON,

WHAT can one say to these things? if it had been in the power of lawyers to interpret into common sense, statutes made by old monks,or monk-directed old women, we might have hoped for a more favourable answer to our queries; as it is I fear they may have done more hurt than good: all I know is this, that I should rejoice poor T. had some place to rest the sole of his foot in; and I flatter myself you will never omit any thing in your power to support his little interest, among a people, with whom you first raised it. I would gladly know the time of your audit, for I would be at Cambridge by that time if I could. Mr. Walpole has taken a house in Windsor, and I see him usually once a week; but I think that will hardly detain me beyond the time I proposed to myself. He is at present gone to town, to perform the disagreeable task of presenting and introducing about a young Florentine, the Marquis Rinuccini,* who comes recommended to him. The Duke + is here at his lodge with three women, and three Aid-de-camps;

* See Walpole's Letters to Mann, vol. ii. p. 177, Letter clxiv.-Ed.

The Duke of Cumberland.

and the country swarms with people.

He goes to races and they make a ring about him, as at a bearbaiting; and no wonder, for they do the same at Vauxhall and Ranelagh. At this last, somebody was telling me, they heard a man lamenting to some women of his acquaintance, and saying, how he had been up close to him, and he never repented any thing so much in his life, as that he did not touch him.*

of

I am not altogether of your opinion, as to your Historical consolation in time of trouble. A calm melancholy it may produce, a stiller sort of despair, (and that only in some circumstances and on some constitutions) but I doubt no real content or comfort can ever arise in the human mind, but from Hope.+ Old Balmerino, when he had read his paper to the people, pulled off his spectacles, spit upon his handkerchief, and wiped them clean for

* But see Walpole's Memoirs, p. 68, 86. See Mem. de Bezenval, vol. i. p. 79.—Ed.

son,

+ I have not read all the aphorisms, or maxims of Johnbut several of them, I read, that were trivial enough; for the sake of one, however, I forgive him the rest; he advises never to banish Hope entirely, because it is the cordial of life, although it be the greatest flatterer in the world. Such a measure of Hope as may not endanger my peace, by a disappointment, I would wish to cherish upon every subject, in which I am interested. But there lies the difficulty. A cure however, and the only one, for all the irregularities both of Hope and Fear, is found in submission to the will of God. Happy they that have it!-See Cowper's Letters by Hayley, vol. iii. p. 340.-Ed.