[Footnote 1:  The idea of Voltaire’s fable in “Zadig,” c. 20, is believed to have been borrowed from Parnell’s “Hermit,” but Mr. Wright suggests that it was more probably taken from one of the “Contes Devots, de l’Hermite qu’un ange conduisit dans le Siecle,” which is published in the “Nouveau Recueil de Fabliaux et Contes.”]

[Footnote 2:  The letter of Voltaire to which the above is a reply, contained the following opinion of Walpole’s “Historic Doubts";—­“Avant le depart de ma lettre, j’ai eu le tems, Monsieur, de lire votre Richard Trois.  Vous seriez un excellent attornei general; vous pesez toutes les probabilites; mais il paroit que vous avez une inclination secrete pour ce bossu.  Vous voulez qu’il ait ete beau garcon, et meme galant homme.  Le benedictin Calmet a fait une dissertation pour prouver que Jesus Christ avait un fort beau visage.  Je veux croire avec vous, que Richard Trois n’etait ni si laid, ni si mechant, qu’on le dit; mais je n’aurais pas voulu avoir affaire a lui.  Votre rose blanche et votre rose rouge avaient de terribles epines pour la nation.

“Those gracious kings are all a pack of rogues.  En lisant l’histoire des York et des Lancastre, et de bien d’autres, on croit lire l’histoire des voleurs de grand chemin.  Pour votre Henri Sept, il n’etait que coupeur de bourses.  Be a minister or an anti-minister, a lord or a philosopher, I will be, with an equal respect, Sir, &c.”]

ARRIVAL OF THE KING OF DENMARK—­HIS POPULARITY WITH THE MOB.

TO THE EARL OF STRAFFORD.

STRAWBERRY HILL, Aug. 16, 1768.

As you have been so good, my dear lord, as twice to take notice of my letter, I am bound in conscience and gratitude to try to amuse you with anything new.  A royal visitor, quite fresh, is a real curiosity—­by the reception of him, I do not think many more of the breed will come hither.  He came from Dover in hackney-chaises; for somehow or other the Master of the Horse happened to be in Lincolnshire; and the King’s coaches having received no orders, were too good subjects to go and fetch a stranger King of their own heads.  However, as his Danish Majesty travels to improve himself for the good of his people, he will go back extremely enlightened in the arts of government and morality, by having learned that crowned heads may be reduced to ride in a hired chaise.[1]

[Footnote 1:  The King, travelling, as is usual with kings, incognito, assumed the title of the Comte de Travendahl.]

By another mistake, King George happened to go to Richmond about an hour before King Christiern arrived in London.  An hour is exceedingly long; and the distance to Richmond still longer; so that with all the dispatch that could possibly be made, King George could not get back to his capital till next day at noon.  Then, as the road from his closet at St. James’s to the King of Denmark’s apartment on t’other side of the palace is about thirty