and sent to Joe several times, that I will not trouble myself at all about Trim.  I wish them their liberty, but they do not deserve it:  so tell Joe, and send to him.  I am mighty happy with this rain:  I was at the end of my patience, but now I live again.  This cannot go till Saturday; and perhaps I may go out of town with Lord Shelburne and Lady Kerry to-morrow for two or three days.  Lady Kerry has written to desire it; but tomorrow I shall know farther.—­O this dear rain, I cannot forbear praising it:  I never felt myself to be revived so in my life.  It lasted from three till five, hard as a horn, and mixed with hail.

8.  Morning.  I am going to town, and will just finish this there, if I go into the country with Lady Kerry and Lord Shelburne:  so morrow, till an hour or two hence.—­In town.  I met Cairnes, who, I suppose, will pay me the money; though he says I must send him the bill first, and I will get it done in absence.  Farewell, etc. etc.

LETTER 25.

Chelsea, June 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20.

I have been all this time at Wycombe, between Oxford and London, with Lord Shelburne, who has the squire’s house at the town’s end, and an estate there in a delicious country.  Lady Kerry and Mrs. Pratt were with us, and we passed our time well enough; and there I wholly disengaged myself from all public thoughts, and everything but MD, who had the impudence to send me a letter there; but I’ll be revenged:  I will answer it.  This day, the 20th, I came from Wycombe with Lady Kerry after dinner, lighted at Hyde Park Corner, and walked:  it was twenty-seven miles, and we came it in about five hours.

21.  I went at noon to see Mr. Secretary at his office, and there was Lord Treasurer:  so I killed two birds, etc., and we were glad to see one another, and so forth.  And the Secretary and I dined at Sir William Wyndham’s,[1] who married Lady Catharine Seymour, your acquaintance, I suppose.  There were ten of us at dinner.  It seems, in my absence, they had erected a Club,[2] and made me one; and we made some laws to-day, which I am to digest and add to, against next meeting.  Our meetings are to be every Thursday.  We are yet but twelve:  Lord Keeper and Lord Treasurer were proposed; but I was against them, and so was Mr. Secretary, though their sons are of it, and so they are excluded; but we design to admit the Duke of Shrewsbury.  The end of our Club is, to advance conversation and friendship, and to reward deserving persons with our interest and recommendation.  We take in none but men of wit or men of interest; and if we go on as we begin, no other Club in this town will be worth talking of.  The Solicitor-General, Sir Robert Raymond, is one of our Club; and I ordered him immediately to write to your Lord Chancellor in favour of Dr. Raymond:  so tell Raymond, if you see him; but I believe this