Grace of Manchester, they say, is to be chamberlain, and Mr. Stone, treasurer; the Duchess of Ancaster and Lady Bolingbroke of her bedchamber:  these I do not know are certain, but hitherto all seems well chosen.  Miss Molly Howe, one of the pretty Bishops, and a daughter of Lady Harry Beauclerc, are talked of for maids of honour.  The great apartment at St. James’s is enlarging, and to be furnished with the pictures from Kensington :  this does not portend a new palace.

In the midst of all this novelty and hurry, my mind is very differently employed.  They expect every minute the news of a battle between Soubise and the hereditary Prince.  Mr. Conway, I believe, is in the latter army; judge if I can be thinking much of espousals and coronations!  It is terrible to be forced to sit still, expecting such an event; in one’s own room one is not obliged to be a hero; consequently, I tremble for one that is really a hero.

Mr. Hamilton, your secretary, has been to see me to-day; I am quite ashamed not to have prevented him.  I will go to-morrow with all the speeches I can muster.

I am sorry neither you nor your brother are quite well, but shall be content if my Pythagorean sermons have any weight with you.  You go to Ireland to make the rest of your life happy; don’t go to fling the rest of it away.  Good night!

Mr. Chute is gone to his Chutehood.

Letter 83 To The Countess Of Ailesbury.  Strawberry Hill, July 20, 1761. (page 134)

I blush, dear Madam, on observing that half my letters to your ladyship are prefaced with thanks for presents:-don’t mistake; I am not ashamed of thanking you, but of having so many occasions for it.  Monsieur Hop has sent me the piece of china:  I admire it as much as possible, and intend to like him as much as ever I can but hitherto I have not seen him, not having been in town since he arrived.

Could I have believed that the Hague would so easily compensate for England? nay, for Park-place!  Adieu, all our agreeable suppers!  Instead of Lady Cecilia’s(170) French songs, we shall have Madame Welderen(171) quavering a confusion of d’s and t’s, b’s and p’s—­Bourquoi s`cais du blaire?(172)—­Worse than that, I expect to meet all my relations at your house, and Sir Samson Gideon instead of Charles Townshend.  You will laugh like Mrs. Tipkin(173) when a Dutch Jew tells you that he bought at two and a half per cent. and sold at four.  Come back, if you have any taste left:  you had better be here talking robes, ermine, and tissue, Jewels and tresses, as all the world does, than own you are corrupted.  Did you receive my notification of the new Queen?  Her mother is dead, and she will not be here before the end of August.

My mind is much more at peace about Mr. Conway than it was.  Nobody thinks there will be a battle, as the French did not attack them when both armies shifted camps; and since that, Soubise has entrenched himself up to the whiskers:—­whiskers I think he has, I have been so afraid of him!  Yet our hopes of meeting are still very distant:  the peace does not advance; and if Europe has a stiuer left in its pockets, the war will continue; though happily all parties have been so scratched, that they only sit and look anger at one another, like a dog and cat that don’t care to begin again.