put a wig on, and old E * * * *, who had scratched hers off, Lady S * * *, the Dowager E * * *, and a Lady Say and Sele, with her tresses coal-black, and her hair coal-white.  Well! it was all delightful, but not half so charming as its being over.  The gabble one heard about it for six weeks before, and the fatigue of the day, could not well be compensated by a mere puppet-show; for puppet-show it was, though it cost a million.  The Queen is so gay that we shall not want sights; she has been at the Opera, the Beggar’s Opera and the Rehearsal, and two nights ago carried the King to Ranelagh.  In short, I am so miserable with losing my Duchess,(187) and you and Mr. Conway, that I believe, if you should be another six weeks without writing to me, I should come to the Hague and scold you in person—­for, alas! my dear lady, I have no hopes of seeing you here.  Stanley is recalled, is expected every hour.  Bussy goes tomorrow ; and Mr. Pitt is so impatient to conquer Mexico, that I don’t believe he will stay till my Lord Bristol can be ordered to leave Madrid.  I tremble lest Mr. Conway should not get leave to come—­nay, are we sure he would like to ask it? he was so impatient to get to the army, that I should not be surprised if he stayed there till every suttler and woman that follows the camp was come away.  You ask me if we are not in admiration of Prince Ferdinand.  In truth, we have thought very little of him.  He may outwit Broglio ten times, and not be half so much talked of as lord Talbot’ backing his horse down Westminster-hall.  The generality are not struck with any thing under a complete victory.  If you have a mind to be well with the mob of England, you must be knocked on the head like Wolfe, or bring home as many diamonds as Clive.  We live in a country where so many follies or novelties start forth every day, that we have not time to try a (general’s capacity by the rules of Polybius.

I have hardly left room for my obligations-to your ladyship, for my commissions at Amsterdam; to Mrs. Sally,(188) for her teapots, which are to stay so long at the Hague, that I fear they will have begot a whole set of china; and to Miss Conway and Lady George, for thinking of me.  Pray assure them of my re-thinking.  Adieu, dear Madam!  Don’t You think we had better write oftener and shorter.

(187) The Duchess of Grafton, who was abroad.

(188) Lady Ailesbury’s woman.

Letter 95 To George Montagu, Esq.  Arlington Street, Oct. 8, 1761. (page 151)

I cannot swear I wrote to you again to offer your brother the place for the coronation; but I was Confident I did, nay, I think so still:  my proofs are, the place remained vacant, and I sent to old Richard to inquire if Mr. John was not arrived.  He had no great loss, as the procession returned in the dark.