he would have trampled on sesterces like dirt, and provided the tribes did but erect statues enough for him, he was content with a bit of Sabine mutton; he would have preferred his little Tusculan villa, or the flattery of Caius Atticus at Baia, to the wealth of Croesus, or to the luxurious banquets of Lucullus.  Take care, there is not a Tory gentleman, if there is one left, who would not have laid the same wager twenty years ago on the disinterestedness of my Lord Bath.  Come, u tremble, you are so incorrupt yourself you will give the world Mr. Pitt was so too.  You adore him for what he has done for us; you bless him for placing England at the head of Europe, and you don’t hate him for infusing as much spirit into us, as if a Montague, Earl of Salisbury, was still at the head of our enemies.  Nothing could be more just.  We owe the recovery of our affairs to him, the splendour of our country, the conquest of Canada, Louisbourg, Guadaloupe, Africa, and the East.  Nothing is too much for such services; accordingly, I hope you will not think the barony of Chatham, and three thousand pounds a-year for three lives too much for my Lady Hester.  She has this pittance:  good night!

P. S. I told you falsely in my last that Lady Mary Wortley was arrived—­I cannot help it if my Lady Denbigh cannot read English in all these years, but mistakes Wrottesley for Wortley.

Letter 97 To The Countess Of Ailesbury.  Strawberry Hill, Oct. 10, 1761. (page 153)

I don’t know what business I had, madam, to be an economist:  it was out of’ character.  I wished for a thousand more drawings in that sale at Amsterdam, but concluded they would be very dear; and not having seen them, I thought it too rash to trouble your ladyship with a large commission.  I wish I could give you as good an account of your commission; but it is absolutely impracticable.  I employed one of the most sensible and experienced men in the customhouse; and all the result was, he could only recommend me to Mr. Amyand as the newest, and consequently the most polite of the commissioners—­but the Duchess of Richmond had tried him before—­to no purpose.  There is no way of recovering any of your goods, but purchasing them again at the sale.

What am I doing, to be talking to you of drawings and chintzes, when the world is all turned topsy-turvy!  Peace, as the poets would say, is not only returned to heaven, but has carried her sister Virtue along with her!—­Oh! no, peace will keep no such company—­Virtue is an errant strumpet, and loves diamonds as well as my Lady Harrington, and is as fond of a coronet as my Lord Melcombe.(192) Worse! worse!  She will set men to cutting throats, and pick their pockets at the same time.  I am in such a passion, I cannot tell you what I am angry about—­why, about Virtue and Mr. Pitt; two errant cheats, gipsies!  I believe he was a comrade of Elizabeth Canning, when he lived at Enfield-wash.  In short, the council were for making peace;