You are admirably kind, as you always are in inviting me to Greatworth, and proposing Bath; but besides its being impossible for me to take any journey just at present, I am really very well in health, and the tranquillity and air of Strawberry have done much good.  The hurry of London, where I shall be glad to be just now, will dissipate the gloom that this unhappy loss has occasioned; though a deep loss I shall always think it.  The time passes tolerably here; I have my painters and gilders and constant packets of news from town, besides a thousand letters of condolence to answer; for both my niece and I have received innumerable testimonies of the regard that was felt for Lord Waldegrave.  I have heard of but one man who ought to have known his worth, that has shown no concern; but I suppose his childish mind is too much occupied with the loss of his last governor.(273) I have given up my own room to my niece, and have taken myself to the Holbein chamber, where I am retired from the rest of the family when I choose it, and nearer to overlook my workmen.  The chapel is quite finished except the carpet.  The sable mass of the altar gives it a very sober air; for, notwithstanding the solemnity of the painted windows, it had a gaudiness that was a little profane.

I can know no news here but by rebound; and yet, though they are to rebound again to you, they will be as fresh as any you can have at Greatworth.  A kind of administration is botched up for the present, and even gave itself an air of that fierceness with which the winter set out.  Lord Hardwicke -was told, that his sons must vote with the court, or be turned out; he replied, as he meant to have them in place, he chose they should be removed now.  It looks ill for the court when he is sturdy.  They wished, too, to have had Pitt, if they could have had him Without consequences; but they don’t find any recruits repair to their standard.  They brag that they should have had Lord Waldegrave; a most notorious falsehood, as he had refused every offer they could invent the day before he was taken ill.  The Duke of’ Cumberland orders his servants to say, that so far from joining them, he believes if Lord Waldecrave could have been foretold of his death, he would have preferred it to an union with Bute and Fox.  The former’s was a decisive panic; so sudden, that it is said Lord Egremont was sent to break his resolution of retiring to the King.  The other, whose journey to France does not indicate much less apprehension, affects to walk in the streets at the most public hours to mark his not trembling.  In the mean time the two chiefs have paid their bravoes magnificently:  no less than fifty-two thousand pounds a-year are granted in reversion!  Young Martin,(274) Who is older than I am, is named my successor; but I intend he shall wait some years:  if they had a mind to serve me, they could not have selected a fitter tool to set my character in a fair light by the comparison.  Lord Bute’s son has