I am here alone in the most desolate of all towns.  I came to-day to visit my sovereign Duchess(644) in her lying-in, and have been there till this moment, not a sole else but Lady Jane Scott.(645) Lady Waldegrave came from Tunbridge yesterday en passant, and reported a new woful history of a fracas there—­don’t my Lady Hertford’s ears tingle? but she will not be surprised.  A footman—­a very homely footman—­to a Mrs. Craster, had been most extremely impertinent to Lord Clanbrazil, Frederick Vane, and a son of Lady Anne Pope; they threatened to have him turned away—­ he replied, if he was, he knew where he should be protected.  Tunbridge is a quiet private place, where one does not imagine that every thing one does in one’s private family will be known:- -yet so it happened that the morning after the fellow’s dismission, it was reported that he was hired by another lady, the Lord knows who.  At night, that lady was playing at loo in the rooms.  Lord Clanbrazil told her of the report, and hoped she would contradict it:  she grew as angry as a fine lady could grow, told him it was no business of his, and—­and I am afraid, still more.  Vane whispered her—­One should have thought that name would have some weight—­oh! worse and worse! the poor English language was ransacked for terms that came up to her resentment:- -the party broke up, and, I suppose, nobody went home to write an account of what happened to their acquaintance.

O’Brien and Lady Susan are to be transported to the Ohio, and have a grant of forty thousand acres.  The Duchess of Grafton says sixty thousand were bestowed; but a friend of yours, and a relation of Lady Susan, nibbled away twenty thousand for a Mr. Upton.

By a letter from your brother to-day, I find our northern journey is laid aside; the Duke of Devonshire is coming to town; the physicians want him to go to Spa.  This derangement makes me turn my eyes eagerly towards Paris; though I shall be ashamed to come thither after the wise reasons I have given you against it in the beginning of this letter; nous verrons—­the temptation is strong, but patriots must resist temptations; it is not the etiquette to yield to them till a change happens.

I enclose a letter, which your brother has sent me to convey to you, and two pamphlets.(646) The former is said to be written by Shebbeare, under George Grenville’s direction:  the latter, which makes rather more noise, is certainly composed by somebody who does not hate your brother—­I even fancy you will guess the same person for the author that every body else does.  I shall be able to send you soon another pamphlet, written by Charles Townshend, on the subject of the warrants:-you see, at least, we do not ransack Newgate and the pillory(647) for writers.  We leave those to the administration.

I wish you would be so kind as to tell me, what is become of my sister and Mr. Churchill.  I received a letter from Lady Mary to-day, telling me she was that instant setting out from Paris, but does not say whither.