wrapped up and upon a couch.  It was the more unlucky as Lord Hertford is come to England for a few days.  He has offered to come to me; but as I then should see him only for some minutes, I propose being carried to town tomorrow.  It will be so long before I can expect to be able to travel, that my French journey will certainly not take place so soon as I intended, and if Lord Hertford goes to Ireland, I shall be still more fluctuating; for though the Duke and Duchess of Richmond will replace them at Paris, and are as eager to have me with them, I have had so many more years heaped upon me within this month, that I have not the conscience to trouble young people, when I can no longer be as juvenile as they are.  Indeed I shall think myself decrepit till I again saunter into the garden in my slippers and without my hat in all weathers—­a point I am determined to regain, if possible; for even this experience cannot make me resign my temperance and my hardiness.  I am tired of the world, its politics, its pursuits, and its pleasures; but it will cost me some struggles before I submit to be tender and careful.  Christ! can I ever stoop to the regimen of old age?  I do not wish to dress up a withered person, nor drag it about to public places; but to sit in one’s room, clothed warmly, expecting visits from folk-, I don’t wish to see, and tended and flattered by relations impatient for one’s death let the gout do its worst as expeditiously as it can; it would be more welcome in my stomach than in my limbs.  I am not made to bear a course of nonsense and advice, but must play the fool in my own way to the last, alone with all my heart, if I cannot be with the very few I wish to see:  but, to depend for comfort on others, who would be no comfort to me; this surely is not a state to be preferred to death:  and nobody can have truly enjoyed the advantages of youth, health, and spirits, who is content to exist without the two last, which alone bear any resemblance to the first.(853)

You see how difficult it is to conquer my proud spirit:  low and weak as I am, I think my resolution and perseverance will get me better, and that I shall still be a gay shadow; at least, I will impose any severity upon myself, rather than humour the gout, and sink into that indulgence with which most people treat it.  Bodily liberty is as dear to me as mental, and I would as soon flatter any other tyrant as the gout, my Whiggism extending as much to my health as to my principles, and being as willing to part with life, when I cannot preserve it, as your uncle Algernon when his freedom was at stake.  Adieu!

(853) Upon this passage the Quarterly Review observes:  “Walpole’s reflections on human life are marked by strong sense and knowledge of mankind; but our most useful lesson will perhaps be derived from considering this man of the world, full of information and sparkling with vivacity, stretched on a sick bed, and apprehending all the tedious languor of helpless decrepitude and deserted solitude.”  Vol. xix. p. 129.-E.