The King of Denmark comes on Thursday; and I go to-morrow to see him.  It has cost three thousand pounds to new furnish an apartment for him at St. James’s; and now he will not go thither, supposing it would be a confinement.  He is to lodge at his own minister Dieden’s.

Augustus Hervey, thinking it the bel air, is going to sue for a divorce from the Chudleigh.(1043) He asked Lord Bolingbroke t’other day, who was his proctor’! as he would have asked for his tailor.  The nymph has sent him word, that if he proves her his wife he must pay her debts; and she owes sixteen thousand pounds.  This obstacle thrown in the way, looks as if she was not sure of being Duchess of Kingston.  The lawyers say, it will be no valid plea; it not appearing that she was Hervey’s wife, and therefore the tradesmen could not reckon on his paying them.

Yes, it is my Gray, Gray the poet, who is made professor of modern history, and I believe it is worth five hundred a-year.  I knew nothing of it till I saw it in the papers; but believe //it was Stonehewer that obtained it for him.(1044)

Yes, again; I use a bit of alum half as big as my nail, Once or twice a-week, and let it dissolve in my mouth.  I should not think that using it oftener could be prejudicial.  You should inquire; but as you are in more hurry than I am, you should certainly use it oftener than I do.  I wish I could cure my Lady Ailesbury too.  Ice-water has astonishing effect on my stomach, and removes all pain like a charm.  Pray, though the one’s teeth may not be so white as formerly, nor t’other look in perfect health, let the Danish King see such good specimens of the last age—­though, by what I hear, he likes nothing but the very present age.  However, sure you will both come and look at him:  not that I believe he is a jot better than the apprentices that flirt to Epsom in a Tim-whisky; but I want to meet you in town.

I don’t very well know what I write, for I hear a caravan on my stairs, that are come to see the house; Margaret is chattering, and the dogs barking; and this I call retirement! and yet I think it preferable to your visit at Becket.  Adieu!  Let me know something more of your motions before you go to Ireland, which I think a strange journey, and better compounded for:  and when I see you in town I will settle with you another visit to Park-place.  Yours ever.

(1041) The Hon. Frederick Cornwallis, seventh son of Charles fourth Baron Cornwallis, was translated from the see of Lichfield and Coventry to that of Canterbury, on the death of Archbishop Secker.-E.

(1042) Bishop of Carlisle.  He died in December following; upon which event, Warburton wrote to Dr. Hurd—­“A bishop, more or less, in the world, is nothing; and perhaps of as small account in the next.  I used to despise him for his antiquarianism, but of late, since I grow old and dull myself, I cultivated an acquaintance with him for the sake of what formerly kept us asunder."-E.