I shall some time hence trouble you for some patterns of brocadella of two or three colours:  it is to furnish a round tower that I am adding, with a gallery, to my castle:  the quantity I shall want will be pretty large; it is to be a bedchamber entirely hung bed, and eight armchairs; the dimensions thirteen feet high, and twenty-two diameter.  Your Bianca Capello is to be over the chimney.  I shall scarce be ready to hang it these two years, because I move gently, and never begin till I have the money ready to pay, which don’t come very fast, as it is always to be saved out of my income, subject, too, to twenty other whims and expenses.  I only mention it now, that you may at your leisure look me out half a dozen patterns; and be so good as to let me know the prices.  Stosch is not arrived yet as I have heard.

Well,—­at last, Dagge is come, and tells me I may assure you positively that the money will be paid in- two months from this time; he has been at Thistlethwait’s,(82) which is nineteen miles from town, and goes again this week to make him sign a paper, on which the parson(82) will pay the money.  I shall be happy when this is completed to your satisfaction, that is, when your goodness is rewarded by being successful; but till it is completed, with all Mr. Dagge’s assurances, I shall not be easy, for those brothers are such creatures, that I shall always expect some delay or evasion, when they are to part with money.  Adieu!

(82) Brother and heirs of Mr. Whithed, who had changed his name for an estate.  (Transcriber’s note:  this note really is cited twice in the above paragraph.)

Letter 34 To George Montagu, Esq.  Strawberry Hill, July 19, 1760. (page 75)

Mr. Conway, as I told you, was With me at Oxford, and I returned with him to Park-place, and to-day hither.  I am sorry you could not come to us; we passed four days most agreeably, and I believe saw more antique holes and corners than Tom Hearne did in threescore years.  You know my rage for Oxford; if King’s-college would not take it ill,.  I don’t l(now but I should retire thither, and profess Jacobitism, that I might enjoy some venerable set of chambers.  Though the weather has been so sultry, I ferreted from morning to night, fatigued that strong young lad Lord Beauchamp, and harassed his tutors till they were forced to relieve one another.’  With all this, I found nothing worth seeing, except the colleges themselves, painted glass, and a couple of crosiers.  Oh, yes! in an old buttery at Christ-church I discovered two of the most glorious portraits by Holbein in the world.  They call them Dutch heads.  I took them down, washed them myself, and fetched out a thousand beauties.  We went to Blenheim and saw all Vanbrugh’s quarries, all the acts of parliament and gazettes on the Duke in inscriptions, and all the old flock chairs, wainscot tables, and gowns and petticoats of Queen Anne, that old Sarah could crowd among blocks