Man that is born of a woman, was chanted, not read; and the anthem, besides being immeasurably tedious, would have served as well for a nuptial.  The real serious part was the figure of the Duke of Cumberland, heightened by a thousand melancholy circumstances.  He had a dark brown adonis, and a cloak of black cloth, with a train of five yards.  Attending the funeral of a father could not be pleasant:  his leg extremely bad, yet forced to stand upon it near two hours; his face bloated and distorted with his late paralytic stroke, which has affected, too, one of his eyes, and placed over the mouth of the vault, into which, in all probability, he must himself so soon descend; think how unpleasant a situation! he bore it all with a firm and unaffected countenance.  This grave scene was fully contrasted by the burlesque Duke of Newcastle.  He fell into a fit of crying the moment he came into the chapel, and flung himself back in a stall, the archbishop hovering over him with a smelling-bottle; but in two minutes his curiosity got the better of his hypocrisy, and he ran about the chapel with his glass to spy who was or was not there, spying with one hand, and mopping his eyes with the other.  Then returned the fear of catching cold; and the Duke of Cumberland, who was sinking with heat, felt himself weighed down, and turning round, found it was the Duke of Newcastle standing upon his train, to avoid the chill of the marble.  It was very theatric to look down into the vault, where the coffin lay, attended by mourners with lights.  Clavering, the groom of the bedchamber, refused to sit up with the body, and was dismissed by the King’s order.

I have nothing more to tell you, but a trifle, a very trifle.  The King of Prussia has totally defeated Marshal Daun.(116) This, which would have been prodigious news a month ago, is nothing to-day; it only takes its turn among the questions, “Who is to be groom of the bedchamber? what is Sir T. Robinson to have?” I have been to Leicester-fields to-day; the crowd was immoderate; I don’t believe it will continue so. good night.  Yours ever.

(116) At Torgau, on the 3d of November.  An animated description of this desperate battle is given by Walpole in his Memoires, vol. ii. p. 449.-E.

Letter 56 To George Montagu, Esq.  Arlington Street, Thursday, 1760. (page 104)

As a codicil to my letter, I send you the bedchamber.  There are to be eighteen lords, and thirteen grooms; all the late King’s remain, but your cousin Manchester, Lord Falconberg, Lord Essex, and Lord Flyndford, replaced by the Duke of Richmond, Lord Weymouth, Lord March, and Lord Eglinton:  the last at the request of the Duke of York.  Instead of Clavering, Nassau, and General Campbell, who is promised something else, Lord Northampton’s brother and Commodore Keppel are grooms.  When it was offered to the Duke of Richmond, he said he could not accept it, unless something was done for Colonel Keppel, for whom he has interested himself; that it would look like sacrificing Keppel to his own views.  This is handsome; Keppel is to be equery.