(39) After her divorce from Henry the Eighth.

(40) A rough sketch in the margin of the letter.

Letter 28 To The Rev. Mr. Cole.  Strawberry Hill, June 24, 1771. (page 51)

Dear Sir, when I wrote to you t’other day, I had not opened the box of letters, and consequently had not found yours, for which, and the prints, I give you a thousand thanks; though Count Bryan I have, and will return to you.  Old Walker(41) is very like, and is valuable for being mentioned in the Dunciad, and a curiosity, from being mentioned there without abuse.

Your notes are very judicious,(42) and your information most useful to me in drawing up some little preface to the Letters; which, however, I shall not have time now to do before my journey, as I shall set out on Sunday se’nnight.  I like your motto much.  The Lady Cecilia’s Letters are, as you say, more curious for the writer than the matter.  We know very little of those daughters of Edward iv.  Yet she and her sister Devonshire lived to be old; especially Cecily, who was married to Lord Wells; and I have found why:  he was first cousin to Henry vii., who, I suppose, thought it the safest match for her.  I wish I knew all she and her sisters knew of her brothers, and their uncle Richard iii.  Much good may it do my Lord of Canterbury with his parboiled stag!  Sure there must be more curiosities in Bennet Library!

Though your letter is so entertaining and useful to me, the passage I like best is a promise you make me of a visit in the autumn with Mr. Essex.  Pray put him in mind of it, as I shall you.  It would add much to the obligation if you would bring two or three of your Ms. volumes of collections with you.  Yours ever.

(41) Dr. Richard Walker, vice-master of Trinity College, by Lambourne.

(42) From King Edward’s Journal relating to Mr. Fitzpatrick.

Letter 29 To John Chute, Esq.  Amiens, Tuesday evening, July 9, 1771. (page 51)

I am got no farther yet, as I travel leisurely, and do not venture to fatigue myself.  My voyage was but of four hours.  I was sick only by choice and precaution, and find myself in perfect health.  The enemy, I hope, has not returned to pinch you again, and that you defy the foul fiend.  The weather is but lukewarm, and I should choose to have all the windows shut, if my smelling was not much more summerly than my feeling; but the frowsiness of obsolete tapestry and needlework is insupportable.  Here are old fleas and bugs talking of Louis Quatorze like tattered refugees in the park, and they make poor Rosette attend them, whether she will or not.  This is a woful account of an evening in July, and which Monsieur de St. Lambert has omitted in his Seasons, though more natural than any thing he has placed there.  I f the Grecian religion had gone into the folly of self-mortification, I suppose the devotees of Flora would have shut themselves up in a nasty inn, and have punished their noses for the sensuality of having smelt to a rose or a honeysuckle.