I came to settle here on Friday, being drowned out of Twickenham.  I find the town desolate, and no news in it, but that the ministry give up the Irish -tax-some say, because it will not pass in Ireland; others, because the city of London would have petitioned against it; and some, because there were factions in the council—­ which is not the most incredible of all.  I am glad, for the sake of some of my friends who would have suffered by it, that it is over.(104) In other respects, I have too much private business of my own to think about the public, which is big enough to take care of itself.

I have heard some of Lady Mary Coke’s mortifications.  I have regard and esteem for her good qualities, which are many; but I doubt her genius will never suffer her to be quite happy.  As she will not take the psalmist’s advice of not putting trust, I am sure she would not follow mine; for, with all her piety, King David is the only royal person she will not listen to, and therefore I forbear my sweet counsel.  When she and Lord Huntingdon meet, will not they put you in mind of Count-Gage and Lady Mary Herbert, who met in the mines of Asturias, after they had failed of the crown of Poland?(105) Adieu, my dear lord!  Come you and my lady among us.  You have some friends that are not odious, and who will be rejoiced to see you both--witness, for one, yours most faithfully.

(104) A tax upon absentees.  Mr. Hardy, in his Memoirs of Lord Charlemont, says, that the influence of the Whig leaders predominated so far as to oblige the ministers to relinquish the measure.-E.

(105) “The crown of Poland, venal twice an age, To just three millions stint;ed modest Gage.”

Pope in a note to the above couplet, states that Mr. Gage and Lady Mary Herbert, " each of them, in the Mississippi scheme, despised to realize above three hundred thousand pounds:  the gentleman with a view to the purchase of the crown of Poland, the lady on a vision of the like royal nature:  they have since retired into Spain, where they are still in search of gold, in the mines of the Asturias."-E.

Letter 63 To Lady Mary Coke.(106) ((page 87)

Your ladyship’s illustrious exploits are the constant theme of my meditations.  Your expeditions are so rapid, and to such distant regions, that I cannot help thinking you are possessed of the giant’s boots that stepped seven leagues at a stride, as we are assured by that accurate historian Mother Goose.  You are, I know, Madam’, an excellent walker, yet methinks seven leagues at once are a prodigious straddle for a fair lady.  But whatever is your manner of travelling, few heroines ancient or modern can be compared to you for length of journeys.  Thalestris, Queen of the Amazons, and M. M. or N. N. Queen of Sheba, went each of them the Lord knows how far to meet Alexander the Great and Solomon the Wise; the one to beg the favour of having a daughter (I