Pray tell Lady Ailesbury that though she has been so very good to me, I address my letters to you rather than to her, because my pen is not always-upon its guard, but is apt to say whatever comes into its nib; and then, if she peeps over your shoulder, I am cens`e not to know it.  Lady Harriet’s wishes have done me great good:  nothing but a father’s gout could be obdurate enough to resist them.  My Mrs. Damer says nothing to me; but I give her intentions credit, and lay her silence on you.

January 1. 1775. a happy new year!

I walk!  I walk! walk alone!—­I have been five times quite round my rooms to-day, and my month is not up!  The day after to-morrow I shall go down into the dining-room; the next week to take the air:  and then if Mrs. * * * * is very pressing, why, I don’t know what may happen.  Well! but you want news, there are none to be had.  They think there is a ship lost with Gage’s despatches.  Lady Temple gives all her diamonds to Miss Nugent.(184) Lord Pigot lost 400 pounds the other night at Princess Amelia’s.  Miss Davis(185) has carried her cause against Mrs. Yates and is to sing again at the Opera.  This is all my coffee-house furnished this morning.

(178) Mr. Conway and the ladies of his party had met with the most flattering and distinguished reception at Paris from every body but the Duc and Duchesse de Choiseul, who rather seemed to decline their acquaintance.

(179) The author of the Voyage du Jenne Anacharsis.

(180) A name given to the Duc de Choiseul by Madame du Deffand.

(181) Verses written by the Chevalier de Boufflers, to be presented by Madame du Deffand to the Duke and Duchess of Choiseul.

(182) They were addressed to M. do Malesherbes, then premier president de la Cour des Aides; afterwards, still more distinguished by his having been the intrepid advocate Selected by the unfortunate Louis the Sixteenth on his trial.  He soon after perished by the same guillotine, from which he could not preserve his ill-fated master-E.

(183) “The Antiquities of Furness; or an account of the Royal Abbey of St. mary, in the vale Of Nightshade, near Dalton, in Furness.”  London, 1774 4to.  This volume, which was dedicated to Lord George Cavendish, Was written by Thomas West, the antiquary, who was likewise the author of “A Guide to the Lakes in Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Lancashire."-E.

(184) Mary, only daughter and heiress of Robert Earl Nugent, of the kingdom of Ireland.  She was married, on the 16th of May, 1775, to George Grenville, second Earl Temple, who then assumed, by royal permission, the surnames of Nugent and Temple before that of Grenville, and the privilege of signing Nugent before all titles whatsoever.  In 1784, he was created Marquis of Buckingham.-E.

(185) Cecilia Davis known in Italy by the name of L’Inglesina, first appeared at the Opera in 1773.  She was considered on the Continent as second only to Gabrieli, and in England is said to have been surpassed only by Mrs. Billington.  She was a pupil of the celebrated Hasse and, after having taught several crowned heads, died at an advanced age, and in very distressed circumstances, in 1836.-E.