that gay companion, and celebrated lover of good cheer, Philippe de Coulanges, who occasionally mentions the “amiable Richard Hamilton” as one of the cardinal’s particular intimates.  Anthony, who was regarded particularly as a man of letters and elegant talents, resided almost entirely at St. Germain:  solitary walks in the forest of that place occupied his leisure hours in the morning; and poetical pursuits, or agreeable society, engaged the evening:  but much of his time seems to have rolled heavily along; his sister, Madame de Grammont, living more at court, or in Paris, than always suited his inclinations or his convenience.  His great resource at St. Germain was the family of the Duke of Berwick (son of James ii.):  that nobleman appears to have been amiable in private life, and his attachment to Hamilton was steady and sincere.  The Duchess of Berwick was also his friend.  It is necessary to mention this lady particularly, as well as her sisters:  they were the daughters of Henry Bulkeley, son to the first viscount of that name:  their father had been master of the household to Charles:  their mother was Lady Sophia Stewart, sister to the beautiful Duchess of Richmond, so conspicuous in the Grammont Memoirs.  The sisters of the Duchess of Berwick were Charlotte, married to Lord Clare, Henrietta, and Laura.  They all occupy a considerable space in Hamilton’s correspondence, and the two last are the ladies so often addressed as the Mademoiselles B.; they are almost the constant subjects of Hamilton’s verses; and it is recorded that he was a particular admirer of Henrietta Bulkeley; but their union would have been that of hunger and thirst, for both were very poor and very illustrious:  their junction would, of course, have militated against every rule of common prudence.  To the influence of this lady, particularly, we are indebted for one or two of Hamilton’s agreeable novels:  she had taste enough to laugh at the extravagant stories then so much in fashion, “plus arabes qu’en Arabie,”

   [They were wretched imitations of some of the Persian and Arabian
   tales, in which everything was distorted, and rendered absurd and
   preposterous.]

as Hamilton says; and he, in compliance with her taste, and his own, soon put the fashionable tales to flight, by the publication of the ’Quatre Facardins’, and, more especially, ‘La Fleur d’Epine’.  Some of the introductory verses to these productions are written with peculiar ease and grace; and are highly extolled, and even imitated, by Voltaire.  La Harpe praises the Fleur d’Epine, as the work of an original genius:  I do not think, however, that they are much relished in England, probably because very ill translated.  Another of his literary productions was the novel called Le Belier, which he wrote on the following occasion:  Louis XIV. had presented to the Countess of Grammont (whom he highly esteemed) a remarkably elegant small country house in the park of Versailles:  this house became so fashionable