stroyed some acres of buildings and some vessels. It happened amongst magazines of turpentine, pitch, tar, and hemp; and has besides consumed to the value of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling of tea, which the East India Company had just purchased at Ostend to anticipate the smugglers. One must be mighty prone to compassion before one can feel for the Company, and must quite forget their atrocious deeds in India. My bowels shall be sent thither, (as those of our ancestors used to be to the Holy Land,) sooner than to Leadenhall Street.

Friday 13th.

As I heard the great question of Ireland was to be decided yesterday, and it being of no consequence when my letter set out, I detained it till it could have more dignity. I can barely now tell you the sum total, none of the particulars; for I have seen no Member of the House of Commons. The business is not finished, for the House was only in a committee: yet you may look upon it as determined; for Mr. Pitt had so great a majority to favour his propositions, that there is no doubt but they will pass triumphantly. The Committee sat till past eight this morning; the numbers were, 281 for the Court, 155 for the Opposition. The completion of that affair, and of the taxes, which were proposed last Monday, will probably conclude the session; and earthly business being adjusted, all the world will be at leisure to travel the air-not that terrestrial matters have interrupted balloons. Mr. Windham, the Member for Norwich, who was with you not long ago, has made a voyage into the clouds, and was in danger of falling to earth, and being shipwrecked. Yesterday sevennight, as I was coming down stairs at Strawberrry, to my chaise, my housekeeper told me, that if I would go into the garden I might see a balloon; so I did, and so high, that though the sun shone, I could scarce discern it, and not bigger than my snuff-box. It had set out privately from Moulsey, in my neighbourhood, and went higher than any airgonaut had yet reached. But Mr. Windham, and Sadler his pilot, were near meeting the fate of Icarus; and though they did land safely, their bladder-vessel flew away again, and may be drowned in the moon for what we know! Three more balloons sail to-day; in short, we shall have a prodigious navy in the air, and then what signifies having lost the empire of the ocean?

LETTER CCCCXXXV.

May 29, 1785.

PLEASED as I was by hearing from your nephew, I am much more delighted, my dear sir, to see your hand again. Yet I must chide

* Of Felbrigge.

you for writing so much, though at intervals, when you are weak and in bed. Your nephew told me your cough was troublesome; but I hope the warm weather will quite remove it. Never was so trying a winter: every body has suffered but the physicians and apothecaries. We are still wanting rain, and are treated like Egyptians by insects.

You have acted like yourself, and the younger Sir Horace has acted like the elder, about Miss Lucy's* marriage. I do not know the sposo, but am contented with your account of him, and approve of his name. It is not quite right to oppose the inclinations of the young when there are no very striking or disgraceful objections. As to estates and titles, what securities are they? Half our nobility are undone, and every day going into exile, from their own extravagance. I saw with concern in the newspapers, two days ago, that their Neapolitan Majesties were visiting your Florentine Arch-Graces, and I dreaded their harassing you and putting you to expense: but your indisposition must give you a dispensation, and is even lightened to me by its saving you fatigue, I have no objection to their playing at Naumachis. It were well if sovereigns would be content with mock fights, and not sport with the lives of their subjects. The battle of the Bridge at Pisa, is more glorious than invading the Scheldt. Two days ago there was a report of the Dauphin's death, and was said to come from Lord Sydney, Secretary of State. He was asked, if true? He replied, "I said, Lord Godolphin." So he is, and has given four thousand pounds a-year to Lord Francis Osborne, second son of the other Secretary of State, Lord Carmarthen,† who himself inherits three thousand a-year more.

I am barren of other news. The House of Commons sits, on taxes and the Irish propositions, but is thinly attended. I shall settle at Strawberry in about a week; but cannot have less to tell you than I have at present. Your nephew, I hope, will stay with you till you are quite recovered. What a nephew! I cannot boast of such a one in my extensive nepotism; and yet I have a few very good. An adopted one, Lord Waldegrave, is excellent. Most of my nieces are unexceptionable. That is a great deal to say in an age not rigorous, and of ample license. I wonder our women are not much worse; for our newspapers are so indiscriminately scurrilous, to the great joy of devout old women, that pretty young women might be hardened, and trust to not being worse treated than many who are blameless. I have no patience with hags who have no temptations, and think that frequent church-going authorizes them to spread scandal from Sunday noon to next Sunday morning. There is not so noxious an animal as an ugly old harridan, who thinks herself re

* James Mann, only son of Edward Louisa Mann, elder brother of Sir Horace Mann, senr., was going to be married to Lucy, eldest daughter of Sir Horace, jun. † Francis, only son of the Duke of Leeds, by Lady Mary Godolphin.

George, fourth Earl of Waldegrave, married to his cousin, Lady Laura Waldegrave, daughter of the Duchess of Gloucester.

ligious the moment she becomes a disagreeable object; though she chooses to forget that Charity is preferable to Faith and Hope, or interprets Charity to mean nothing but giving alms. They have more occasion to carry a pocket-glass than a handsome woman-to put them in mind of their own Death's heads.

I said at the beginning of my letter, that I rejoiced to see your handwriting; yet I beg you not to give me that treat often. A line from your nephew, if it tells me you mend, will content me. I have frequently written to you by proxy; and, in truth, my letters require nor deserve answers. I have so much abandoned a world that is too juvenile for me, and have so few connexions with it left, that my correspondence can have neither novelty nor spirit in it; and therefore, except to you, I scarce write a letter of ten lines in a month, and seldom but on business, of which too I have very little. A few antiquaries and virtuosos now and then consult me, because my oracle from its ancientry, is become respected; but my devotees ask me simple questions, and in my response I generally plead ignorance, and often with truth. My reading or writing has seldom had any object but my own amusement; and, having given over the trade, I had rather my customers went to another shop. The profession of author is trifling; but, when any charlatanerie is superadded, it is a contemptible one. To puff one's self is to be a mountebank, and swallowing wind as well as vending it.

I do not answer your nephew's letter in form; for formal it would be when you see I have so little to say, except to thank him for it, and for his most amiable tenderness and care of you. Nay, writing to one is writing to both one loves two Sir Horaces as one: your hearts are as much the same as your names, and to write to you separately would be making a distinction in your unity. I am glad the cousins are to be one too. Adieu! I long to hear that you do not lie in bed but at night.

LETTER CCCCXXXVI.

Berkeley Square, June 24, 1785. THOUGH I beg not to urge you to repeat those proofs too often, I must feel great satisfaction from every letter I receive from you under your own hand, when I know your health is not yet quite re-established. I should be content, rationally content, that is, enjoining myself to be content, with hearing of you from your nephew; but your own characters must be more comfortable. However, the more you mend, write the less I am no longer in fear about you, and consequently my patience will allow of longer intervals now I know you are recovering, which we cannot do with the impetuosity of youth. But then Italian summers are a good succedaneum, and, I hope, will be

more efficacious than our north-easterly winds. Even with these, I am arrived at being as well as I was before my last fit, and I beg you will pledge me.

Thank you for your Gazette, and accounts of spectacles.* Florence is a charming theatre for such festivals: those Italy is giving to the Neapolitan Majesties put one in mind of the times when the Medici, the Farneses, Gonzagas, &c., banqueted each other's Highness. reciprocally. I am glad the holy Roman Emperor is at leisure to visit principini, palazzi, and giardini, instead of besieging fortezze, like a wicked overgrown principone. I am glad too, that the wicked holy Roman Fathert is disappointed of his iniquitous plunder. Rome is come to its dregs again when the Pontifex Maximus is sunk into an heredipeta-one of the vile vocations that marked the faces Romuli.

Our Senate is still sitting, and likely to sit, on the Irish propositions,. which gravel both countries. Mr. Grattan, the phenomenon of the other side of the Channel, has set his face against Mr. Pitt's altered plan. This is all I know of the matter. I am very little in town now, and Twickenham is one of the most unpolitical villages in the island.

You will find by our and the French Gazettes, that air-navagtion has received a great blow; the first airgonaut, poor Pilatrier, and his companion, having broken their necks. He had the Croix de St. Louis in his pocket, and was to have put it on the moment he should have crossed the Channel and landed in England. I have long thought that France has conceived hopes of annihilating our Pyrenees by these flying squadrons. Here they have been turned into a mere job for getting money from gaping fools. One of our adventurers, named: Sadler, has been missing, and is supposed lost in the German Ocean.

Prince William, the King's third son, has been in England, and is sailed for the Mediterranean, I think; so, I suppose, will visit Leghorn. It is pity he will arrive too late for your shows, which would be proper for his age.

On reading over your Florentine Gazette, I observed that the GreatDuke has a manufacture of porcelain. If any of it is sold, I should be glad if your nephew would bring me a single bit-a cup, or other trifle, as a sample. I remember that, ages ago, there was a manufac-. ture at Florence belonging to Marquis Ginori, of which I wished for a piece, but could not procure one: the Grand-Ducal may be more attainable. I have a closet furnished with specimens of porcelain of various countries, besides a good deal of Fayence or Rapheal ware, and some pieces with the arms of Medici-but am not I an old simpleton to be wanting play-things still?-and how like is one's last eradle to one's first! Adieu!

*Relations of the entertainments made for the King and Queen of Naples. Pope Pius VI. had wheedled a rich old Abbé to make him heir; but the family contested the will and set it aside.

P.S. 28th.

Notwithstanding Pilatrier's miscarriage, Balloonation holds up its head. Colonel Fitzpatrick, Lord Ossory's brother, has ascended in one from Oxford, and was alone. Sadler, whom I thought lost, is come to light again, and was to have been of the voyage; but the vessel not being potent enough for two, the Colonel went alone, had a brush with a high hill in his descent, but landed safe about fifteen miles from the University. How Posterity will laugh at us, one way or other! If half a dozen break their necks, and Balloonism is exploded, we shall be called fools for having imagined it could be brought to use if it should be turned to account, we shall be ridiculed for having doubted.

LETTER CCCCXXXVII.

Berkeley Square, July 25, 1785. BEFORE I reply to the other parts of your letter of the 5th, which I have just received, I must tell you how rejoiced I am to hear of your having the gout in your knees and feet. Let me intreat you to encourage and keep it there; indulge them in yards of flannel, and lie much in bed; never rise when they have any perspiration; they will cure your cough, and you cannot be too grateful to them. This effort shows the strength and excellence of your constitution, and will preserve you long for my part I had rather lie in bed than attend regal puppet-shows; and I always make the most of my gout, when it is to excuse my doing any thing I don't like.

I love your nephew better than ever for his attention to you. Mr. Croft has given me a most excellent character of Mr. James,* who, I hope, will repay to your nephew his affection and care of you.

I have not the honour of being acquainted with Lady Hampden ;† Mrs. Trevor I do know, who is gentle and pleasing. Lady Hampden's mother, whom I see often at the Duchess of Montrose's, is very amiable and a favourite of mine.

Though three millions sterling§ from the plunder of convents is a plump bellyfull, I dont believe the Austrian Eagle will stop there, nor be satisfied with private property. No; I told you I believe, when I read the new History of the Medici, that Cæsar had set that work on foot as a preparative to his urging his claim to what the Church of Rome had formerly usurped from his predecessors. He has shown that he thinks nothing holy but the holy Roman empire. It is the

*Mr. James Mann, mentioned in a preceding letter.

Daughter of General Græme, and wife of the second viscount Hampden. Wife of the second son of the first Viscount: Mr. Trevor was envoy to Turin. Sir H. Mann had told Mr. Walpole that the Emperor had acquired three mil lions by the suppression of convents.