will make the best use of every advantage that is given him. No person in the world, not even your Grace, knows him as well as I do, and it is impossible without that knowledge to think so well of him as he deserves. "Dublin is at present very empty, and I see few people except the company that I am entitled to as Dean of Christ Church. I went with the Primate yesterday to Rathfarnam, which he has improved already by cutting down a great number of old elmtrees and turning them into pipes, to serve Dublin with water. When he has finished this work, he says he'll have a bout with the oaks. His chaplain, who followed us in the garden, said to himself, without intending to be heard, here's a fine figg. His Grace turned about with great vehemence. A fine pig! Where? Has the Tallagh sow farrowed?' 'I said a figg, my Lord.' 'A fig, you blockhead; what's a fig to me?' I hear that your Grace has been at Drayton. I hope Lady Betty is well." Endorsed:-" Bp Stone." The EARL OF BRISTOL to LORD GEORGE SACKVILLE. 1751, January 28.-My grandfather was buried on Sunday night. Lady Ann is very ill, and Lady Louisa unfeignedly concerned for her father. Sir Robert Smyth and she have promised not to leave me alone at Ickworth. Lady Betty will have told you about the will. After annuities to his children amounting to 1,2001. a year, and legacies (including Mr. Felton's 4,000l.) to the sum of 5,200l., with mourning and a year's wages to the servants, the whole real and personal estate is given to me. There is much more money than I expected. "You would be surprised to think that even already I have had overtures made me with regard to opposition interest in this county; but I feel myself too well-affected even to listen to them." My brother Augustus has made me strong promises of attachment, and I pity the situation I formerly condemned. He, Mrs. Phipps and my other two sisters, set out in a few hours. Frederick returns soon to Cambridge and carries William with him, but I propose asking Mr. and Mrs. Charles Harvey to come here for a few days. LORD JOHN SACKVILLE to his brother, LORD GEORGE SACKVILLE. 1753-1754.-Five letters, all dated from Vevey, chiefly about his own affairs. July 8, 1753. [The first part of the letter relates to the stopping of part of his allowance to pay one Mr. Duffield, who would appear to have resigned a servant called Bradley to Lord John's use, on condition of an annual payment during his absence.] "The last letter you was so good as to write to me has made me very happy, because it has inspired me with a confidence in you that I must own I had not before. I now flatter myself that I have a friend in you that will do me all the service he is able, and will hear the voice of reason We were lately very much alarmed at the news of the King's death I should be extremely sorry it was to happen before the Prince of Wales came of age, or rather before he could be able to govern himself . . I I hope Mr. Killigrew will succeed in his attempt upon the rich widow, for I look upon him as a man of merit. What is become of Amherst and his General Ligonier ? Somebody told me the Duke of Kingston was seperated from Madame la Touche, and married to some woman of low extraction. "Lady Betty Germain has been so good as to send me a work entitled Hanway's Voyages. In the title page it mentions four volumes in quarto and I have received but three. I should be glad to know of you if there be a fourth .. I shall take the liberty of sending you a true Spanish gun baril, which is very hard to meet with, because they are strictly forbidden coming out of the country. These passed under pretence of their being for the service of Don Philip. If I thought it was consistant with his Primatorial dignity to make war against the long-billed foreigners, as Jan James used to call them, I would also send your friend Stone one. . How does Lady Caroline [Milton] go on? Does not her ladyship lose her rank as Duke's daughter on account of the Irish peerage her husband has accepted of? . . . You enquire very kindly after my health. It is much as it was. I think if there be any difference the low fit does not last quite so long as it used to do, the good spirits two or three days longer; but whilst it does last, the low fit is more violent and the high fit less so." April 23, 1754.-Acknowledging his faults, begging his brother to intercede for him with the Duke, their father, and for his "last trial," to let him be his own master, that he may have some comfort of his life, Mr. Villettes having positively refused to have anything more to do with his affairs. April 25, 1754.-Stating that a very worthy gentleman, Mr. Gressier, a relative of Sir John Ligonier's, has offered to undertake his affairs and also to accept the office of inspector of his conduct, which Mr. Villettes has declined; and that he shall be more inclined to follow this gentleman's advice, as he is convinced of his good-will. Mr. Gressier left his estate in the island of Guadaloupe on account of his religion and has built a handsome house at La Tour, close to Vevey. P.S.-Finds that Mr. Gressier is not personally acquainted with General Ligonier, but "is intimately known to M. Montenquet, brother to the General, whose son had married his neice." June 5, 1754.—I am very sorry you still advise me to reconcile myself to Mr. Villettes. Though he knows I am greatly in debt, he sends but just enough to pay for my board and my servants' wages, so that I have to borrow money where I can get it, besides contracting debts with tradesmen for clothes, &c. Moreover, he makes a great merit of what he does, in the country, and declares "it is undertaking a commission much below the dignity of his Brittanick Majesty's minister." Could I be re-instated in my full income of 400l. a year, I hope my future conduct would prove satisfactory to the Duke and Duchess and all my friends. Mr. Gressier has offered me part of his chateau to live in, which I should be able to do cheaper than where I now board. About two years ago I recommended an English gentleman to board in that family, who was so well pleased with them, and especially with the daughter, that he is gone to England to try to obtain his father's consent to marry her. His father lives in Cavendish Square, and is very rich, most of his estate lying in Jamaica. This young gentleman is his only son. I gave your letter to Mr. Gressier. You feared there were many faults in the French, but I was surprised to find there were so few. "I wrote word to Lady [John] Sackville that she should come and live with me in this country, and bring master and miss along with her," but I think I had better get settled and free from debt first. "She sent me word some time ago that when you returned from Ireland, Master Sackville was to be sent to Westminster School she also sent me some of his handwriting, which I was glad to see was a good deal better than my own. "I heartily rejoice that your election met with no difficulty, and that you routed Sir Edward Deering. There is a young Sir Brook Bridges at Lausanne that will be glad to hear of that piece of news . . . There is also at Lausanne a young Irish gentleman whose name is Burton, a very pretty behaved man. He drank his Grace's health to me, and added quoique Irlandois. He seemed to blame the Primate, but praised his Grace. It gives me great comfort to think I have so good a friend as you to back my demands and to plead my cause, which I am resolved for the future shall be no longer a bad one." September 4, 1754.-I received your most obliging letter just as my melancholy fit came upon me. It has been a pretty severe one and lasted a long time. Mr. Villettes has taken the worst possible method to prevent my committing irregularities, as I have been obliged to furnish myself on credit, and borrow money where I could get it. "He still continues to persecute me, and acts in regard to me in a most scrubby manner I wish with all my heart, for my own interest as well as that of Great Britain, that he was dismissed his Majesty's service, for I verily believe he is in the French interest more than in Great Britain's." He has frequent interviews with Mr. Chavigny, the French ambassador at Soleure, under pretence of ancient friendship, and I have heard him very much blamed upon that account. He has often declared that England did not agree with him, and that he should never return there; is himself originally of French extraction, has married a French wife and gives himself the title of Baron de Villettes. "His conduct at Turin was very far from being void of suspicion of sharing in great sums of money with the King of Sardinia that were granted to his Majesty from England, and if one Mr. Alouet, a banker at Geneva, had lived, most likely that roguish transaction would have been brought to light. I am also of opinion his great protector, Sir Luke Schaub, is in that interest, and paid as a spy by the French court. It is very well known in this country that he was upon that honourable footing at Berne in Cardinal Fleury's time, but, as he was discovered, he did not succeed in his business, and had liked to have been very ill-used by some honest gentlemen that scorned to listen to his dirty proposals. Do not think that I am induced to say this of him because he wrote that remarkable letter the Duke of Dorset sent to Mr. Villettes and which I think had been much better left alone, especially as Mr. Gressier's kind offers were accepted of." I hope the Duke of Dorset will let me have the 400l. a year without any deduction. I am sure Duffield has been already paid more than he has any pretension to, and "I am convinced that his Royal Highness the Prince of Wales designed I should have the whole sum of 400l. a year remitted to me without any deduction whatsoever. Duffield neglected to demand it for a long time, till after the unfortunate death of my benefactor." Mr. Gressier proposes to borrow a sum of money to pay all my debts, paying interest and reducing the capital as expeditiously as possible. "I am very glad I am mistaken in the opinion I had of the Master of Westminster School. [ ] I thought I might have depended upon it, as it came from a young lord that I saw at Vevey, and that had passed through the school. Most of the letters that I have wrote to Lady Sackville by her accounts have miscarried, which quite discourages me writing any more to her . . Be so good as to let her know the reason and that I should be always very glad to receive letters from her. I suppose before you receive this letter your marriage will be consummated. I wish you all the happiness you yourself can desire or imagine. I cannot better express my sentiments upon this than in sending you an epigram I remember to have read in Martial upon the like occasion: Candida perpetuò residat concordia lecto, Tamque pari semper sit Venus æqua jugo I should have been glad to know more of your Lady's fortune. "I remember her very well at Lady Fitzwalter's and at her mother's assemblies, and am very glad you have found so agreeable a companion." CAROLINE] LADY MILTON to her brother, LORD GEORGE SACKVILLE. 1753-1754.-Six letters on family affairs, all but one dated from Milton Abbey. July 25, 1753. "I am glad to hear you have met with such good. success in your election affairs; but I fancy you will not be sorry when the Canterbury races are over, then I suppose you will have some rest . . . I have been very impatient to hear from you an account of your visit to Mrs. Sambrooke. I have had two letters from the daughter (indeed she writes charmingly). She is cautious of what she says about you, but I find that her mother is much pleased with the frankness and candour of your behaviour. . . . I think, as you say, it depends greatly upon you after you come from Ireland, and upon your behaviour there, for to be sure they will be upon the watch, and hear every little silly story. I make no doubt of you liking her better and better the more you know her. She is certainly very sensible and clever, and indeed I believe very good-tempered. I want very much to know if you have mentioned this to father and mother or if you intend it before you go to The boys are very well; as you did not Ireland June 26, 1754.-Has had a letter from Miss Sambrooke, and is glad that she is so well recovered from her illness as to be able to go to Vauxhall and Ranelagh. Fears that Lord Milton's health and business will prevent their being at the wedding. July 26, 1754.--"Be sure to let me know as soon as you can guess when the wedding will be . . . To be sure somebody has told you by this time that you should have more than a new coat. You should have two or three at least new suits of clothes besides frocks, for I believe Mr. D'Oilly will expect most of your old clothes upon this occasion; I don't mean very fine clothes such as you made last year for the birthday and to make a figure last winter in Dublin, but all half dirty scrub things should be given away, and new linnen without you have made any very lately and certainly some new laced ruffles." July 27, 1754.-"Lord Milton would have been very glad to have attended upon Miss Sambrooke and you upon this occasion, but it happens just about the time that he proposes going to bathe in the sea; and it is rather inconvenient to me, but as they are so desirous of having me with them, I will certainly wait upon them. You are to be married in town as private as possible, so far I know, and I suppose go to Knole directly. Are you to be there in private, or are you to have the Assembly and all that rout, because I must prepare my cloaths accordingly." I can imagine how busy you are about your house in Pall Mall. August 10, 1754.-I return you many thanks for your long letter. I expect by next post to hear from Miss Sambroke, and hope to get such intelligence that I may fix the time for my journey. Lord Milton desires me to assure you you was very welcome to name him for one of your trustees without making any apology about it, and to repeat how sorry he is that he can't wait upon you upon this occasion. We shall both be very glad to see you and my lady at Milton Abbey whenever it is most convenient to you. The children are very well, and obliged to you for remembering them. October 5, 1754. Weymouth. Both she and Lord Milton are sorry that their little expedition will delay their seeing him; but they will be at Milton Abbey and expect him to dinner on Thursday. Sends compliments to Lady George. WILLIAM BYRCH to LORD GEORGE SACKVILLE. 1754, April 18. Dover.-Will with pleasure obey his commands by attending the election and voting for Mr. Fairfax and Mr. Watson. His only hesitation arose from gratitude to the Archdeacon of Canterbury [John Head] who for many years has been the chief support of himself and his family, but he is now assured "that though out of regard to his relation to Sir Edward Deering as his parishioner he votes for him himself, yet that he does not desire to influence his friends; in which as well as his other professions" there is no doubt that he is very sincere. Is not |