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You may well wonder at my long taciturnity: I wonder too, & know not what cause to assign, for
it is certain, I think of you daily. I believe, it is owing to the nothingness of my history, for except six weeks that I pass'd in
Town towards the end of spring, & a little jaunt to Epsom & Box-Hill, I have been here time
out of mind in a place, where no events grow, tho' we preserve those of former days by way of Hortus Siccus in
our libraries. my slumbers were disturbed the other day by an unexpected visit from Mr. W: who dined with me, seem'd mighty happy for
the time he stay'd, & said he could like to live here: but hurried home in the evening to his new
Gallery, wch is all Gothicism, & gold, & crimson, & looking-glass. he has purchased at an auction in Suffolk ebony-chairs & old
moveables enough to load a waggon.
Mason & I have received letters from Count Algarotti, Chambellan de sa Majeste le Roi de Prusse, with observations, (that is
panegyricks) on our Tragedies & our Odes, & a present of certain Italian Dissertations, wch he has lately publish'd on the
state of Painting and Musick. one of them is dedicated to Mr. Pitt, whom he styles – Uomo immortale, e
Restitutore d'Inghilterra, Amico del gran Federigo.
I was in Town, when Mr Middleton died, & immediately got all the information I could (first
from St:r & then from your Brother) of the dispositions he had made. I suppose, they are as good as you expected, & tho' the
prospect is but small, that you should enjoy the benefit of them in your own person, yet that is not impossible; & your Son (I
think) stands a very good chance, wch can not chuse but open an agreeable prospect to you, in wch I take a part, & congratulate you
both upon it. I doubt you have not read Rousseau's Emile: every body that has
children, should read it more than once, for tho' it abounds with his usual glorious absurdity, tho' his general scheme of education be
an impracticable chimera: yet there are a thousand lights struck out, a thousand important truths better express'd than ever they were
before, that may be of service to the wisest Man. particularly I think he has observed children with more attention & knows their
meaning & the working of their little passions better than any other Writer. as to his religious discussions, wch have alarmed the
world, & engaged their thoughts more than any other part of his book, I set them all at nought, & wish they had been omitted.
Mrs Jonathan told me, you begun your evening-prayer as soon as I was gone, & that it had a great
effect upon the congregation: I hope you have not grown weary of it, nor lay it aside, when company comes. poor Mrs. Bonfoy (who taught me to pray) is dead. she struggled near a week against the Iliac Passion (I fear) in great
torture with all her senses about her, & with much resolution took leave of her physician some days before she expired, & would
suffer no one to see her afterwards but common Servants.
You describe Winston
con tanto amore, that I take it amiss I was not suffer'd to see it, & want to be buried there too. but
enough of death! I have forgot to tell you that Dr. Long has had an audience of the K: & Queen an hour long at
Buckingham-House. his errand was to present them with a Lyricord
(such a one!) of his own making, & a glass-sphere: he had long been solliciting this honour, wch Ld Bute at last procured him,
& he is very happy. the K: told him, he bid fair for a century of life at least; ask'd him,
whether he preach'd; why he did not write verses in the Cambridge Collection; & what not? The Q.
spoke French to him, & ask'd, how he liked Handel?
And I ask you, how you like the present times? whether you had not rather be a Printer's Devil, than a Secretary of State? you are to expect (I hear) a new Ministry, composed of the Earl of Shelburne, Mr Rigby, Duke & Dutchess of Bedford, Earl Gower, &c. which doubtless will give universal satisfaction. the great Ld Holland, who is at Paris, being lately asked by a young Man, who was returning home, whether he had any commands in England, made no reply but by shrugging up his shoulders, & fetching a deep sigh.
I kept an exact account of Heat & Cold in the Spring here: the sum & substance of wch is, that (at 9 in the morning) on the 18th of January, the Therm: was at 31, & the small birds were so tame you might take them up with your hand. this was the greatest cold. on the 15th of April it was at 58, & the same afternoon at 65, wch was the greatest heat from Jan: 1 to May 1st.
Pray present my respects to Mrs & Miss Wharton.
We have nothing but rain & thunder of late.