so I will not describe it to you.  The judge and criminal were far inferior to those you have seen.  For the Lord High Steward(49) he neither had any dignity nor affected any; nay, he held it all so cheap, that he said at his own table t’other day, “I will not send for Garrick and learn to act a part.”  At first I thought Lord Ferrers shocked, but in general he behaved rationally and coolly; though it was a strange contradiction to see a man trying by his own sense, to prove himself out of his senses.  It was more shocking to see his two brothers brought to prove the lunacy in their own blood; in order to save their brother’s life.  Both are almost as ill-looking men as the Earl; one of them is a clergyman, suspended by the Bishop of London for being a Methodist; the other a wild vagabond, whom they call in the country, ragged and dangerous.  After Lord Ferrers was condemned, he made an excuse for pleading madness, to which he said he was forced by his family.  He is respited till Monday-fortnight, and will then be hanged, I believe in the Tower; and, to the mortification of the peerage, is to be anatomized, conformably to the late act for murder.  Many peers were absent; Lord Foley and Lord Jersey attended only the first day; and Lord Huntingdon, and my nephew Orford (in compliment to his mother), as related to the prisoner, withdrew without voting.  But never was a criminal more literally tried by his peers, for the three persons, who interested themselves most in the examination, were at least as mad as he; Lord Ravensworth, Lord Talbot, and Lord Fortescue.  Indeed, the first was almost frantic.  The seats of the peeresses were not near full, and most of the beauties absent; the Duchess of Hamilton and my niece Waldegrave, you know, lie in; but, to the amazement of every body, Lady Coventry was there; and what surprised me much more, looked as well as ever.  I sat next but one to her, and should not have asked if she had been ill—­yet they are positive she has few weeks to live.  She and Lord Bolingbroke seemed to have different thoughts, and were acting over all the old comedy of eyes.  I sat in Lord Lincoln’s gallery; you and I know the convenience of it; I thought it no great favour to ask, and he very obligingly sent me a ticket immediately, and ordered me to be placed in one of the best boxes.  Lady Augusta was in the same gallery; the Duke of York and his young brothers were in the Prince of Wales’s box, who was not there, no more than the Princess, Princess Emily, nor the Duke.  It was an agreeable humanity in my friend—­the Duke of York; he would not take his seat in the House before the trial, that he might not vote in it.  There are so many young peers, that the show was fine even in that respect; the Duke of Richmond was the finest figure; the Duke of Marlborough, with the best countenance in the world, looked clumsy in his robes; he had new ones, having given away his father’s to the valet de chambre.  There were others not at all