His bon mots, his sallies, his fortunes and places, and continual dangling at court, procured Bubo, as Pope styled him, one pre-eminence.  His dinners at Hammersmith were the most recherches in the metropolis.  Every one remembers Brandenburgh House, when the hapless Caroline of Brunswick held her court there, and where her brave heart,—­burdened probably with some sins, as well as with endless regrets,—­broke at last.  It had been the residence of the beautiful and famous Margravine of Anspach, whose loveliness in vain tempts us to believe her innocent, in despite of facts.  Before those eras—­the presence of the Margravine, whose infidelities were almost avowed, and the abiding of the queen, whose errors had, at all events, verged on the very confines of guilt—­the house was owned by Dodington.  There he gave dinners; there he gratified a passion for display, which was puerile; there he indulged in eccentricities which almost implied insanity; there he concocted his schemes for court advancement; and there, later in life, he contributed some of the treasures of his wit to dramatic literature.  ‘The Wishes,’ a comedy, by Bentley, was supposed to owe much of its point to the brilliant wit of Dodington[14].

[14:  See Walpole’s ‘Royal and Noble Authors’]

At Brandenburgh House, a nobler presence than that of Dodington still haunted the groves and alleys, for Prince Rupert had once owned it.  When Dodington bought it, he gave it—­in jest, we must presume—­the name of La Trappe; and it was not called Brandenburgh House until the fair and frail Margravine came to live there.

Its gardens were long famous; and in the time of Dodington were the scene of revel.  Thomas Bentley, the son of Richard Bentley, the celebrated critic, had written a play called ‘The Wishes;’ and during the summer of 1761 it was acted at Drury Lane, and met with the especial approbation of George III., who sent the author, through Lord Bute, a present of two hundred guineas as a tribute to the good sentiments of the production.

This piece, which, in spite of its moral tendency, has died out, whilst plays of less virtuous character have lived, was rehearsed in the gardens of Brandenburgh House.  Bubb Dodington associated much with those who give fame; but he courted amongst them also those who could revenge affronts by bitter ridicule.  Among the actors and literati who were then sometimes at Brandenburg House were Foote and Churchill; capital boon companions, but, as it proved, dangerous foes.’

Endowed with imagination; with a mind enriched by classical and historical studies; possessed of a brilliant wit, Bubb Dodington was, nevertheless, in the sight of some men, ridiculous.  Whilst the rehearsals of ‘The Wishes’ went on, Foote was noting down all the peculiarities of the Lord of Brandenburgh House, with a view to bring them to account in his play of ‘The Patron.’  Lord Melcombe was an aristocratic Dombey:  stultified by his