P.S.—­I must ask you one question, but to be answered entirely at your leisure.  I have a play in rhyme called “Saul,” said to be written by a peer.  I guess Lord Orrery.  If ever you happen to find out, be so good to tell me.

WALPOLE’S MONUMENT TO SIR HORACE’S BROTHER—­ATTEMPTED ASSASSINATION OF THE KING OF PORTUGAL—­COURTESY OF THE DUC D’AIGUILLON TO HIS ENGLISH PRISONERS.

TO SIR HORACE MANN.

STRAWBERRY HILL, Oct. 24, 1758.

It is a very melancholy present I send you here, my dear Sir; yet, considering the misfortune that has befallen us, perhaps the most agreeable I could send you.  You will not think it the bitterest tear you have shed when you drop one over this plan of an urn inscribed with the name of your dear brother, and with the testimonial of my eternal affection to him!  This little monument is at last placed over the pew of your family at Linton [in Kent], and I doubt whether any tomb was ever erected that spoke so much truth of the departed, and flowed from so much sincere friendship in the living.  The thought was my own, adopted from the antique columbaria, and applied to Gothic.  The execution of the design was Mr. Bentley’s, who alone, of all mankind, could unite the grace of Grecian architecture and the irregular lightness and solemnity of Gothic.  Kent and many of our builders sought this, but have never found it.  Mr. Chute, who has as much taste as Mr. Bentley, thinks this little sketch a perfect model.  The soffite is more beautiful than anything of either style separate.  There is a little error in the inscription; it should be Horatius Walpole posuit.  The urn is of marble, richly polished; the rest of stone.  On the whole, I think there is simplicity and decency, with a degree of ornament that destroys neither.

What do you say in Italy on the assassination of the King of Portugal?[1] Do you believe that Portuguese subjects lift their hand against a monarch for gallantry?  Do you believe that when a slave murders an absolute prince, he goes a walking with his wife the next morning and murders her too?  Do you believe the dead King is alive? and that the Jesuits are as wrongfully suspected of this assassination as they have been of many others they have committed?  If you do believe this, and all this, you are not very near turning Protestants.  It is scarce talked of here, and to save trouble, we admit just what the Portuguese Minister is ordered to publish.  The King of Portugal murdered, throws us two hundred years back—­the King of Prussia not murdered, carries us two hundred years forward again.

[Footnote 1:  The Duke of Aveiro was offended with the King of Portugal for interfering to prevent his son’s marriage, and, in revenge, he plotted his assassination.  He procured the co-operation of some other nobles, especially the Marquis and Marchioness of Tavora, and also of some of the chief Jesuits in the country, who promised absolution to any assassin.  The attempt was made on September 3rd, when the King was fired at and severely wounded.  The conspirators were all convicted and executed, and the Jesuits were expelled from the country.]