(567) the once celebrated place of amusement was so called from its site being that of a villa of’ Viscount Ranelagh, near Chelsea.  The last entertainment given in it was the installation ball of the Knights of the Bath, in 1802.  It has since been razed to the ground.-E.

(568) In the Olimpiade.

(569) A satirical medal:  on one side was the head of Francis, Duke of Lorrain (afterwards emperor) with this motto, aut Caesar aut nihil:  on the reverse, that of the Emperor Charles Vii.  Elector of Bavaria, who had been driven out of his dominions, et Caesar et nihil.

(570) Sir H. Mann had mentioned, in one of his letters, the appearance of several cracks in the walls of his house at Florence.  Mrs. Goldsworthy, the wife of the English consul,
               had taken refuge in it when driven from Leghorn by
an earthquake.-D.

(571) Mrs. (’Goldsworthy.

(572) George Granville, Lord Lansdown, Pope’s “Granville the polite,” one of Queen
Anne’s twelve peers, and one of the minor
poets of that time.  He died in 1734, without
male issue, and his honours
extinguished.-D.

(573) Princess Craon.

(574) The Chevalier de Sade.

249 Letter 64
To Sir Horace Mann. 
London, April 29, 1742.

By yours of April 17, N. S. and some of your last letters, I find my Lady Walpole is more mad than ever-why, there never was so wild a scheme as this, of setting up an interest through Lord Chesterfield! one who has no power; and, if he had, would think of, or serve her, one of the last persons upon earth.  What connexion has he with what interest could he have in obliging her? and, but from views, what has he ever done, or will he ever do?  But is Richcourt (575) so shallow, and so ambitious, as to put any trust in there projects?  My dear child, believe me, if I was to mention them here, they would sound so chimerical, so womanish, that I should be laughed at for repeating them.  For yourself, be quite at rest, and laugh, as I do, at feeble, visionary malice, and assure yourself, whoever mentions such politics to you, that my Lady Walpole must have very frippery intelligence from hence, if she can raise no better views and on no better foundations.  For the poem you mention, I never read it:  upon inquiry, I find there was such a thing though now quite obsolete:  undoubtedly not Pope’s, and only proves what I said before, how low, how paltry, how uninformed her ladyship’s correspondents must be.

We are now all military! all preparations for Flanders! no parties but reviews; no officers, but “hope” they are to go abroad-at least, it is the fashion to say so.  I am studying lists of regiments and Dames of colonels-not that “I hope I am to go abroad,” but to talk of those who do.  Three thousand men embarked yesterday and the day before, and the thirteen thousand others sail as soon as the transports can return.  Messieurs d’Allemagne (576) roll their red eyes, stroke up their great beards, and look fierce-you know one loves a review and a tattoo.