Sir Robert Rich (653) is going to Flanders, to try to make up an affair for his son; who, having quarrelled with a Captain Vane, as the commanding officer was trying to make it up at the head of the regiment, Rich came behind Vane, “And to show you,” said he, “that I will not make it up, take that,” and gave him a box on the ear.  They were immediately put in arrest; but the learned in the laws of honour say, they must fight, for no German officer will serve with Vane, till he has had satisfaction.

Mr. Harris,(654) who married Lady Walpole’s mother, is to be one of the peace-offerings on the new altar.  Bootle is to be chief-justice; but the Lord Chancellor would not consent to it, unless Lord Glenorchy,(655) whose daughter is married to Mr. Yorke, had a place in lieu of the Admiralty, which he has lost-he is to have Harris’s.  Lord Edgecumbe’s, in Ireland, they say, is destined to Harry Vane,(656) Pultney’s toad-eater.

Monticelli lives in a manner at our house.  I tell my sister that she is in love with him, and that I am glad it was not Amorevoli.  Monticelli dines frequently with Sir Robert, which diverts me extremely; you know how low his ideas are of music and the virtuosi; he calls them all fiddlers.

I have not time now to write more, for I am going to a masquerade at the Ranelagh amphitheatre:  the King is fond of it, and has pressed people to go; but I don’t find that it will be full.  Good night!  All love to the Pope for his good thing.

(647) Sir R. W. to defeat Pultney’s ambition persuaded the ++King to insist on his going into the House of Lords:  the day he carried his patent thither, he flung it upon the floor in a passion, and could scarce be prevailed on to have it passed. ["I remember,” says Horace Walpole, (Reminiscences), “my father’s action and words when he returned from court, and told me what he had done — ’I have turned the key of the closet on him!’ making that motion with his hand.”]

(648) His title was to be Earl of Bath.

(649) General Guise, a, very brave officer, but apt to romance; and a great connoisseur in pictures. (He bequested his collection of pictures, which is a very indifferent one, to christ church College, Oxford.-D.)

(650) the duke of Newcastle’s French cook.

(651) George Johnstone, third Marquis of Annandale, in Scotland.  He was not declared a lunatic till the year 1748.  Upon his death, in 1792, his titles became either extinct or dormant.-D.

(652) Mary, daughter of Adam de Cardonel, secretary to John the great Duke of Marlborough, married to William, second Lord Talbot, eldest son of Lord Chancellor Talbot.-D.

(653) Sir Robert Rich, Bart., of Rose Hall, Suffolk.  At his death, in 1768, he was colonel of the fourth regiment of dragoons, governor of Chelsea Hospital, and field-marshal of the forces.-E.

(654) This article did not prove true.  Mr. Harris was not removed, nor Bootle made chief-justice.