(694) This means retaken by the Imperialists from the French, who had obtained possession of it on the 25th of November, 1741.  The Austrian troops drove the French out of Prague, in December, 1742.-D.

(695) This wish was gratified, though not in this year.  Marshal Belleisle was taken prisoner in 1745, by the Hanoverian dragoons, was confined for some months in Windsor Castle, and exchanged after the battle of Fontenoy.-D.

(696) A profligate ecclesiastic, who was deeply engaged in the corrupt political intrigues of the day.  In these he was assisted by his sister Madame Tencin, an unprincipled woman of much ability, who had been the mistress of the still more infamous Cardinal Dubois.  Voltaire boasts in his Memoirs, of having killed the Cardinal Tencin from vexation, at a sort of political hoax, which he played off upon him.-D. [The cardinal was afterwards, made Archbishop of Lyons.  In 1752, he entirely quitted the court, and retired to his diocese, where he died in 1758, ,greatly esteemed,” says the Biog.  Univ. for his extensive charities.”  His sister died in 1749.  She was mother of the celebrated D’Alembert by Destouches Canon, and authoress of “Le Comte de Comminges,” “Les Malheurs de l’Amour,” and other romances.]

(697) ’The Champion was an opposition Journal, written by Fielding. [Assisted by Ralph, the historian.)

(698) Entitled " The Lessons for the Day, 1742.”  Published in Sir Charles Hanbury Williams’s works, but written by Walpole.-D.

(699) Charles Fane, afterwards Lord Fane, had been minister at Florence before Mr. Mann.

(700) A notorious gambler.  He is mentioned by Pope, in the character of the young man of fashion, in the fourth canto of the Dunciad,

“As much estate, and principle, and wit, As Jansen, Fleetwood, Cibber, shall think fit."-D.

284 Letter 83 To Sir Horace Mann.  Houghton, Sept. 11, 1742.

I could not write to you last week, for I was at Woolterton,(701) and in a course of visits, that took up my every moment.  I received one from you there, of August 26th, but have had none at all this week.

You know I am not prejudiced in favour of the country, nor like a place because it bears turnips well, or because you may gallop over it without meeting a tree:  but I really was charmed with Woolterton; it is all wood and water!  My uncle and aunt may, without any expense, do what they have all their lives avoided, wash themselves and make fires.(702) Their house is more than a good one; if they had not saved eighteen pence in every room, it would have been a fine one.  I saw several of my acquaintance,(703) Volterra vases, Grisoni landscapes, the four little bronzes, the raffle-picture, etc.

We have printed about the expedition to Naples:  the affair at Elba, too, is in the papers, but we affect not to believe it.  We are in great apprehensions of not taking Prague—­the only thing that has been taken on our side lately, I think, is my Lord Stair’s journey hither and back again-we don’t know for what-he is such an Orlando!  The papers are full of the most defending King’S Journey to Flanders;our private letters say not a word of it-I say our, for at present I think the earl’s intelligences and mine are pretty equal as to authority.