Lord Orford is come to town, and was at the King’s levee to-day; the joy the latter showed to see him was very visible:  all the new ministry came and spoke to him; and he had a long, laughing conversation with my Lord Chesterfield, who is still in Opposition.

You have heard, I suppose, of the revolution in the French Court; Madame de Mailly is disgraced, and her handsome sister De la Tournelle(730) succeeds:  the latter insisted on three conditions; first, that the Mailly should quit the palace before she entered it; next, that she should be declared mistress, to which post, they pretend, there is a large salary annexed, (but that is not probable,) and lastly, that she may always have her own parties at supper:  the last article would very well explain what she proposes to do with her salary.

There are admirable instructions come up from Worcester to Sandys and Winnington; they tell the latter how little hopes they always had of him.  “But for you, Mr. Sandys, who have always, etc., you to snatch at the first place you could get,” etc.  In short, they charge him, who is in the Treasury and Exchequer not to vote for any supplies.(731)

I write to you in a vast hurry, for I am going to the meeting at the Cockpit, to hear the King’s speech read to the members:  Mr. Pelham presides there.  They talk of a majority of fourscore:  we shall see to-morrow.

The Pomfrets stay in the country most part of the winter-.  Lord Lincoln and Mr. (George) Pitt have declared off in form.(732) So much for the schemes of my lady!  The Duke of Grafton used to say that they put him in mind of a troop of Italian comedians; Lord Lincoln was Valere, Lady Sophia, Columbine, and my lady the old mother behind the scenes.

Our operas go on au plus miserable:  all our hopes lie in a new dancer, Sodi, who has performed but once, but seems to please as much as the Fausan.  Did I tell you how well they had chosen the plot of the first opera?  There was a prince who rebels against his father, who had before rebelled against his.(733) The Duke of Montagu says, there is to be an opera of dancing, with singing between the acts.

My Lord Tyrawley(734) is come from Portugal, and has brought three wives and fourteen children; one of the former is a Portuguese, with long black hair plaited down to the bottom of her back.  He was asked the other night at supper, what he thought of England; whether he found much alteration from fifteen years ago?  “No,” he said, “not at all:  why, there is my Lord Bath, I don’t see the least alteration in him; he is just what he was:  and then I found Lord Grantham (735) walking on tiptoe, as if he was still afraid of waking the Queen.”

Hanbury Williams is very ill at Bath, and his wife in the same way in private lodgings in the city.  Mr. Doddington has at last owned his match with his old mistress.(736) I suppose he wants a new one.