My dear Sir, how I am obliged to you for your poem!  Patapan is so vain with it, that he will read nothing else; I only offered him a Martial to compare it with the original, and the little coxcomb threw it into the fire, and told me, “He had never heard of a lapdog’s reading Latin; that it was very well for house-dos and pointers that live in the country, and have several hours upon their hands:  for my part,” said he,

“I am so nice, who ever saw
A Latin book on my sofa? 
You’ll find as soon a primer there
Or recipes for pastry ware. 
Why do ye think I ever read
But Crebillon or Calpren`ede? 
This very thing of Mr. Chute’s
Scarce with my taste and fancy suits,
oh! had it but in French been writ,
’Twere the genteelest, sweetest bit! 
One hates a vulgar English poet: 
I vow t’ ye, I should blush to show it
To women de ma connoissance,
Did not that agr`eable stance. 
Cher double entendre! furnish means
Of making sweet Patapanins!"(867)

My dear Sir, your translation shall stand foremost in the Patapaniana:  I hope in time to have poems upon him, and sayings of his own, enough to make a notable book.  En attendant, I have sent you some pamphlets to amuse your solitude; for, do you see, tramontane as I am, and as much as I love Florence, and hate the country, while we make such a figure in the world, or at least such a noise in it, one must consider you other Florentines as country gentlemen.  Tell our dear Miny that when he unfolds the enchanted carpet, which his brother the wise Galfridus sends him, he will find all the kingdoms of the earth portrayed in it.  In short, as much history as was described on the ever-memorable and wonderful piece of silk which the puissant White Cat(868) inclosed in a nutshell, and presented to her paramour Prince.  In short, in this carpet, which (filberts being out of season) I was reduced to pack up in a walnut, he will find the following immense library of political lore:  Magazines for October, November, December; with an Appendix for the year 1741; all the Magazines for 1742, bound in one volume; and nine Magazines for 17’43.  The Life of King Theodore, a certain fairy monarch; with the Adventures of this Prince and the fair Republic of Genoa.  The miscellaneous thoughts of the fairy Hervey.  ’The Question Stated.  Case of the Hanover Troops; and the Vindication of the Case.  Faction Detected.  Congratulatory Letter to Lord Bath.  The Mysterious Congress; and @our Old England Journals.  Tell Mr. Mann, or Mr. Mann tell himself, that I would send him nothing but this enchanted carpet, which he can’t pretend to return.  I will accept nothing under enchantment.  Adieu all !  Continue to love the two Patapans.

(864) Sir Horace Mann in a letter to Walpole, dated Sept. 24th, 1743, gives an account of his father’s refusal to give him any money; and then quotes the following passage from his father’s letter-"He tells me he has been baited by you and your uncle on my account, which was very disagreeable, and believes he may charge it to me."-D.