(865) See ant`e, p.325. (letter 108)

(866) Mr. Robert Mann, father of Sir Horace Mann, had a place in Chelsea College, under the Paymaster of the Forces.

(867) Mr. Chute had sent Mr. Walpole the following imitation of an epigram of Martial: 

“Issa est passere nequior Catulli,
Issa est pUrior osculo columbae.” 
Martial, Lib. i, Ep. 110.

“Pata is frolicksome and smart,
As Geoffry once was-(Oh my heart!)
He’s purer than a turtle’s kiss,
And gentler than a little miss;
A jewel for a lady’s ear,
And Mr. Walpole’s pretty dear. 
He laughs and cries with mirth or spleen;
He does not speak, but thinks, ’tis plain. 
One knows his little Guai’s as well
As if he’d little words to tell. 
Coil’d in a heap, a plumy wreathe,
He sleeps, you hardly hear him breathe. 
Then he’s so nice, who ever saw
A drop that sullied his sofa? 
His bended leg!-what’s this but sense?-
Points out his little exigence. 
He looks and points, and whisks about,
And says, pray, dear Sir, let me out. 
Where shall we find a little wife,
To be the comfort of his life,
To frisk and skip, and furnish means
Of making sweet Patapanins? 
England, alas! can boast no she,
Fit only for his cicisbee. 
Must greedy Fate then have him all?-
No; Wootton to our aid we’ll call-
The immortality’s the same,
Built on a shadow, or a name. 
He shall have one by Wootton’s means,
The other Wootton for his pains.”

(868) See the story of the White Cat in the fairy tales.

349 Letter 123
To Sir Horace Mann. 
London, Nov. 17, 1743.

I would not write on Monday till I could tell you the King was come.  He arrived at St. James’s between five and six on Tuesday.  We were in great fears of his coming through the city, after the treason that has been publishing for these two months; but it is incredible how well his reception was beyond what it had ever been before:  in short, you would have thought it had not been a week after the victory at Dettingen.  They almost carried him into -the palace on their shoulders; and at night the whole town was illuminated and bonfired.  He looks much better than he has for these five years, and is in great spirits.  The Duke limps a little.  The King’s reception of the Prince, who was come to St. James’s to wait for him, and who met him on the stairs with his two sisters and the privy councillors, was not so gracious-pas un mot-though the Princess was brought to bed the day before, and Prince George is ill of the small-pox.  It is very Unpopular!  You will possibly, by next week, hear great things:  hitherto, all is silence, expectation, struggle, and ignorance.  The birthday is kept on Tuesday, when the parliament was to have met; but that can’t be yet.

Lord Holderness has brought home a Dutch bride:(869) I have not seen her.  The Duke of Richmond had a letter yesterday from Lady Albemarle,(870) at Altona.  She says the Prince of Denmark is not so tall as his bride, but. far from a bad figure:  he is thin, and not ugly, except having too wide a mouth.  When she returns, as I know her particularly, I will tell you more; for the present, I think I have very handsomely despatched the chapter of royalties.  My lord comes to town the day after to-morrow.