(998) The street in Florence where Mr. Mann lived. (999) Belleisle and his brother, who had been sent by the King

of France on a mission to the King of Prussia, were detained, while changing horses, at Elbengerode, and from thence conveyed to England; where, refusing to give their parole in the mode it was required, they were confined in Windsor Castle.

400 Letter 155 To sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, Jan. 14, 1745.

I have given my uncle the letter from M. de Magnan; he had just received another from him at Venice, to desire his recommendation to you.  His history is, first,-the Regent picked him up, (I don’t know from whence, but he is of the Greek church,) to teach the present Duke of Orleans the Russ tongue, when they had a scheme for marrying him into Muscovy.  At Paris, Lord Waldegrave(1000) met with him, and sent him over hither, where they pensioned him and he was to be a spy, but made nothing out; till the King was weary of giving him money, and then they despatched him to Vienna, with a recommendation to Count d’Uhlefeldt, who, I suppose, has tacked him upon the Great Duke.  My uncle says, he knows no ill of him; that you may be civil to him, but not enter into correspondence with him, you need not; he is of no use.  Apropos to you; I have been in a fright about you; we were told that Prince Lobkowitz was landed at Harwich; I did not like the name; and as he has been troublesome to you, I did not know but he might fancy he had some complaints against you.  I wondered you had never mentioned his being set out; but it is his son, a travelling boy of twenty; he is sent under the care of an apothecary and surgeon.

The Parliament is met:  one hears of the Tory Opposition continuing, but nothing has appeared; all is quiet.  Lord Chesterfield is set out for the Hague — I don’t know what ear the States will lend to his embassy, when they hear with what difficulty the King was brought to give him a parting audience; and which, by a watch, did not last five-and-forty seconds.  The Granville faction are still the constant and only countenanced people at court.  Lord Winchilsea, one of the disgraced, played at court On Twelfth-night, and won:  the King asked him the next morning, how much he had for his own share?(1001) He replied, “Sir, about a quarter’s salary.”  I liked the spirit, and was talking to him Of it the next night at Lord Granville’s:  “Why, yes,” said he, “I think it showed familiarity at least:  tell it your father—­I don’t think he will dislike it.”  My Lady Granville gives a ball this week, but in a manner a private one, to the two families of Carteret and Fermor and their intimacies:  there is a fourth sister, Lady Jullana,(1002) who is very handsome, but I think not so well as Sophia:  the latter thinks herself breeding.

I will tell you a very good thing:  Lord Baltimore will not come into the admiralty, because in the new commission they give Lord Vere Beauclerc the precedence to him, and he has dispersed printed papers with precedents in his favour.  A gentleman, I don’t know who, the other night at Tom’s coffee-house, said, “It put him in mind of Ponkethman’s petition in the Spectator, where he complains, that formerly he used to act second chair in Dioclesian, but now was reduced to dance fifth flowerpot.”