church, but by a lucky want of religion in the inhabitants, who would not contribute to building a steeple, it remains an absolute antique temple, with a portico on the very strand.  Cross this arm of the sea, you see six churches and charming woody hills in Suffolk.  All this parent Nature did for this place; but its godfathers and godmothers, I believe, promised it should renounce all the pomps and vanities of this world, for they have patched up a square house, full of windows, low rooms, and thin walls; piled up walls wherever there was a glimpse of prospect; planted avenues that go nowhere, and dug fishponds where there should be avenues.  We had very bad weather the whole time I was there! but however I rode about and sailed, not having the same apprehensions Of catching cold that Mrs. Kerwood had once at Chelsea, when I persuaded her not to go home by water, because it would be damp after rain.

The town is not quite empty yet.  My Lady Fitzwatter, Lady Betty Germain,(1063) Lady Granville,(1064) and the dowager Strafford have their At-homes, and amass company.  Lady Brown has done with her Sundays, for she is changing her house into Upper Brook Street.  In the mean time, she goes to Knightbridge, and Sir Robert to the woman he keeps at Scarborough:  Winnington goes on with the Frasi; so my lady Townshend is obliged only to lie of people.  You have heard of the disgrace of the Archibald, and that in future scandal she must only be ranked with the Lady Elizabeth Lucy and Madam Lucy Walters, instead of being historically noble among the Clevelands, Portsmouths, and Yarmouths.  It is said Miss Granville has the reversion of her coronet; others say, she won’t accept the patent.

Your friend Jemmy Lumley,(1065)—­beg pardon, I mean your kin, is not he?  I am sure he is not your friend;—­well, he has had an assembly, and he would write all the cards himself, and every one of them was to desire he’s company and she’s company, with other pieces of curious orthography.  Adieu, dear George!  I wish you a merry farm, as the children say at Vauxhall.  My compliments to your sisters.

(1062) Mistley Hall, near Manningtree.

(1063) Second daughter of the Earl of Berkeley, and married to Sir John Germain.

(1064) Daughter of rhomms, Earl of Pomfret.  She was Lord Granville’s second wife.

(1065) Seventh son of the first Earl of Scarborough.  He died in 1766, unmarried.-E.

422 Letter 169 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.  Arlington Street, July 1, 1745.

My dear harry, If it were not for that one slight inconvenience, that I should probably be dead now, I should have liked much better to have lived in the last war than in this; I mean as to the pleasantness of writing letters.  Two or three battles won, two or three towns taken, in a summer, were pretty objects to keep up the liveliness of a correspondence.  But now it hurts one’s dignity to be talking of English and French armies, at the first period