The French invasion is laid aside; we are turning our hands to war again upon the continent.  The House of Commons is something of which I can give YOU no description:  Mr. Pitt, the meteor of it, Is neither yet in place, nor his friends out.  Some Tories oppose:  Mr. Pelham is distressed, and has vast majorities.  When the scene clears a little, I will tell you more of it.

The two last letters I have had from you, are of December 21 and January 4.  You was then still in uneasiness; by this time I hope you have no other distresses than are naturally incident to your miny-ness.

I never hear any thing of the Countess(1161) except just now, that she is grown tired of sublunary affairs, and willing to come to a composition with her lord:  I believe that the price will be two thousand a-year.  The other day, his and her lawyers were talking over the affair before her and several other people:  her counsel, in the heat of the dispute, said to my lord’s lawyers, “Sir, Sir, we shall be able to prove that her ladyship was denied nuptial rights and conjugal enjoyments for seven years.”  It was excellent!  My lord must have had matrimonial talents indeed, to have reached to Italy; besides, you know, she made it a point after her son was born, not to sleep with her husband.

Thank you for the little medal.  I am glad I have nothing more to tell you-you little expected that we should so soon recover our tranquility.  Adieu!

(1160) Glover, in his Memoirs, speaks of Hawley with great contempt, and talks of “his beastly ignorance and negligence,” which occasioned the loss of the battle of Falkirk.-D.

(1161) Lady Orford.

463 Letter 193
To Sir Horace Mann. 
Arlington Street, Jan. 28, 1746.

Do they send you the gazettes as they used to do?  If you have them, you will find there an account of another battle lost in Scotland.  Our arms cannot succeed there.  Hawley, of whom I said so much to you in my last, has been as unsuccessful as Cope, and by almost every circumstance the same, except that Hawley had less want of skill and much more presumption.  The very same dragoons ran away at Falkirk, that ran away at Preston Pans.(1162) Though we had seven thousand men, and the rebels but five, we had scarce three regiments that behaved well.  General Huske and Brigadier Cholmondeley,(1163) my lord’s brother, shone extremely — the former beat the enemy’s. right wing; and the latter, by rallying two regiments, prevented the pursuit.  Our loss is trifling:  for many of the rebels fled as fast as the glorious dragoons- but we have lost some good officers, particularly Sir Robert Monroe; and seven pieces of cannon.  A worse loss is apprehended, Stirling Castle, which could hold out but ten days; and that term expires to-morrow.  The Duke is gone post to Edinburgh, where he hoped to arrive to-night; if possible, to relieve Stirling.  Another battle will certainly be fought before you receive this;