I forgot to take your orders about your poultry; the partlets have not laid since I went, for little chanticleer

Is true to love, and all for recreation,
And does not mind the work of propagation.

But I trust you will come Yourself in a few days, and then you may settle their route.

I am got deep into the Sidney papers, there are old wills full of bequeathed ovoche and goblets with fair enamel, that will delight you; and there is a little pamphlet of Sir Philip Sidney’s in defence of his uncle Leicester, that gives me a much better opinion of his parts than his dolorous Arcadia, though it almost recommended him to the crown of Poland; at least I have never been able to discover what other great merit he had.  In this little tract he is very vehement in clearing up the honour of his lineage; I don’t think he could have been warmer about his family, if he had been of the blood of the Cues.(1208) I have diverted myself with reflecting how it would have entertained the town a few years ago, if my cousin Richard Hammond had wrote a treatise to clear up my father’s pedigree, when the Craftsman used to treat him so roundly ’With being Nobody’s son.  Adieu! dear George!

Yours ever,
THE GRANDSON OF NOBODY.

(1207) A seat of the Duke of Marlborough.

(1208) Mr. Montagu used to call his own family the Cues.

480 Letter 203
To George Montagu, Esq. 
Arlington Street, June 5, 1746.

Dear George, You may perhaps fancy that you are very happy in the country, and that because you commend every thing you see, you like every thing:  you may fancy that London is a desert, and that grass grows now where Troy stood; but it does not, except just before my Lord Bath’s door, whom nobody will visit.  So far from being empty, and dull, and dusty, the town is full of people, full of water, for it has rained this week, and as gay as a new German Prince must make any place.  Why, it rains princes:  though some people are disappointed of the arrival of the Pretender, yet the Duke is just coming and the Prince of Hesse come.  He is tall, lusty, and handsome; extremely like Lord Elcho in person, and to Mr. Hussey,(1209) in what entitles him more to his freedom in Ireland, than the resemblance of the former does to Scotland.  By seeing him with the Prince of Wales, people think he looks stupid; but I dare say in his own country he is reckoned very lively, for though he don’t speak much, he opens his mouth very often.  The King has given him a fine sword, and the Prince a ball.  He dined with the former the first day, and since with the great officers.  Monday he went to Ranelagh, and supped in the house; Tuesday at the Opera he sat with his court in the box on the stage next the Prince, and went into theirs to see the last dance; and after it was over to the Venetian ambassadress, who is the only woman he has yet noticed.  To-night there is a masquerade at Ranelagh for him, a play at Covent Garden on Monday, and a Ridotto at the Haymarket; and then he is to go.  His amours are generally very humble, and very frequent; for he does not much affect our daughter.(1210) A little apt to be boisterous when he has drank.  I have not heard, but I hope he was not rampant last night with Lady Middlesex, or Charlotte Dives.(1211) Men go to see him in the morning, before he goes to see the lions.