of Italy, do you think any of them would be so brutal as Sir William Maynard?  I am exactly like you; I have no greater pleasure than to make them value your recommendation, by showing how much I value it.  Besides, I love the Florentines for their own sakes and to indemnify them, poor creatures! a little for the Richcourts, the Lorraines, and the Austrians.  I have received per mezzo di Pucci,(1312) a letter from Marquis Riccardi, with orders to consign to the bearer all his treasure in my hands, which I shall do immediately with great satisfaction.  There are four rings that I should be glad he would sell me; but they are such trifles, and he will set such a value on them the moment he knows I like them, that it is scarce worth while to make the proposal, because I would give but a little for them.  However, you may hint what plague I have had with his roba, and that it will be a gentillezza to sell me these four dabs.  One is a man’s head, small, on cornelian, and intaglio; a fly, ditto; an Isis, cameo; and an inscription in Christian Latin:  the last is literally not worth two sequins.

As to Mr. Townshend, I now know all ’the particulars, and that Lord SandWich(1313) was at the bottom of it.  What an excellent heart his lordship will have by the time he is threescore, if he sets out thus!  The persecution(1314) is on account of the poor boy’s relation to my father; of whom the world may judge pretty clearly already, from the abilities and disinterestedness of such of his enemies as have succeeded; and from their virtue in taking any opportunity to persecute any Of his relations; in which even the public interest of their country can weigh nothing, when clashing with their malice.  The King of Sar dinia has written the strongest letter imaginable to complain of the grievous prejudice the Admiralty has don@his affairs by this step.

Don’t scold me for not sending you those Lines to Eckardt:(1315) I never wrote any thing that I esteemcd less, or that was seen so incorrect ; nor can I at all account for their having been so much liked, especially as the thoughts were so old and so common.  I was hurt at their getting into print.  I enclose you an epilogue(1316) that I hae vwritten since, merely for a specimen of something more correct.  You know, or have known, that Tamerlane is always acted on King William’s birthday, with an occasional prologue ; this was the epilogue to it, and succeeded to flatter me.  Adieu!

(1312) Minister from the Great Duke.

(1313) John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich, First Lord of the Admiralty.

1314) See letter 221 of the 14th October.

((1315) The Beauties, an Epistle to Eckardt, the painter; reprinted in Dodsley’s Miscellanieg in Walpole’s Works, vol. i. p. 19.]

(1316) On the suppression of the rebellion. [See Works, vol. i. p. 25.]

514 Letter 226 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, Dec. 5, 1746.

We are in such a newsless situation, that I have been some time without writing to you; but I now answer one I received from you yesterday.  You will excuse me, if I am not quite so transported as Mr. Chute is, at the extremity of Aquaviva.(1317) I can’t afford to hate people so much at such a distance:  my aversions find employment within their own atmosphere.