I have lately had Lady Mary Wortley’s Eclogues(1403) published; but they don’t please, though so excessively good.  I say so confidently, for Mr. Chute agrees with me:  he says, for the epistle to Arthur Gray,(1404) scarce any woman could have written it, and no man; for a man who had had experience enough to paint such sentiments so well, would not have had warmth enough left.  Do you know any thing of Lady Mary? her adventurer son(1405) is come into Parliament, but has not opened.  Adieu! my dear child:  nous nous reverrons un jour!

(1401) Lord Orford, the eldest brother of Horace Walpole.-D.

(1402) Thomas, second son of Dr. Potter, Archbishop of Canterbury, was appointed secretary to the Princess of Wales, in which post he remained till the death of the Prince:  he made two celebrated speeches on the Seaford election, and on the contest between Aylesbury and Buckingham for the summer assizes; but did not long support the character here given of him. [In 1757, he was made joint vice-treasurer of Ireland, and died in June 1759.  Several letters, addressed by him to Mr. Pitt, will be found in the first volume of the Chatham Correspondence.)

(1403) Some of those Eclogues had been printed long before:  they were now published, with other of her poems, by Dodsley, in quarto, and soon after, with others, reprinted in his Miscellany. [They will be found in Lord Wharncliffe’s edition of Lady Mary’s Works, vol. iii. p. 350.]

(1404) The epistle was from Arthur Grey, the footman, and addressed to Mrs. Murray, after his condemnation for attempting to commit violence.  The man was tried for the offence in 1721, and transported.  See Works, vol. i. p. 71, and vol. iii. p. 402, where the epistle is printed.-E.

(1405) Edward Wortley Montagu, after a variety of adventures in various characters, was taken up -,it Paris with Mr. Teaffe, another member of Parliament, and imprisoned in Fort L`eveque, for cheating and robbing a Jew. (Mr. Montagu was confined in the Grand Chatelet from the 31st of October till the 2nd of November.  For his own account of the affair, see Nichols’s Literary Anecdotes, vol. iv. p. 629.]

541 Letter 246 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, Jan. 12, 1748.

I have just received a letter from you of the 19th of last month, in which you tell me you was just going to complain of me, when you received one from me:  I fear I am again as much to blame, as far as not having written; but if I had, it would only be to repeat what you say would be sufficient, but what I flatter myself I need not repeat.  The town has been quite empty; and the Parliament which met but yesterday, has been adjourned these three weeks.  Except elections, and such tiresome squabbles, I don’t believe it will produce any thing:  it is all harmony.  From Holland we every day hear bad news, which, though we don’t believe-at the present, we agree it is always likely to be true by tomorrow.  Yet, with no prospect of success,