Lord Rockingham told me himself of his Guercino, and seemed obliged for the trouble you had given yourself in executing the commission.  I can tell you nothing farther of the pictures at Houghton; Lord Orford has been ill and given over, and is gone to Cheltenham.

The affair of Miss Nicholl is blown up by the treachery of my uncle Horace and some lawyers, that I had employed at his recommendation.  I have been forced to write a narrative of the whole transaction, and was with difficulty kept from publishing it.  You shall see it whenever I have an opportunity.  Mr. Chute, who has been still worse used than I have been, is, however, in better spirits than he was, since he got rid of all this embroil.  I have brought about a reconciliation with his brother, which makes me less regard the other disappointments.  I must bid you good night, for I am at too great a distance to know any news, even if there were any in season.  I shall be in town next week, and will not fail you in inquiries, though I am persuaded you will before that have found that all this Genoese mystery was without foundation.  Adieu!

(270) Count Richcourt pretended that he had received intelligence from his brother, then minister in London, that Mr. Mann was to be sent on a secret commission to Genoa.

(271) Lord Wharncliffe, in his edition of Lady Mary’s Works, vol. iii. p. 435, makes the following observation on this passage:—­“Among Lady Mary’s papers there is a long paper, written in Italian, not by herself, giving an account of her having been detained for some time against her will in a country-house belonging to an Italian Count, and inhabited by him and his mother.  This paper seems to have been submitted to a lawyer for his opinion, or to be produced in a court of law.  There is nothing else to be found in Lady Mary’s papers referring in the least degree to this circumstance.  It would appear, however, that some such forcible detention as is alluded to did take place, probably for some pecuniary or interested object; but, like many of Horace Walpole’s stories, he took care not to let this lose any thing that might give it zest, and he therefore makes the person by whom Lady Mary was detained a young fellow whom she set out with keeping.’  Now, at the time of this transaction, Lady Mary was sixty-one years old.  The reader, therefore, may judge for himself, how far such an imputation upon her is likely to be founded in truth."-E.

114 Letter 48 To George Montagu, Esq.  Arlington Street, Oct. 8, 1751.

So you have totally forgot that I sent you the pedigree of the Crouches, as long ago as the middle of last August, and that you promised to come to Strawberry Hill in October.  I shall be there some time in next week, but as my motions neither depend on resolutions nor almanacs, let me know beforehand when you intend to make me a visit; for though keeping an appointment is not just the thing you ever do, I suppose you know you dislike being disappointed yourself, as much as if you were the most punctual person in the world to engagements.