(330) Evelyn ’ in his Diary for July 25, 1673, says, “In my way I visited my Lord of Dorset’s house at Knowle, near Sevenoaks, a greate old-fashion’d house."-E.

331) Thomas Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, while a student in the Temple, wrote his tragedy of Gordobuc, which was played before Queen Elizabeth, at Whitehall, in 1561.  He was created Earl of Dorset by James the First, in 1604.-E.

(332) Charles Sackville, sixth Earl of Dorset.  On the day previous to the naval engagement with the Dutch, in 1665, he is said to have composed his celebrated song, “to all you Ladies now on Land."-E.

(333) On the contrary, he married the Lady Frances, daughter of the Earl of Middlesex, who survived him.-E.

(334) Lionel Cranfield, Earl of Middlesex, married two wives:  the first was the daughter of a London citizen; the second, the daughter of James Brett, Esq. and half-sister of Mary Beaumont, created Countess of Buckingham.  To this last alliance, Lord Middlesex owed his extraordinary advancement.-E.

(335) “May 29, 1652.  We went to see the house of my Lord Clanrickard, at Summer Hill, near Tunbridge; now given to that villain Bradshaw, who condemned the King.  ’Tis situated on an eminent hill, with a park, but has nothing else extraordinary.”  Evelyn, vol. ii. p. 58.-E.

(336) lady Margaret Macarthy, daughter and heiress of the Marquis of Clanricarde, wife of Charles, Lord Muskerry.-E.

(337) Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir George Hamilton, fourth son of the first Earl of Abercorn, and niece of to the first Duke of Ormond, celebrated in the “M`emoires de Grammont” (written by her brother, Count Anthony Hamilton,) for her beauty and accomplishments.  She married Philip, Count de Grammont, by whom she had two daughters; the eldest married Henry Howard, created Earl of Stafford, and the youngest took the veil.-E.

(338) the ancient inheritance of Lord Dacre of the South.-E.

(339) Chaloner Chute, Esq, of the Vine, married Catherine, daughter of Richard, Lord Dacre.-E.

(340) At the date of this letter Mr. Pelham was prime minister.

(341) Evelyn, who visited Penshurst exactly a century before Walpole, gives the Following brief notice of the place:-"July 9, 1652.  We went to see Penshurst, the Earl of Leicester’s, famous once for its gardens and excellent fruit, and for the noble conversation which Was wont to meet there, celebrated by that illustrious person Sir Philip Sidney, who there composed divers of his pieces.  It stands in a park, is finely watered, and was now full of company, on the marriage of my old fellow-collegiate, Mr. Robert Smith, who marries Lady Dorothy Sidney, widow of the Earl of Sunderland."-E.

(342) Lady Dorothy Sidney, daughter of Philip, Earl of Leicester; of whom Waller was the unsuccessful suitor, and to whom he addressed those elegant effusions of poetical gallantry, in which she is celebrated under the name of Sacharissa.  Walpole here alludes to the lines written at Penshurst-