(374) James West, member for St. Albans, secretary to Mr. Pelham as chancellor of the exchequer, secretary to the treasury, treasurer to the Royal Society, and member of the Antiquarian Society, married the sister of this Mr. Stephens.

161 Letter 75 To Sir Horace Mann.  Strawberry Hill, April 27, 1753.

I have brought two of your letters hither to answer:  in town there are so many idle people besides oneself, that one has not a minute’s time; here I have whole evenings, after the labours of the day are ceased.  Labours they are, I assure you; I have carpenters to direct, plasterers to hurry, papermen to scold, and glaziers to help:  this last is my greatest pleasure:  I have amassed such quantities of painted glass, that every window in my castle will be illuminated with it:  the adjusting and disposing it is vast amusement.  I thank you a thousand times for thinking of procuring me some Gothic remains from Rome; but I believe there is no such thing there:  I scarce remember any morsel in the true taste of it in Italy. indeed, my dear Sir, kind as you are about it, I perceive you have no idea what Gothic is; you have lived too long amidst true taste, to understand venerable barbarism.  You say, “You suppose my garden is to be Gothic too.”  That can’t be; Gothic is merely architecture; and as one has a satisfaction in imprinting the gloom of abbeys and cathedrals on one’s house, so one’s garden, on the contrary, is to be nothing but riot, and the gaiety of nature.  I am greatly impatient for my altar, and so far from mistrusting its goodness, I only fear it will be too good to expose to the weather, as I intend it must be, in a recess in the garden.  I was going to tell you that my house is so monastic, that I have a little hall decked with long saints in lean arched windows, and with taper columns, which we call the Paraclete, in memory of Eloisa’s cloister.(375)

I am glad you have got rid of your duel, bloodguiltless:  Captain Lee had ill luck in lighting upon a Lorrain officer; he might have boxed the ears of the whole Florentine nobility, (con rispetto si dice,) and not have occasioned you half the trouble you have had in accommodating this quarrel.

You need not distrust Mr. Conway and me for showing any attentions to Prince San Severino,(376) that may convince him of’ our regard for you; I only hope he will not arrive till towards winter, for Mr. Conway is gone to his regiment in Ireland, and my chateau is so far from finished, that I am by no means in a condition to harbour a princely ambassador.  By next spring I hope to have rusty armour, and arms with quarterings enough to persuade him that I am qualified to be Grand Master of Malta.  If you could send me Viviani,(377 with his invisible architects out of the Arabian tales, I might get my house ready at a day’s warning; especially as it will not be quite so lofty as the triumphal arch at Florence.