I know nothing else but elopements:  I have lost my man Henry, who is run away for debt; and my Lord Bath his only son. who is run away from thirty thousand pounds a-year, which in all probability would have come to him in six months.  There had been some great fracas about his marriage; the stories are various on the Why; some say his father told Miss Nichols that his son was a very worthless young man; others, that the Earl could not bring himself to make tolerable settlements; and a third party say, that the Countess has blown up a quarrel in order to have his son in her power, and at her mercy.  Whatever the cause was, this ingenious young man, who You know has made my Lady Townshend his everlasting enemy, by repeating her histories of Miss Chudleigh to that Miss, of all counsellors in the world, picked out my Lady Townshend to consult on his domestic grievances:  she, with all the good-nature and charity imaginable, immediately advised him to be disinherited.  He took her advice, left two dutiful letters for his parents, to notify ’his disobedience, and went off last Friday night to France.  The Earl is so angry, that he could almost bring himself to give Mr. Newport, and twenty other people, their estates again.  Good night—­here is the Goth, Mr. Bentley, wants to say a word to you.

“Dear Sir, Wrote you a supernumerary letter on Saturday, but as I find you have shifted your quarters since I heard from ’you, imagine it may not have reached you yet.  If you want to know what made me so assiduous, it was to tell you Sir Danvers Osborn has kissed hands for New York, that’s all.  I am sincerely yours.

“P.S.  I wish you Would write to him mentioning me, that’s more.”

(387) At Brewern, in Oxfordshire.-E.

(388) Second son of the Marquis of Townshend.

167 Letter 78
To The Hon. H. S. Conway. 
Strawberry Hill, May 24, 1753.

It is well you are married!  How would my Lady Ailesbury have liked to be asked in a parish church for three Sundays running?  I really believe she would have worn her weeds for ever, rather than have passed through so impudent a ceremony!  What do you think?  But you will want to know the interpretation of this preamble.  Why, there is a new bill, which, under the notion of preventing clandestine marriages, has made such a general rummage and reform in the office of matrimony that every Strephon and Chloe, every dowager and her Hussey, will have as many impediments and formalities to undergo as a treaty of peace.  Lord Bath invented this bill,(389) but had drawn it so ill, that the Chancellor was forced to draw a new one, and then grew so fond of his own creature, that he has crammed it down the throats of both Houses-though they gave many a gulp before they could swallow it.  The Duke of Bedford attacked it first with great spirit and mastery, but had little support, though the Duke of Newcastle did not vote.  The lawyers were all ordered to purse it through