I shall fill up the remainder of an empty letter with transcribing some sentences which have diverted me in a very foolish vulgar book of travels, lately published by one Drummond,(475) consul at Aleppo.  Speaking of Florence, he says, that the very evening of his arrival, he was carried by Lord Eglinton and some other English, whom he names, to your house:  “Mr. Mann” (these are his words) “is extremely Polite, and I do him barely justice in saying he is a fine gentleman, though indeed this is as much as can be said of any person whatever; yet there are various ways of distinguishing the qualities that compose this amiable character, and of these, he, in my opinion, possesses the most agreeable.  He lives in a fine palace; all the apartments on the ground-floor, which is elegantly furnished, were lighted up; and the garden was a little epitome of Vauxhall.  These conversationi resemble our card-assemblies;” (this is called writing travels, to observe that an assembly is like an assembly!) “and this was remarkably brilliant, for all the married ladies of fashion in Florence were present; yet were they as much inferior to the fair part of a British assembly, especially those of York and Edinburgh, as a crew of female Laplanders are to the fairest dames of Florence.  Excuse this sally, which is more warm than just; for even this assembly was not without a few lovely creatures.  Some played at cards, some passed the time in conversation; others walked from place to place; and many retired with their gallants into gloomy corners, where they entertained each other, but in what manner I will not pretend to say; though, if I may depend upon my information, which, by-the-by, was very good, their taste and mine would not at all agree.  In a word, these countries teem with more singularities than I choose to mention.”  You will conclude I had very little to say when I had recourse to the observations of such a simpleton; but I thought they would divert you for a moment, as they did me.  One don’t dislike to know what even an Aleppo factor would write of one-and I can’t absolutely dislike him, as he was not insensible to your agreeableness.  I don’t believe Orpheus would think even a bear ungenteel when it danced to his music.  Adieu!

(475) Alexander Drummond, Esq.  The work was entitled “Travels through different Cities of Germany, Italy, Greece, and several parts of Asia, as far as the banks of the Euphrates."-.

205 Letter 98 To John Chute, Esq.  Arlington Street, April 30, 1754.

My God!  Farinelli, what has this nation done to the King of Spain, that the moment we have any thing dear and precious he should tear it from us!-This is not the beginning of my letter to you, nor does it allude to Mr. Bentley; much less is it relative to the captivity of the ten tribes; nor does the King signify Benhadad or Tiglath-pileser; nor Spain, Assyria, as Dr. Pococke or Warburton, misled by dissimilitude of names, or by the Septuagint, may, for very good reasons, imagine—­but it is literally the commencement of my lady Rich’s(476) epistle to Farinelli on the recall of General Wall, as she relates it herself.  It serves extremely well for my own lamentation, when I sit down by the waters of Strawberry, and think of ye, O Chute and Bentley!