set themselves -,it the head of the latter.  Old Nugent came fuddled to the Opera last week, and jostled an ancient Lord Irwin, and then called him fool for being in his way:  they were going to fight; but my Lord Talbot, professing that he did not care if they were both hanged, advised them to go back and not expose themselves.  You will stare perhaps at my calling Nugent old:  it is not merely to distinguish him from his son; but he is such a champion and such a lover, that it is impossible not to laugh at him as if he was a Methuselah!  He is en affaire regime with the young Lady Essex.  At a supper there a few nights ago of two-and-twenty people, they were talking of his going to Cashiobury to direct some alterations:  Mrs. Nugent in the softest infantine voice called out, “My Lady Essex, don’t let him do any thing out of doors; but you will find him delightful within!”

I think I have nothing else to tell you but a bon-mot or two; with that sort of news I think I take care to supply you duly.  I send you constantly the best that London affords.  Dick Edgecumbe has said that his last child was born on All-gamesters’-day; Twelfth-night.  This chapter shall conclude with an epigram; the thought was George Selwyn’s, who, you know, serves all the epigram-makers in town with wit.  It is on Miss Chudleigh crying in the drawing-room on the death of her mother:-

“What filial piety! what mournful grace,
For a lost parent, sits on Chudleigh’s face
Fair virgin, weep no more, your anguish smother! 
You in this town can never want a mother.”

I have told poor Mr. Mann how kind you are to him:  indeed I have been exceedingly frightened and troubled for him, and thought him in immediate danger.  He is certainly much mended, though I still fear a consumption for him; he has not been able to move from Richmond this whole winter:  I never fail to visit him twice or thrice a week.  I heartily pity the fatigue and dullness of your life; nor can I flatter you with pretending to believe it will end soon:  I hope you will not be forced to gain as much reputation in the camp as you have in the cabinet!—­You see I must finish.

(662) On the 12th of March, Mr. George Townshend brought in a bill for better ordering the militia.  It passed the House of Commons on the 10th of May.-E.

(663) The Duke of Cumberlan(l.  Mr. George Townshend was very skilful at drawing caricatures, and published a set of twelve; to which he affixed the name of Austin.-E.

314 Letter 176 To Sir Horace Mann.  Arlington Street, March 18, 1756.

I am not surprised to find by your letters of 21st and 28th of February how much you have been alarmed for your brother.  You have not felt more than I have:  but I have the satisfaction of seeing him mend, while you undergo the terrible suspense of waiting for posts.  He has been pulled much back by the operation of his quicksilver, which flung him into a severe looseness and kind of salivation: