of lamb.  The coolest days that I have felt since May last are equal to, nay, far exceed the warmest I ever felt in Ireland.  The place I am in now is all my comfort from the heat—­the situation Of it is close to the Thames, and is Richmond Gardens (if you were ever in them) in miniature, surrounded by bowers, groves, cascades, and ponds, and on a rising ground, not very common in this part of the country—­the building elegant, and the furniture of a peculiar taste, magnificent and superb He is a bachelor, and spends his time in the studious rural taste—­not like his father, lost in the weather-beaten vessel of state—­ many people censured, but his conduct was far better than our late pilots at the helm, and more to the interest of England--they follow his advice now, and court the assistance of Spain, instead of provoking a war, for that was ever against England’s interest.”

I laughed for an hour at this picture of myself, which is much more like to the studious magician in the enchanted opera of Rinaldo; not but Twickenham has a romantic genteelness that would figure in a more luxurious climate.  It was but yesterday that we had a new kind of auction-it was of the orange-trees and plants of your old acquaintance, Admiral Martin.  It was one of the warm days of this jubilee summer, which appears only once in fifty years—­the plants were disposed in little clumps about the lawn:  the company walked to bid from one to the other, and the auctioneer knocked down the lots on the orange tubs.  Within three doors was an auction of china.  You did not imagine that we were such a metropolis!  Adieu!

(811) The battle at Hastenbeck.

(812) Gray, in a letter to Dr. Wharton, of the 17th of August, says, “I hear we are not at all popular:  the great objection is obscurity:  nobody knows what we would be at:  one man, a peer, I have been told of, that think’s -the last stanza of The second Ode relates to Charles the First and Oliver Cromwell; in short, the zuveroi appear to be still fewer than even, I expected.”  Works, vol. iii. p. 165-E.

(813) William Robinson, first printer to the press at Strawberry Hill.

390 Letter 233 To George Montagu, Esq.  Strawberry Hill, Aug. 4, 1757.

I shall to-morrow deliver to your agentess, Mrs. Moreland, something to send to you.

The Duke(814) is beaten by the French; he and his family are safe; I know no more particulars-if I did, I should say, as I have just said to Mr. Chute, I am too busy about something to have time to write them.  Adieu!

(814) The Duke of Cumberland, in the affair of Hastenbeck.

391 Letter 234 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.  Strawberry Hill, August 14, 1757.

You are too kind to me, and, if it were possible, would make me feel still more for your approaching departures.(815) I can only thank you ten thousand times; for I must not expatiate, both from the nature of the subject, and from the uncertainty of this letter reaching you.  I was told yesterday, that you had hanged a French spy in the Isle of Wight; I don’t mean you, but your government.  Though I wish no life taken away, it was some satisfaction to think that the French were at this hour wanting information.