steward delivered them over to the oven and kitchen, and yet had not been able to destroy them all.  It is a vast work to dry, range, and read them, and to burn the useless, as bills, bonds, and every other kind of piece of paper that ever came into a house, and were all jumbled and matted together.  I propose, by degrees, to print the most curious; of which, I think, I have already selected enough to form two little volumes of the size of my Catalogue.  Yet I will not give too great expectations about them, because I know how often the public has been disappointed when they came to see in print what in manuscript has appeared to the editor wonderfully choice.

(960) We can hardly account for this expression, unless Mr. Walpole alludes to Lord Cromerty’s political reputation.  Macky states, that " his arbitrary proceedings had rendered him so obnoxious to the people, he could not be employed;” and, certainly, his character for consistency and integrity was not very exalted:  but almost all contemporary writers describe him as a man of great weight and of singular endowments; and Walpole himself, in his subsequent editions, calls him “a person eminent for his learning, and for his abilities as a statesman and general."-C.

(961) That Duke Humphrey had at least a relish for learning, may be inferred from the following passage.  At the close of a fine manuscript in the Cotton collection (Nero E. v.) is “Origo et processus gentis Scotorum, ae de superioritate Regum Angliae super regnum illud.”  It once belonged to Humphrey Duke of Gloucester, and has this Sentence in his own handwriting at the end, “Cest livre est `a moy Homfrey Duc de Gloucestre, lequel j’achetay des executeurs de maistre Thomas Polton, feu evesque de Wurcestre.”  Bishop Polton died in 1436.-C.

(962) The second part of Lord Clarendon’s history was printed in folio, in 1760, and also in three volumes octavo.-C.

(963) The increased and increasing taste of the public for the materials of history, such as these valuable papers supply, will, we have reason to hope, be gratified by the approaching appearance of this collection, publication of which was, we see, contemplated even as long since as 1758.-C.

456 Letter 288 To The Right Hon. Lady Hervey.  Arlington Street, Oct. 17, 1758.

Your ladyship, I hope, will not think that such a strange thing as my own picture seems of consequence enough to me to write a letter about it:  but obeying your commands does seem so; lest you should return and think I had neglected it, I must say that I have come to town three several times on purpose, but Mr. Ramsay (I will forgive him) has been constantly Out of town.  So much for that.