How infinitely humane you are about Gibberne!  Shall I amuse you with the truth of that history, which I have discovered?  The woman, his mother, has pressed his coming for a very private reason—­only to make him one of the most considerable men in this country!-and by what wonderful means do you think this mighty business is to be effected? only by the beauties of his person!  As I remember, he was as little like an Adonis as could be:  you must keep this inviolably; but depend upon the truth of it-I mean, that his mother really has this idea.  She showed his picture to—­why, to the Duchess of Cleveland, to the Duchess of Portsmouth, to Madame Pompadour; in short, to one of them, I don’t know which, I only know it was not to my Lady Suffolk, the King’s former mistress.  “Mon Dieu!  Madame, est-il frai que fotrc fils est si sholi que ce bortrait? il faut que je le garte; je feux apsolument l’afoir.”  The woman protested nothing ever was so handsome as her lad, and that the nasty picture did not do him half justice.  In short, she flatters herself that the Countess(79) will do him whole justice-.  I don’t think it impossible but, out of charity, she may make him groom of the chambers.  I don’t know, indeed, how the article of beauty may answer; but if you should lose your Gibberne, it is good to have @ a friend at court.

Lord Granby is going to be married to the eldest of the Lady Seymours; she has above a hundred and thirty thousand pounds.  The Duke of Rutland will take none of it, but gives at present six thousand a-year.

That I may keep my promise to myself of having nothing to tell you I shall bid you good night; but I really do know no more.  Don’t whisper my anecdote even to Gibberne, if he is not yet set out; nor to the Barrets.  I wish you a merry, merry baths of Pisa, as the link-boys say at Vauxhall.  Adieu!

(78) Count Richcourt, brother of the minister at Florence, and envoy from the Emperor; his wife was a Piedmontese.

(79) Lady Yarmouth.

45 Letter 14
To John Chute, Esq. 
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 22, 1749.

My dear sir, I expect Sir Charles Williams to scold me excessively.  He wrote me a letter, in which he desired that I would send you word by last Post, that he expected to meet you here by Michaelmas, according to your promise.  I was unfortunately at London; the letter was directed hither from Lord Ilchester’s, where he is; and so I did not receive it till this morning.  I hope, however, this will be time enough to put you in mind of your appointment; but while I am so much afraid of Sir Charles’s anger, I seem to forget the pleasure I shall have in seeing you myself; I hope you know that:  but he is still The more pressing, as he will stay so little time in England.  Adieu!

45 Letter 15
To George Montagu, Esq. 
Strawberry Hill, Sept. 28, 1749.