(94) On the preceding day, in consequence of the number of persons of distinction who had recently been robbed in the streets, a proclamation appeared in the London Gazette, offering a reward of one hundred pounds for the apprehension of any robber.-E.

(95) Lady Anne Lenox, sister of the Duke of Richmond, wife of William Anne Keppel, Earl of Albemarle, ambassador at Paris, and lady of the bedchamber to Queen Caroline.

(96) the Dukes of Newcastle and Bedford.

(97) The Duke of Bedford’s second wife was sister of Lord Trentham, the candidate.

(98) Of Cumberland.

(99) Edward, next brother of Lord Falmouth.

(100) Lady Catherine Manners, sister of John, Duke of Rutland, and wife of Henry Pelham, Chancellor of the exchequer.

(101) Mary Farenden, wife of John Selwyn, treasurer to Queen Caroline, and woman of the bedchamber.

53 letter 20 To Sir Horace Mann.  Strawberry Hill, Feb. 25, 1750.

I am come hither for a little repose and air.  The fatigue of a London winter, between Parliaments and rakery, is a little too much without interruption for an elderly personage, that verges towards—­I won’t say what.  This accounts easily for my wanting quiet—­but air in February will make you smile—­yet it is strictly true, that the weather is unnaturally hot:  we have had eight months of’ warmth beyond what was ever known in any other country; Italy is quite north with respect to us!-You know we have had an earthquake.  Mr. Chute’s Francesco says, that a few evenings before it there was a bright cloud, which the mob called the bloody cloud; that he had been told there never were earthquakes in England, or else he should have known by that symptom that there would be one within a week.  I am told that Sir Isaac Newton foretold a great alteration in Our climate in the year ’50, and that he wished he could live to see it.  Jupiter, I think, has jogged us three degrees nearer to the sun.

The Bedford Turnpike, which I announced to you in my last, is thrown out by a majority of fifty-two against the Duke of Bedford.  The Pelhams, who lent their own persons to him, had set up the Duke of Grafton, to list their own dependents under against their rival.  When the Chamberlain would head a party, you may be sure the opposite power is in the wane.  The Newcastle is at open war, and has left off waiting on the Duke, who espouses the Bedfords.  Mr. Pelham tries to patch it up, and is getting the Ordnance for the Duke; but there are scarce any terms kept.  Lord Sandwich, who governs the little Duke through the Duchess, is the chief object of the Newcastle hatred.  Indeed there never was such a composition! he is as capable of all little knavery, as if he was not practising all great knavery.  During the turnpike contest, in which he laboured night and day against his friend Halifax, he tried the grossest tricks to break agreements, when the opposite side were gone away on the security