(203) Edward bright died at Malden in Essex, on the 10th of November, at the age of thirty.  He was an active man till a year or two before that event; when his corpulency so overpowered his strength, that his life was a burthen to him.-E.

(204) Eldest son of Thomas Fermor, Earl of Pomfret, whom, in 1753, he succeeded in the title.

(205) When he was on his travels, and run much in debt, his parents paid his debts:  Some more came out afterwards; he wrote to his mother, that he could only compare himself to Cerberus, who, when one head was cut off, had another spring up in its room.

(206) In 1747, when only a captain, Sir Ralph distinguished himself at the battle Of Laffeldt.  In 1764, he was created Baron Gore, and in 1771, Earl of Ross:  in 1788, he was appointed commander-in-chief in Ireland, and died in 1802.-E.

(207) Andrew Mitchell, afterwards commissary at Antwerp. [And, for many years, envoy from England to the court of Prussia.  In 1765 he was created a knight of the bath, and died at Berlin in 1771.  His valuable collection of letters, forming sixty-eight volumes, was purchased in 1810, by the trustees of the British Museum.-E.

88 Letter 34 To Sir Horace Mann.  Strawberry Hill, Dec. 22, 1750.

As I am idling away some Christmas days here, I begin a letter to you, that perhaps will not set out till next year.  Any changes in the ministry will certainly be postponed till that date:  it is even believed that no alteration will be made till after the session; they will get the money raised -,And the new treaty ratified in Parliament before they break and part.  The German ministers arc more alarmed, and seem to apprehend themselves in as tottering a situation as some of the English:  not that any secretary of state is jealous of them—­their Countess(208) is on the wane.  The housekeeper(209) at Windsor, an old monster that Verrio painted for one of the Furies, is dead.  The revenue is large, and has been largely solicited.  Two days ago, at the drawing-room, the gallant Orondates strode up to Miss Chudleigh, and told her he was glad to have an opportunity of obeying her commands, that he appointed her mother housekeeper at Windsor, and hoped she would not think a kiss too great a reward—­against all precedent he kissed her in the circle.  He has had a hankering these two years.  Her life, which is now of thirty years’ standing, has been a little historic.(210) Why should not experience and a charming face on her side, and near seventy years on his, produce a title?

Madame de Mirepoix is returned:  she gives a lamentable account of another old mistress,(211) her mother.  She has not seen her since the Princess went to Florence, which she it seems has left with great regret; with greater than her beauty, whose ruins she has not discovered:  but with few teeth, few hairs, sore eyes, and wrinkles, goes bare-necked and crowned with jewels!  Madame Mirepoix told me a reply of Lord Cornbury, that pleased me extremely.  They have revived at Paris old Fontenelle’s opera of Peleus and Thetis:  he complained of being dragged upon the stage again for one of his juvenile performances, and said he could not bear to be hissed now:  Lord Cornbury immediately replied to him out of the very opera,