at court—­the Prince of Masserano they say well; he is extremely in fashion, and is a sensible very good-humoured man, though his appearance is so deceitful.  They have given me the honour of a bon-mot, which, I assure you, does not belong to me, that I never saw a man so full of orders and disorders.  He and his suite, and the Guerchys and theirs, are to dine here next week.  Poor little Strawberry never thought of such f`etes.  I did invite them to breakfast, but they confounded it, and understood that they were asked to dinner, so I must do as well as I can.  Both the ambassadors are in love with my niece;(629) therefore, I trust they will not have unsentimental stomachs.

Shall I trouble you with a little commission?  It is to send me a book that I cannot get here, nor am I quite sure of the exact title, but it is called “Origine des Moeurs,"(630) or something to that import.  It is in three volumes, and has not been written above two or three years.  Adieu, my dear lord, from my fireside.

P. S. Do you know that Madame de Yertzin, The Mecklenburgh Countess, has had the honour of giving the King of Prussia a box of the ear?—­I am sure he deserved it, if he could take liberties with such a chimpanzee.  Colonel Elliot died on Thursday.

(621) the Daughter of the second Earl of Albemarle; she was born in 1739.-E.

(622) See ant`e, p. 304, letter 198.

(623) Caroline Russel, sister of the Duke of Bedford.-E.

(624) Anne, daughter of Charles, first Duke of Richmond.-E.

(625) Lady Dysart and Mrs. Keppel; the latter was married to Lady Elizabeth’s brother.-E.

(626) Lord Northumberland was still lord-lieutenant of Ireland.-E.

(627) Mrs. Pitt’s villa.

(628) First lord of the admiralty.

(629) Lady Waldegrave.

(630) In a subsequent letter, he calls this work “Essais les Moeurs.”  I find a work of the latter title published in 1756 anonymously, and under the date of Bruxelles.  It was written by a M. Soret, but it seems to have been in only one volume.  Can Mr. Walpole have meant Duclos’s celebrated “Considerations sur les Moeurs,” published anonymously in 1750, but subsequently under his name?—­C.

Letter 213 To George Montagu, Esq.  Strawberry Hill, June 18, 1764. (page 328)

I trust that you have thought I was dead, it is so long since you heard of me.  In truth I had nothing to talk of but cold and hot weather, of rain and want Of rain, subjects that have been our summer conversation for these twenty years.  I am pleased that you was content with your pictures, and shall be glad if you have ancestors out of them.  You may tell your uncle Algernon that I go to-morrow, where he would not be ashamed to see me; as there are not many such spots at present, you and he will guess it is to Park-place.