three hundred thousand pints of porter to drink his own health; and then Mr. Pitt determines to carry on the war for another year; and then the Duke of Newcastle hopes that we shall be beat, that he may lay the blame on Mr. Pitt, and that then he shall be minister for thirty years longer; and then we shall be the greatest nation in the universe.  Amen!  My dear Harry, you see how easy it is to be a hero.  If you had but taken impudence and Oatlands in your way to Rochfort, it would not have signified whether you had taken Rochfort or not.  Adieu!  I don’t know who Lady Ailesbury’s Mr. Alexander is.  If she curls like a vine with any Mr. Alexander but you, I hope my Lady Coventry will recover and be your Roxana.

(105) Mr. Conway, as groom of the bedchamber to the King, was then in waiting at Kensington.

Letter 45 To The Hon. H. S. Conway.  Strawberry Hill. (page 89)

You are good for nothing; you have no engagement, you have no principles; and all this I am not afraid to tell you,. as you have left your sword behind you.  If you take it ill, I have given my nephew, who brings your sword, a letter of attorney to fight you for me; I shall certainly not see you:  my Lady Waldegrave goes to town on Friday, but I remain here.  You lose Lady Anne Connolly and her forty daughters, who all dine here to-day upon a few loaves and three small fishes.  I should have been glad if you would have breakfasted here on Friday on your way; but as I lie in bed rather longer than the lark, I fear our hours would not suit one another.  Adieu!

Letter 46 To George Montagu, Esq.  Strawberry Hill, October 2, 1760. (page 90)

I announce my Lady Huntingtower(106) to you.  I hope you will approve the match a little more than I Suppose my Lord Dysart will, as he does not yet know, though they have been married these two hours, that, at ten o’clock this morning, his son espoused my niece Charlotte at St. James’s church.  The moment my Lord Dysart is dead, I will carry you to see the Ham-house; it is pleasant to call cousins with a charming prospect over against one.  Now you want to know the detail:  there was none.  It is not the style of Our Court to have long negotiations; we don’t fatigue the town with exhibiting the betrothed for six months together in public places.  Vidit, venit, vicit;—­the young lord has liked her some time; on Saturday se’nnight He came to my brother, and made his demand.  The princess did not know him by sight, and did not dislike him when she did; she consented. and they were married this morning.  My Lord Dysart is such a — that nobody will pity him; he has kept his son till six-and-twenty, and would never make the least settlement on him; “Sure,” said the young man, “if he will do nothing for me, I may please myself; he cannot hinder me of ten thousand pounds a-year, and sixty thousand that are in the funds, all entailed on me”—­a reversion one does not wonder the bride did not refuse, as there is present possession too of a very handsome person; the only thing his father has ever given him.  His grandfather, Lord Granville, has always told him to choose a gentlewoman, and please himself; yet I should think the ladies Townshend and Cooper would cackle a little.