therefore, a name happened to be mentioned, to which the owner was wanting, it was immediately concluded that the person to whom the name belonged was either dead, or, what was the same in effect, gone, no matter where, to be a schoolmaster, and so was accordingly wiped out of the book of the living. Vid. Athen. Dypnosop. p. 147.*

I hear that Mr. Thos. Townshend intends soon to send some relations to Eton. If you have any interest in the affair, I should be glad of your recommendation, and you may depend upon my utmost diligence and best endeavours. We have a report here that Lord Lincoln† is married to one of Lord Pomfret's daughters; pray let me know whether there is any truth in it: we, who love him, must be very much concerned at it; not but that the match may be happy, but a husband at twenty-one makes as odd a figure as a ship just launched before she has taken in her ballast. Pray write soon, and add one more obligation to, dear George, your most sincere humble servant,

George Selwyn, Esq.,

at John Selwyn's, Esq., Member of Parliament, in Cleaveland Court, St. James's, London.

HEN. READE.

* The Deipnosophists of Athenæus, the Greek grammarian, is the only work of that author which has descended to modern times. It consists of a collection of remarks and anecdotes, and is chiefly valuable from its containing numerous quotations from other authors, of whose writings no other specimens are extant.

Henry Pelham Clinton, ninth Earl of Lincoln, and first

GEORGE SELWYN TO MR. VINCENT MATHIAS.

SIR,

Paris, September, 8th [1742] N.S.

I RETURN you my thanks for the favour of your last, and the care you take of my affairs in the Tower. In respect to the rent, I am resolved to fix it to twenty-five pounds per annum, as long as the house belongs to me. My successor, whoever he may be, may, if he please, let it for nothing; but I think it more probable that, if he considers what the value of the house is, he will raise the rent five pounds more. My tenant quotes General Evans* as a precedent, but I cannot think he should be one for me: he had a very plentiful fortune, and other employments much more considerable; in so much that, if he did not think it worth his while to be exact in regard to the profits of so inconsiderable a place as that in which I succeed him, he might afford to do it, but I believe you know my circumstances too well, not to think I am in the right to make every reasonable advantage I can.

Duke of Newcastle of his family, was born on the 20th of April 1720, and married, on the 16th of October 1744, Catherine, eldest surviving daughter and co-heiress of the Right Honourable Henry Pelham. The Duke of Newcastle died on the 22nd of February 1794.

* The predecessor of George Selwyn as Clerk of the Irons and Surveyor of the Meltings at the Mint.

It concerns me to find that I have not interest enough with my father to obtain a remittance of my quarterage, before the precise time when it becomes due, considering that, unless for particular accidents, I should have been so good an economist as not to have wanted it. However, I hope that I may without scruple draw upon my banker the 25th of this month, according to our style, when I shall, as I drew according to the same style in the last quarter, have lived a complete three months upon my last remittance. To this I have nothing to add, but that if I could have any money allowed me so before hand, I should never have occasion to be so pressing; but as it is, a part of the income which is to provide for the expenses of the ensuing quarter must contribute to pay for those of the last, so that the little that is left being barely sufficient, barring all manner of accidents, I must always be in want, though I have two hundred and twenty pounds a year, which I should otherwise think a competent allowance.

I have had the honour of receiving a letter from my father, which I shall take next the opportunity of returning my thanks for. In the meantime I beg you will present my duty to him and my mother, if you see them; and believe me to be very much,

P.S. I am much obliged to you for your kind offer of ten pounds, but I have not drawn for it,

since I have a mind (as much as it lies in my power) to hide my necessities and disgraces from as many as possible.

A Monsieur, Monsieur Mathias,

au Bureau de Commerce, à Whitehall, à Londres.

Paris, November 10, [1742,] N.S.

I HAVE been a little disappointed, as I expected the pleasure of hearing from you, after the receipt of my last, wherein I acquainted you with my last draught of fifty-five pounds, for the preceding quarter, upon Mr. Selwin, the banker here. But this is not the reason of my giving you the present trouble, which is to beg that, if you know any means by which I can obtain of my father a sum of money over and above my yearly income, that I may be a little beforehand in my affairs, you will

* Of Mr. Selwyn, the English banker at Paris, Horace Walpole writes to the Earl of Hertford, ambassador to the Court of France, in December 1763, "You know how utterly averse I am to meddle, or give impertinent advice; but the letter I saw was expressed with so much respect and esteem for you, that you would love the person. It is Mr. Selwyn, the banker. He says, he expected no favour; but the great regard he has for the amiableness of your character makes him miserable at being totally undistinguished by you. He has so good a character himself, and is so much beloved by many persons here, that you know, that I think you will not dislike my putting you in mind of him." It does not appear that there existed any relationship between George Selwyn and the banker. The former, it will be perceived, spells their names differently; while Walpole, on the other hand, writes them the same.

be so kind as to inform me of them; since you say that you do not doubt of his kind intentions towards me, upon a proper application to him for it. I am certain that I should embrace, with all the pleasure imaginable, any opportunity I had of meriting his favour, if any could be found in the situation I am in at present; and I reckon it as one of my greatest misfortunes that, being at this distance from him, my zeal, and the application I would exert to recommend myself to his esteem, cannot be made so manifest as it would be on my return to England.

In respect to my circumstances, when I consider how much all kind of economy was a stranger to me, and that carelessness and dissipation were, by long use, become almost natural, it is surprising to me that I have been able to keep within bounds so well as I have; to which I may add, that, being always a stranger where I have been, the management of my fortune has been still a more difficult task; but, notwithstanding, I am far from being in an easy enjoyment of my income, which, being so moderate, I might reasonably expect to be. Every quarter I receive, at least the greater part of it is due when I receive it; and being in an extreme want of clothes, I have no possibility of being beforehand, without the assistance which I sue for at present. I believe it is needless to be very circumstantial upon this subject, since everybody's own reflections must easily suggest to them how