beauty. It is the second, Maria,' who is beauty itself! her face, bloom, eyes, hair, teeth, and person are all perfect. You may imagine how charming she is, when her only fault, if one must find one, is, that her face is rather too round. She has a great deal of wit and vivacity, with perfect modesty. I must tell you too of their brother he was on the expedition to St. Maloes; a party of fifty men appearing on a hill, he was dispatched to reconnoitre with only eight men. Being stopped by a brook, he prepared to leap it; an old serjeant dissuaded him, from the inequality of the numbers. "Oh!" said the boy, "I will tell you what; our profession is bred up to so much regularity that any novelty terrifies them—with our light English horses we will leap the stream; and I'll be dd if they don't run." He did so and they did so. However, he was not content; but insisted that each of his party should carry back a prisoner before them. They had got eight, when they overtook an elderly man, to whom they offered quarter, bidding him lay down his arms. He replied, "they were English, the enemies of his King and country; that he hated them, and had rather be killed." My nephew hesitated a minute, and then said, "I see you are a brave fellow, and don't fear death, but very likely you fear a beating -if you don't lay down your arms this instant, my men shall drub you as long as they can stand over you." The fellow directly flung down his arms in a passion. The Duke of Marlborough sent my brother word of this, adding, it was the only clever action in their whole exploit. Indeed I am pleased with it; for besides his spirit, I don't see, with this thought and presence of mind, why he should not make a general. I return to one little word of the King of Prussia -shall I tell you? I fear all this time he is only fattening himself with glory for Marshal Daun, who will demolish him at last, and then, for such service, be shut up in some fortress or in the inquisition-for it is impossible but the house of Austria must indemnify themselves for so many mortifications by some horrid ingratitude!

1 Maria, second daughter of Sir Edward Walpole, married first to James second Earl of Waldegrave, and afterwards to William Henry Duke of Gloucester, brother to King George III.-WALPOLE.

2 Edward, only son of Sir Edward Walpole. He died young.-WALPOLE.

SIR:

573. TO THE REV. HENRY ZOUCH.

Strawberry Hill, Sept. 14, 1758. THOUGH the approaching edition of my Catalogue is so far advanced that little part is left now for any alteration, yet as a book of that kind is always likely to be reprinted from the new persons who grow entitled to a place in it, and as long as it is in my power I shall wish to correct and improve it, I must again thank you, Sir, for the additional trouble you have given yourself. The very first article strikes me much. May I ask where, and what page of what book, I can find Sir R. Cotton's account of Richard II.' being an author: does not he mean Richard I. ?

The Basilicon Doron' is published in the folio of K. James's Works, and contains instructions to his son, Prince Henry. In return, I will ask you where you find those verses of Herbert; and I would also ask you, how you have had time to find and know so much?

Lord Leicester, and much less the Duke of Monmouth, will scarce, I fear, come under the descripton I have laid down to myself of authors. I doubt the first did not compose his own Apology.

Did the Earl of Bath publish, or only design to publish, Dionysius? Shall I find the account in Usher's Letters? Since you are so very kind, Sir, as to favour me with your assistance, shall I beg, Sir, to prevent my repeating trouble to you, just to mark at any time where you find the notices you impart to me; for though the want of a citation is the effect of my ignorance, it has the same consequence to you.

I have not the 'Philosophical Transactions,' but I will hereafter examine them on the hints you mention, particularly for Lord Brounker, who I did not know had written, though I have often thought it probable he did. As I have considered Lord Berkeley's 'Love-Letters,' I have no doubt but they are a fiction, though grounded on a real story.

That Lord Falkland was a writer of controversy appears by the list of his works, and that he is said to have assisted Chillingworth:

1 Mr. Walpole takes no notice of Richard II. as an author; but Mr. Park inserts this prince as a writer of ballads. In a letter to Archbishop Usher, Sir Robert Cotton requests his grace to procure for him a poem by Richard II. which that prelate had pointed out.-CROKER.

that he wrote against Chillingworth, you see, Sir, depends upon very vague authority; that is, upon the assertion of an anonymous person, who wrote so above a hundred years ago.

James Earl of Marlborough is entirely a new author to me-at present, too late. Lord Raymond I had inserted, and he will appear in the next edition.

I have been as unlucky, for the present, about Lord Totness. In a collection published in Ireland, called 'Hibernica,' I found, but too late, that he translated another very curious piece, relating to Richard II. However, Sir, with these, and the very valuable helps I have received from you, I shall be able, at a proper time, to enrich another edition much.

574. TO THE HON. H. S. CONWAY.

Arlington Street, Sept. 19, 1758.

I HAVE all my life laughed at ministers in my letters; but at least with the decency of obliging them to break open the seal. You have more noble frankness, and send your satires to the post with not so much as a wafer, as my Lord Bath did sometimes in my father's administration. I scarce laughed more at the inside of your letter than at the cover-not a single button to the waistband of its breeches, but all its nakedness fairly laid open! what was worse, all Lady Mary Coke's nakedness was laid open at the same time. Is this your way of treating a dainty widow? What will Mr. Pitt think of all this? Will he begin to believe that you have some spirit, when, with no fear of Dr. Shebbeare's example before your eyes, you speak your mind so freely, without any modification? As Mr. Pitt may be cooled a little to his senses, perhaps he may now find out, that a grain of prudence is no bad ingredient in a mass of courage; in short, he and the mob are at last undeceived, and have found, by sad experience, that all the cannon of France has not been brought into Hyde Park. An account, which you will see in the Gazette, (though a little better disguised than your letters,) is come, that after our troops had been set on shore, and left there, till my Lord Howe went somewhere else and cried Hoop! having nothing

1 Dr. Shebbeare had just before been sentenced to fine, imprisonment, and the pillory, for his Sixth Letter to the People of England. The under-sheriff, however, allowed him to stand on, instead of in, the pillory; for which lenity he was prosecuted.-WRIGHT.