thinks the more one is puzzled. The common way of acting, both in regard to our friend and religion, is to cut the matter short; to be perfectly indifferent what happens to the one, and to disbelieve everything in regard to the other. I am sure you know I love him too well to adopt the first, and I hope you will not think I cant, when I tell you the last is very far from my real sentiYours, &c. &c. CARLISLE. ments. P.S. Little Caroline will travel with us to London. I mean this as a temptation to you to come down, or at least to meet us. THE HON. HENRY ST. JOHN TO GEORGE SELWYN. DEAR GEORGE, I Dany Park, January 3. [1772.] YOUR very obliging letter I have received, and thank you for it very heartily. You must know I can spend no hours more agreeably than those pass with you and Williams, and it is a pleasure to me to remember those that are passed. You send me a melancholy reflection, that you believe we shall not often meet. I comfort myself with hopes, and the distant prospect of an interview in September is pleasing to me. By living altogether in the country I am become acquainted with temperance, chastity, and sobriety, and con sequently enjoy perfect health; and the state I am in (laugh at me if you will) affords me perfect happiness.* Though I am happy in my retirement, yet I am no churl to the world, and should be extremely glad to pass some social hours with my former friends in it, if my friends would permit me to make the excursions you point out. My dear George, you remember when Charles Townshend put his foot on the first step of preferment, he proposed taking me in his hand. In all these changes and resignations, can you give an old friend a lift into 4007. or 500l. a-year? Then will I rejoice with you, and, without it, I yet hope to laugh with you, for I am, with great truth, Most affectionately yours, H. S. THE EARL OF MARCH TO GEORGE SELWYN. MY DEAR GEORGE, February. [1772.] I THOUGHT that I should have heard from you before this. I set out on Friday or Saturday I intend going to Rigby's for for Newmarket. Ipswich races, to meet the Duke of Grafton, * Colonel St. John had married, August 31, 1771, the eldest daughter of Colonel Thomas Bladen, sister to the Countess of Essex. Vernon, Panton, Bunbury, &c. We all go on Thursday se'night to Euston, and the week afterwards to Newmarket, for the July meeting. There is no news. Everything is much as you left it. The Fish says that Colonel Crawford continues to lose, and that he complains he has no money, nor anything now remaining of all his riches but bad debts. Adieu! mon cher ami. Let me hear from you what you are doing, and how you are. The Spanish Ambassadrice breakfasted at my house this morning, and went with me to see the Queen's house, which was a great bore, but they liked it. I hear that Mrs. St. John is enceinte. I will write to you from Newmarket when I return, and may, perhaps, make you a visit at Matson. Adieu! Almack's, Monday, after dinner. At dinner, Lord William, Sir W. Boothby, Lord George Cavendish, and myself. Bunbury gives a dinner to-day to the Duchess of Devonshire and Lady Melbourne. THE EARL OF CARLISLE TO GEORGE SELWYN. DEAR GEORGE, Castle Howard, July 12. [1772.] I AM very sorry we shall not have the pleasure of your company at Castle Howard so soon as we expected, but I hope Mr. Hawkins will not detain you any longer. I have not seen or heard from Hare* since I left London, which surprises me much. What is this melancholy event in Fitzwilliam's family?† I have heard nothing of it. Perhaps Hare may be there, and may be of use to him in case anything has happened; but then I think he would have written to me. His sisters were ill when I was at Milton. Lady Carlisle, by Lady Gower's advice, begins to have thoughts of lying-in at Castle Howard. The journey may do her harm at that hot time of the year. It will be fixed by the time we see you. Pray remember me to Harry St. John. He knows how much I am interested about him, and how sincerely he has my wishes for his happiness. I am sure nobody deserves to be happy more than he. I have hung up all my ancestors in the gallery. Some of them, like Lady Falmouth's, have been hung up before. I should be glad the vin de grave He was * James Hare, the "Hare with many friends." a contemporary of Lord Carlisle and Fox at Eton, and, in early life, was thought to give promise of greater talent than even Fox himself. "me †The editor has been unable to discover that any lancholy event" occurred in Lord Fitzwilliam's family at this period. Hannah Katherine Maria (daughter of Thomas Smith, Esq., of Worplesdown, in Surrey, and widow of Richard Russel, Esq.), married, in 1736, Hugh Boscawen, second Viscount Fal might be sent to Castle Howard as soon as convenient. I am, my dear George, Yours, &c. CARLISLE. THE EARL OF CARLISLE TO GEORGE SELWYN. MY DEAR GEORGE, Castle Howard, July 16th. [1772.] I CANNOT help owning that your letter, which I had this morning, gave me a little vexation; I mean that part of it which relates to Hare. When I left town, he seemed very desirous to come early to Castle Howard, and it really appeared to be his own choice to come. Then, and not before, I told him that it would be particularly agreeable to me this year, as Lady Carlisle's situation would make me want a companion in my rides and walks. I was very cautious to urge this before, as I thought his friendship for me might induce him to put off something that might be more agreeable to him. As for Storer,* the case is very different. He never gave me reason to expect him at any particular time. I hope in general I am not troublesome to my friends in these matters. If I am, it mouth. The point of Lord Carlisle's pleasantry, as regards Lord Falmouth's ancestry, is not clear. * Anthony Morris Storer, the intimate friend of Lord Carlisle, and his schoolfellow at Eton. Both Hare and Storer will be found playing conspicuous parts in the course of the subsequent correspondence. |