Your uncle' seems unaffectedly well satisfied. There are those who look down, but that is rather a symptom of the wisdom of the measure than of the integrity and good faith of those dejected gentlemen.

I am, dear Sir, &c., &c.

H. PELHAM.

LADY DOROTHY HOBART TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE.

May 12, 1748.

I AM SO well convinced that I have a pleasure in writing to you, that it would be unnecessary to ask myself any questions upon that subject. I feel obliged to you for giving me so good an account of yourself and your sister, and therefore I think I cannot tell you so

too soon.

3

I believe my aunt Suffolk would be pretty well if her good nature did not make her so sensible to other people's distresses, however I hope she will find herself better when she is quietly settled at Marble Hill; the day of our departure is not absolutely fixed, but I imagine it will be about Monday or Tuesday. They say the House will be up on Friday, that His Majesty may go on Saturday. We have had as yet no summer, but I supped at Ranelagh last night, and hope to go to Vauxhall this evening.

So far was wrote yesterday. Lady S. says she is quite ashamed and angry with herself for not having wrote to

1 Lord Cobham.

2 Daughter of John Hobart, first Earl of Buckinghamshire, married, in 1752, to Sir Charles Hotham. She died in 1798.

3 Henrietta, Countess of Suffolk.

The King prorogued the Parliament, and set out immediately for Hanover.

Poor Lady

you, but the headache must be her excuse. Mary', finding it was necessary for her to see Lord C., determined to put a conclusion to this affair by returning home, and in pursuance of this resolution she is to go home this evening: she is certainly in the right, but I own I tremble for the event. The good account you give of yourself makes me impatient to see you. I have a strange propensity to think you in the right, and as a proof of it, follow your example, and without further ceremony bid you adieu.

The King has ordered his equipages to-morrow at 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Lord Herbert2 is made Earl of Powis, Lord Kerry an Earl of Ireland, and Sir King3 Lord Kingsborough.

1 Lady Mary Campbell, youngest daughter of John, Duke of Argyll: she married, in 1747, to Edward Viscount Coke, eldest son of Thomas, Earl of Leicester, who died in 1753, during the life-time of his father. Lady Mary separated from her husband about this time: she remained a widow, and survived until 1811. In one of Walpole's letters to Sir Horace Mann in January, 1748, he says:-" Lord Coke has demolished himself very fast; I mean his character: you know he was married but last spring: he is always drunk, has lost immense sums at play, and seldom goes home to his wife till eight in the morning. The world is vehement on her side; and not only her family, but his own, give him up ;" and a few months later writing to Conway, he mentions Lord Coke, and that "Lady Mary has made him a declaration in form, that she hates him, that she always did, and that she always will. This seems to have been a very unnecessary notification."-Walpole Correspondence, vol. ii. pp. 208-224.

2

* Henry Arthur Herbert, grandson of Richard, second Lord Herbert, of Cherbury, so created in 1743, and was afterwards advanced to the Earldom of Powis, having married Barbara, niece of William Herbert, third and last Marquess of Powis. Lord Powis died in 1749.

3 Sir Robert King, created Earl of Kingsborough, in Ireland. He died in 1755, when the Peerage became extinct, but he was succeeded in the Baronetcy by his brother, who was successively created Baron Kingston in 1764, Viscount Kingsborough in 1766, and lastly, Earl of Kingston in 1768.

THE REV. CHARLES LYTTELTON TO MR. RICHARD GRENVILLE.

Aldersbrooke, in Essex, January 5, 1748-9.

I WAS favoured with my dear Mr. Grenville's letter sent me hither from town by the last post. Had I not been in waiting at Court when Billy 2 went to Wotton, I should certainly have accompanied him thither, but I was detained by my Chaplain's duty 'till the end of last week, and on Monday was glad to come over hither for a little country air. This place is but six miles from town, so my chariot and pair easily conveys me, but as I am grown of late so bad a horseman, I find it a difficult matter to take longer journies, else I want not a very warm inclination to spend some days with my Wotton friends.

As it is a year since I had your evidences and muniments under consideration, the paper you sent me wants some explanation; if you will take the trouble to bring the parchment books, &c., to town, I shall then soon refresh my memory with the state of your pedigree, and the difficulties which occurred to me at the time I endeavoured to draw it up.

I think we shall easily reconcile Moreri, and the Not

1 Third son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton of Hagley, by Christian Temple, sister to Lord Cobham. He was at this time Chaplain to King George the Second; he was rector of Alvechurch in Worcestershire; Dean of Exeter in 1748; and in 1762 he was made Bishop of Carlisle. He was for some time President of the Society of Antiquarians. He died unmarried in 1768.

2 William Henry Lyttelton, sixth son of Sir Thomas. He was appointed Governor of South Carolina in 1755, and subsequently Governor of Jamaica. He was made an Irish Peer by the title of Baron Westcote in 1766, and succeeded to the family estates by the death of his nephew, Thomas, the second Lord Lyttelton, in 1779, when that Peerage became extinct: it was recreated in his favour in 1794. He died in 1808.

ley Register, with regard to the marriages of Isabella Gifford and Isabella Mareschall, by looking into Dugdale's accounts of the families of Fitzhamon, Clare, Gifford, and Valence, and particularly Sir Robert Atkyns's pedigree of Fitzhamon, in his History of Gloucestershire. I am not sure whether I assigned the right arms to Joan de Arsic, wife of Sir Eustace de Grenville, and daughter of Arsic, Baron of Cogges. I have lately met with his true bearing, and therefore you will please to add it to your pedigree, in case it be not there already (viz.): Or, a chief indented Sable.

I return to town on Saturday, and hope to receive any further commands you have for me, or that I shall soon have the pleasure of seeing you in Pall Mall. Your most affectionate, &c., &c. C. LYTTELTON.

MR. PELHAM TO MR. GEORGE GRENVILLE.

Woburn Abbey, Monday Night. (September 11, 1749.)

Un

DEAR SIR,-I was extremely concerned to hear of Lord Cobham's indisposition, but by your letter I flatter myself that there are great hopes of his recovery. doubtedly at his time of life these attacks are dangerous, but I have myself known recoveries after many shocks of this kind. We will endeavour to do our business as well as we can without you, and if anything is necessary to be signed, whilst two remain in London, we can easily send a messenger down to you with the warrants for your signature. I hope Lord Cobham will be so well recovered by the next week that we may have the

pleasure of seeing you then in town; but if not, I beg you will not put yourself to any inconvenience, or make yourself uneasy about it. I go to London to-morrow, and shall see Mr. Lyttelton the next day, with whom I will settle everything, as events shall happen. When you have a proper opportunity, which I hope will be soon, I beg you will make my compliments, and believe me, &c., &c. H. PELHAM.

THE HON. GEORGE GRENVILLE TO THE HON. RICHARD GRENVILLE-TEMPLE.

Upper Brook Street, September 24, 1749.

DEAR BROTHER,—I have taken care of all the letters entrusted to me, and inclosed I send you Mr. Fisher's answer to that which you wrote to him.

I took the first opportunity to speak to my mother upon the subject of your intended application, which in general she approves of; but as far as it relates to herself, she says she should be sorry anybody should think her desirous of any step of this kind in any other light than as the properest means of transferring it to her children. I showed the copy of your letter to my brother Jemmy and to Mr. Pitt, both of whom think it very properly turned, but as the latter is very strongly

1 Sir Richard Temple, Lord Viscount Cobham, died on the 13th instant, and his sister, Mrs. Grenville of Wotton, having succeeded, by special remainder, to the title of Viscountess Cobham, her sons were, consequently, entitled to the prefix of "Honourable." For the sake of brevity, this title having been once acknowledged, will, for the future, be omitted. The eldest son of Viscountess Cobham adopted the additional surname of Temple.

2 That their mother shold be created a Countess, with remainder to her issue male.