s and by suppressing or regulating
certain offices.

(229) He metriculated at Christchurch, October 19, 1790.

(1786, Oct. 25,) Wednesday m., Richmond.--I was in London on Monday,
but returned hither to dinner. I propose to go there this morning,
and to lie in town. I am to dine with Williams, who is quite
recovered, as I am; he is kept in London, Lord North being there, on
account of his son's ill health--Mr. Frederick N(orth).(230) I hear
no news, and am sorry that that which Lord Holland told me is not
true, of his uncle's annuity, which I mentioned in my last.

The Princess Amelia(231) is thought to be very near her end; there
is to be no Court to-day, which is unusual on this day of the
Accession. But I do not know that the Princess's illness is the
cause of it. I intended to have gone to the Drawing Room and have
put on my scarlet, and gold embr(oidery), for the last time. Pierre
I believe has contracted for it already. I cannot learn from any of
your family when you propose to return; I hope in less than three
weeks. I wrote to Lady C(arlisle) yesterday.

I have no thought myself of settling in London, nor am I desirous of
it, while the Thames can be kept in due bounds. At present it is
subdued, and all above is clear after a certain hour, and my house
is the warmest and most comfortable of any; and when I came here to
dinner on Saturday last, having given my servants a day's law,
everything was in as much order, as if I had never left it.

The Duke [of Queensberry] dines with me when he is here, a little
after four, and when we have drank our wine, we resort to his great
Hall,(232) bien eclairee, bien echauffee, to drink our coffee, and
hear Quintettes. The Hall is hung around with the Vandyke pictures (
as they are called), and they have a good effect. But I wish that
there had been another room or gallery for them, that the Hall might
have been without any other ornament but its own proportions. The
rest of the pictures are hanging up in the Gilt Room, and some in a
room on the left hand as you go to that apartment. The Judges hang
in the semicircular passage, which makes one think, that instead of
going into a nobleman's house, you are in Sergeants' Inn.

There is, and will be, a variety of opinions how these portraits
should be placed, and with what correspondence. I have my own, about
that and many other things, which I shall keep to myself. I am not
able to encounter constant dissension. I will ha