ve no bile, and so
keep my own opinions for the future about men and things, within my
own breast. I am naturally irritable, and therefore will avoid
irritation; I prefer longevity to it, which I may have without the
other. I have had a letter from Lady Ossory, who is impatient to
tell me all that has passed this summer in her neighbourhood, but
she is afraid of trusting it to a letter. I can pretty well guess
what kind of farce has been acted, knowing the dramatis persons. The
Duke of B(edford?) was to wait on her Grace. . . .

I thought that Boothby had been with you. Mrs. Smith assures me that
you have fine weather, and fine sport; so I wish the fifth-form boy
[Lord Morpeth] had been with you, and his sister Charlotte, to make
and mark his neckcloths.

I hear no more of Eden, but my neighbour Keene's conjectures on his
refusal, which are very vague, et tant soit peu malignes. I expect
more satisfaction to-day from Williams: not that I want really any
information about him. I have already seen and known as much as I
desire of him; he is a man of talents and application, with some
insinuation, and cunning, but I think will never be a good speaker,
or a great man. But what he is I do not care.

My best compliments to the Dean,(233) and Corbet. I have not heard
from you, nor do I expect it. Mrs. Smith says, that sometimes you do
not return till 8 in the evening. Then I suppose que vous mangez de
gran appetit, et que vous dormez apres; so how, and when, am I to
expect a letter? Write or not write, I am satisfied that you are
well, and be you, that I am most truly and affectionately yours.

I shall keep this half sheet for the news I may hear in Town, and as
this letter is not to go till to-morrow.

Thursday m., Cleveland Court.--I met no news in Town when I came,
but the Princess Amelia has at present, in Dr. Warren's(234)
estimation, but a few days to live. If her own wishes were completed
in this respect she must have died yesterday, being on the same day
in October that the late King died. It is a pity that she should not
have been gratified. But she still hopes it will be in this month,
that she may lose no reputation in point of prevoyance, which would
be a pity.

It is not an unnatural thing, with our German family, to make a
rendezvous as to death, and it has in more instances than one been
kept. K(ing) G(eorge) 1st took a final leave of the Princess of
Wales, afterwards Queen Caroline, the night before he