e surprising him in the uncontrollable movements of his own
so carefully guarded heart._"

Why is a handsome wife adored
By every coxcomb but her lord?

From yonder puppet-man inquire
Who wisely hides his wood and wire;
Shows Sheba's queen completely dress'd
And Solomon in royal vest;

But view them litter'd on the floor,
Or strung on pegs behind the door,
Punch is exactly of a piece
With Lorrain's duke, and prince of Greece.

HORACE CALVERLEY.--_Petition to the Duke of Ormskirk_.

PRO HONORIA

In the early winter of 1761 the Earl of Bute, then Secretary of State,
gave vent to an outburst of unaccustomed profanity. Mr. Robert
Calverley, who represented England at the Court of St. Petersburg, had
resigned his office without prelude or any word of explanation. This
infuriated Bute, since his pet scheme was to make peace with Russia and
thereby end the Continental War. Now all was to do again; the minister
raged, shrugged, furnished a new emissary with credentials, and marked
Calverley's name for punishment.

As much, indeed, was written to Calverley by Lord Ufford, the poet,
diarist, musician and virtuoso:

Our Scottish Mortimer, it appears, is unwilling to have the map of
Europe altered because Mr. Robert Calverley has taken a whim to go into
Italy. He is angrier than I have ever known him to be. He swears that
with a pen's flourish you have imperiled the well-being of England, and
raves in the same breath of the preferment he had designed for you.
Beware of him. For my own part, I shrug and acquiesce, because I am
familiar with your pranks. I merely venture to counsel that you do not
crown the Pelion of abuse, which our statesmen are heaping upon you,
with the Ossa of physical as well as political suicide. Hasten on your
Italian jaunt, for Umfraville, who is now with me at Carberry Hill, has
publicly declared that if you dare re-appear in England he will have
you horsewhipped by his footmen. In consequence, I would most
earnestly advise----

Mr. Calverley read no further, but came straightway into England. He
had not been in England since his elopement, three years before that
spring, with the Marquis of Umfraville's betrothed, Lord Radnor's
daughter, whom Calverley had married at Calais. Mr. Calverley and his
wife were presently at Carberry Hill, Lord Ufford's home, where,
arriving about moon-rise, they found a ball in progress.

Their advent caused a momen